“Squabble Up” took the top spot, marking his third Number One Song of 2024
Kendrick Lamar and GNX secured a dominant debut on the charts this week as Lamar took up the entire Top Five on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart, the publication announced on Monday.
“Squabble Up” debuted at Number One with 52 million streams. “TV Off” took second, “Luther” featuring SZA took third, “Wacced Out Murals” came in at fourth, and “Hey Now” rounded out the Top Five. Lamar joins rarified air as one of just four artists to take the entire Top Five in a single week, the others being Taylor Swift, Drake, and the Beatles. (Swift is also the only artist to take the entire Top 10, while Drake took nine of the Top 10 spots with Certified Lover Boy.)
Lamar’s been riding high since his beef with Drake erupted earlier this year; that drama culminated with Lamar releasing “Not Like Us,” one of the biggest songs of 2024. With “Squabble Up” taking Number One, Lamar’s had three Number One songs this year. GNX itself debuted at Number One on the albums chart, opening with 319,000 week one units, per Luminate. Lamar beat out the Wicked soundtrack, which opened with 139,000 units.
The Drake beef resurfaced again just days into GNX’s release, with Drake filing multiple pre-lawsuit filings in New York and Texas, alleging that Universal Music Group (the music company for both of the rappers) conspired with Spotify and iHeartRadio to artificially boost streams and radio spins for “Not Like Us” to make the song seem more popular. Drake also hinted at suing UMG for defamation for allowing Lamar to call him a pedophile on the track rather than refusing to release the song.
UMG called the claims “offensive and untrue.”
With Lamar taking Number One this week, he prevented Shaboozey from breaking the all-time record for most weeks atop The Hot 100, and Shaboozey keeps his tie with Lil Nas X. With Christmas songs expected to top the charts next week, Shaboozey’s path to the record will likely be more difficult the rest of the year. The question for next week now becomes which Christmas classic takes the top spot — “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” or something else?
