Rolling Stone - USA (2020-03)

The Mix

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Roddy Ricch’s Surprise Smash

At the beginning of this year, the Compton rapper’s ‘The Box’ was untouchable on the RS 100,

holding off Drake, Future, and Justin Bieber with help from a squeaky ad-lib

From TikTok to the Charts

Like “Old Town Road” before it, Mary-

land singer Arizona Zervas’ hit “Rox-

anne” owes it all to TikTok. After making

waves on the platform in October, the

bouncy, Post Malone-indebted track was

added to major streaming playlists, and

by January it was all over the airwaves.

To date, “Roxanne” has seen more than

236 million on-demand audio streams.

643K

635K

629K

3

2

1

4

5

Arizona Zervas

Roxanne

Columbia

Future feat. Drake

Life Is Good

Epic

Roddy Ricch

The Box

Atlantic

Tones and I

Dance Monkey

Elektra

Post Malone

Circles

Republic

896K

1.80M

This list ranks the top songs from January 1st, 2020, through February 2nd, 2020. Songs are ranked by song units,

a number that combines on-demand audio streams and song sales using a custom weighting system.

Top Songs of 2020 So Far

IT WAS SIX IN THE MORNING at Manhattan’s
Jungle City Studios when Roddy Ricch asked
his engineer to load up a beat that producer 30 Roc
had sent over the previous night. Roddy had something
special to add. “Eeeh-uuuur, eeeh-uuuur,” the Comp-
ton rapper squeaked into the microphone, sounding
something like a broken windshield wiper or a door in
dire need of WD-40.
“I was sitting there looking at him, laughing, like
‘Yo, you crazy,’ ” recalls Keefa Black, Roddy’s Atlantic
Records A&R. “He was just like, ‘Bro, trust me. This
shit gon’ go.’ ”
Two months and 313 million streams later, “The Box”
is the year’s biggest hit so far, thanks to that sticky ad-
lib and a deluge of TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube memes.
For the first five weeks of 2020, it was Number One
on the Rolling Stone Top 100 Songs chart, holding off
formidable competitors like Drake and Future’s “Life Is
Good,” and Justin Bieber’s “Yummy.”

the song stand out on streaming playlists and radio, and

it’s simple enough to mesmerize children and adults alike.

“A sound is easier to speak than a word,” Black says.

“You don’t have to understand the sound, just know the

feeling. It’s just an energy that it carries.” CHARLES HOLMES

While Roddy released three singles ahead of his debut,

Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial, “The Box” is the

runaway smash. Its success is emblematic of a new kind

of hitmaking, based more on small, memorable moments

over big, lab-tested hooks. Roddy’s squeaky sound helps

CHARTS

THE BIGGEST ARTISTS,

ALBUMS, AND SONGS

OF TODAY

SONG UNITS

Aussie Dance Mania

Long before it became a global smash,

“Dance Monkey” was a song that Toni

Watson, a.k.a. Tones and I, busked on

the streets of Byron Bay, Australia. After

breaking chart records Down Under, it

pranced to the RS 100’s Top 10 in early

January, and has stayed there since.

20M

15M

10M

5M

10/11/19 1/17/20

0

10/30/19

Added to Today’s

Top Hits on Spotify

11/18/19

“Roxanne”

hits Number

Two on RS

100

Roddy

Ricch

1/6/20

Number One

on RS 100

10/04/19

0

On-demand audio streams for songs from

Roddy Ricch’s Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial

60M

40M

20M

50M

30M

10M

11/03/19 12/01/19 12/29/19

“The Box”

“Start Wit Me”

“Tip Toe”

“High Fashion”

“Big Stepper”

12/6/19

“The Box” debuts

at Number Eight

on RS 100

10/20/19 11/17/19 12/15/19 1/10/20