It’s hard to usurp Biggie Smalls records in Hip Hop, but NBA YoungBoy is proving that the new generation of rap is here to stay by doing just that.
According to @DailyLoud, who tweeted on March 26, it seems that the Baton Rouge-born recording artist has beat The Notorious B.I.G.‘s record and is now the new rapper with the 20th most weeks spent on the Billboard 200 Chart in history.
“NBA YoungBoy has now surpassed the Notorious B.I.G in total billboard weeks to become the first rapper with the 20th most weeks on the charts in history! This man is only 22 years old,” was the tweet that started a fierce debate among fans.
That’s no easy feat, especially considering the “Colors” rapper is just 22-years-old. His success may have come from how heavily he’s focused on using YouTube as an outlet for his music which seems to be the right formula as his success on that platform has translated into this latest success as he continues to find innovative ways to market his music.
Last year NBA YoungBoy earned 43.9 million streams to lead the YouTube Top US Artists Chart for the week of February 19 – February 25. That was just a small glimpse of his power on YouTube, as he also has 20 solo videos with over 100M views.
To date, he has close to 11 million followers, and his 437 videos have collectively been viewed over 10 billion times. Quite an incredulous feat for a rapper who started in the industry at just 15-years-old back in 2015.
Fans are, of course, in two minds as some can’t part with the old-school hip-hop and its influence, even though the fact remains that NBA has achieved quite such an indicative marker in his career.
Fans began debating right in the comment section of the tweet as to who was the greater rapper. A debate that always causes contention between the old and new schools of rap.
One fan said, “And Biggie still gonna get more respect at the end of the day,” which prompted a defense from another fan, “At this rate when it’s all said and done YB will be bigger than Tupac and Biggie if he stay out of trouble and alive in the next couple of years.”
That’s also been an opinion brewing among hip-hop gurus for some time though it is still up for debate as both Biggie and Tupac are widely regarded as two of the most influential artists of the genre.
As another fan pointed out, NBA YoungBoy’s success is very much tied to his marketing skills, which should not be a takeaway from his immense talent.
“B.I.G. did it without streams and YouTube views,” one fan said while another weighed in, “Doesn’t that make YB look even better?”
Another fan aptly added, “Let’s see… one was from a generation that barely used internet and had tape cassettes and cds. The other literally started in techno country. We have Apple Music, YouTube, Spotify, etc. Biggie will get passed by a lot of rappers only because he was in a different era.”
Earlier this month, YoungBoy had beat out Young Thug and Cardi B to become “the rapper with the 21st most weeks in history at just 22 years old.”
It looks like it’s only up from here for the “Emo Rockstar” rapper, no matter what hip-hop fans have to say about it.
NBA YoungBoy has now surpassed the Notorious B.I.G in total billboard weeks to become the first rapper with the 20th most weeks on the charts in history! This man is only 22 years old ?? pic.twitter.com/wp74fT9rGA
— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) March 26, 2022
