Tyler, the Creator Catalog Rises in Anticipation of ‘Chromakopia’ Album, ‘St. Chroma’ Has Biggest First-Day Debut
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
This week: Tyler, the Creator’s new album already appears to be taking him to a new commercial level, Imogen Heap gets an unexpected video game bump and a dance trend helps a new rap single take off.
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Chromakopiamania: Tyler, the Creator’s New Album Off to Huge Start, Results in Whole Catalog Gains
Though Tyler, the Creator essentially split his debut week in half for new album Chromakopia — releasing the album on Monday morning (Oct. 28) at 6:00 ET rather than the usually Friday midnight release — it still looks to be going down as one of the biggest first weeks of his career, and perhaps the very biggest. The tracks from Chromakopia blanketed the top 10 on the daily charts of both Spotify and Apple Music for Monday, with each track drawing streams in the millions — led by album opener “St. Chroma,” which racked up nearly 6.2 million official on-demand U.S. streams in its first day, according to Luminate. (By contrast, Morgan Wallen’s “Love Somebody” — the prior week’s No. 1 Streaming Song — notched just over 2 million streams on Monday.)
What’s more, anticipation for Chromakopia reached such a fever pitch last week that even Tyler’s older songs were beginning to claim in streams. For the three-day period of Monday to Wednesday last week (Oct. 21-23) — with the rapper announcing the new album, along with the new song “Noid,” on Monday morning — his pre-Chromakopia catalog scored a combined 32.1 million streams, up 29% from the 25 million of the previous three-day period (Oct. 18-20). It seems like 15 years into his acclaimed career, Tyler, the Creator is still just climbing in popularity, with true superstardom maybe in reach as soon as this album cycle. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Imogen Heap’s ‘Headlock’ Gets the Gamer Bump, Triples in Streams
Speak for Yourself, the sophomore album by Imogen Heap, became a solo breakthrough upon its 2005 release, earning the idiosyncratic British singer-songwriter a Grammy nod for best new artist following her work as part of the group Frou Frou. And since its release, the album has had a funny way of reappearing in popular culture: “Hide and Seek” has soundtracked several dramatic TV sequences (most notably in The O.C.), Kelly Clarkson covered “Just for Now” for her 2013 holiday album, and Ariana Grande reworked “Goodnight and Go” for 2018’s Sweetener.
Now, the opening track on Speak for Yourself, “Headlock,” is the latest song from the album to be hoisted up years after its release — largely thanks to Mouthwashing, a psychological horror video game that was released last month. Over the past few weeks, TikTok users have been editing clips of the game together and utilizing “Headlock” as a soundtrack, and as a result, the song’s official streams have grown exponentially over the past few weeks.
After the Sept. 26 release of Mouthwashing, “Headlock” earned 555,000 U.S. on-demand streams during the week ending Oct. 10, according to Luminate; that weekly streaming total more than tripled to 1.72 million during the week ending Oct. 24. Heap has never charted on the Hot 100 before, so if the exponential growth of “Headlock” continues, we might see a long-overdue chart achievement; if not, we’ll have to wait for the next Speak for Yourself song to be resurrected (our vote is for “The Walk”!). – JASON LIPSHUTZ
OhThatsMizz Dances His Way to a Breakout Hit With ‘Bumbaaa’
Another week means another dance trend on some corner of TikTok is lifting a song to new streaming heights. According to Luminate, “Bumbaa” — a collaboration between rising rappers OhThatsMizz and SturdyYoungin – has grown 120% in streaming activity over the past two weeks. During the period of Oct. 4-10, the track pulled over 287,000 official on-demand U.S. streams. The following week (Oct. 11-17), that figure jumped by 72% to 495,000 streams earned. Streams for “Bumbaaa” then increased a further 28% during the period of Oct. 18-24, which saw the track pulling just under 635,000 streams.
Mizz first shared a snippet of the track to his official TikTok page on Sept. 9 to the tune of 80,000 likes and 460,000 views. By Sept. 12, user @kastackzzz created a dance – which largely mimes the song’s lyrics before morphing into a TikTok-ified take on New Orleans’ “trip out” move – and his post has since garnered over 100,000 views. While that number may seem relatively small, it was more than enough to help the dance blow up before the track’s official release on Oct. 4. The official “Bumbaa” TikTok sound now boasts over 580,000 posts, with the majority of them featuring users doing the viral dance. Some famous participants include Emmy-winning actress Storm Reid, 41’s leading lady Jenn Carter (who teased her own freestyle over the beat) and Milwaukee breakout rap star J.P.
Mizz has already posted about visiting the Capitol Records and 300 Entertainment offices for meetings, so who knows what the future may hold as “Bumbaa” continues to grow. — KYLE DENIS
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