Rap’s “Big Three” of Drake, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar used to be tight.
But that all changed when Kendrick rapped that there’s no big three, only “big me.”
Now Cole has hit back, and we suspect Drake will soon.
Let’s look at the numbers to determine which of the Big Three is the biggest. [Via Hip Hop All Day.]
Total streams (Spotify) Drake = 97b Kendrick = 35b J. Cole = 25b
GRAMMY nominations (& wins) Kendrick = 50 (17) Drake = 55 (5) J. Cole = 17 (2)
RIAA certified units sold Drake = 294m J. Cole = 95m Kendrick Lamar = 57m
Average streams (album) Drake = 5.0b Kendrick = 3.8b J. Cole = 2.6b
Average streams (song) Drake = 230m Kendrick = 204m J. Cole = 156m
Platinum-certified songs Drake = 80 J. Cole = 33 Kendrick = 13
Average first-week sales Drake = 645k J. Cole = 342k Kendrick = 294k
Biggest first-week sales Drake = 1.04m Kendrick = 603k J. Cole = 492k
Longest charting album Kendrick = 596w Drake = 578w J. Cole = 486w
Number one albums + songs Drake = 27 Kendrick = 7 J. Cole = 7
Current monthly listeners (Spotify)Drake = 82.7m Kendrick = 58.3m J. Cole = 41.8m
Drake has a pretty clear advantage over Cole and Kendrick when it comes to people consuming his music. In fact, you could make a good argument that he is the second biggest musical act of his generation, trailing only Taylor Swift.