Kendrick Lamar has held off another strong challenge from Drake on the Billboard Hot 100.
His song Luther featuring SZA is number one for the eighth straight week, denying Drake a return to the top spot.
Drake was aiming for number one with Nokia, a song from his $ome $exy $ongs 4 U project. The track climbed to number two this week, its highest position so far.
A number one would have given him his 15th chart-topping single and his first since First Person Shooter with J. Cole in 2023. But Luther proved too strong.
The song, which was released in November on Kendrick’s GNX album, has been leading the Hot 100 since February.
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Last week, it had 63.1 million radio airplay impressions, which is up from the week before. It also pulled in 22.7 million official streams and sold 2,000 copies. These numbers helped it stay ahead of Nokia.
The track’s success is expected to continue. A new music video for Luther was recently released, which could boost its numbers further. Billboard expects the song to stay at number one for at least another week.
Nokia may begin to drop next week as the impact of its own music video starts to fade. Still, the song has helped Drake reach other milestones.
Earlier this month, Drake became the artist with the most cumulative weeks on the Billboard 200, passing The Beatles. His albums have now spent over 3,348 weeks on the chart, going back to So Far Gone in 2009.
He also became the first artist to earn more than 500 million certified units from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
This total includes albums, singles, and featured appearances. Drake already held the record as the highest-certified artist in RIAA history, a title he took from Eminem in 2022.
