Oct 25, 20267 min read

Week 43 in Hip Hop

Week 43 in Hip Hop had everything: a 40th birthday with a boy band, a Billboard record that stood for a year, a Super Bowl rumour the NFL would not touch, a New Music Friday with no room to breathe, and Cardi B collecting firsts on her way to Toronto.

OMYGOTTI

Toronto hip-hop artist | 730K+ Facebook

No. 1 — The Milestone

Drake Turns 40 and Gives Away the Presents

Drake turned 40 on Saturday, October 24, and he started the party a night early. More than 400 guests filled Casa Cipriani in New York City on Friday, October 23, where the Backstreet Boys surprised him with a performance of their 1999 hit “I Want It That Way” — and Drake got up and sang along with them. It was a reunion, not a random booking: back in 2022 he joined the group on stage in Toronto, where they introduced him as their sixth member, and he has said the song is tied to one of his earliest memories of feeling accepted, hearing it at his bar mitzvah.

The birthday boy spent the night giving instead of receiving. Reports from the party describe a game show with cash prizes running from $10,000 up to a $1 million top prize, plus Chanel and Hermès handbags for guests. He did get one gift of his own, a red Ferrari presented outside the venue, and he gave a short speech about the milestone, telling the crowd, according to Complex: “Tonight is just about being alive, staying alive.” The week came with a career receipt too: on Friday the RIAA handed him 30 new certifications, making him the first artist ever to pass 350 million certified units, on top of his record 400-plus entries on the Billboard Hot 100, the most of any artist in history.

My take: Man turned 40 and turned his own birthday into a game show. Backstreet Boys, a Ferrari and a million-dollar prize — and the biggest flex is the RIAA number. 350 million units is not a hot streak, that is a whole era with his name on it.

No. 2 — The Record

Bruno Mars Breaks the Record “Luther” Held

Bruno Mars now owns the longevity crown on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. His single “I Just Might” earned its 32nd week at No. 1 on the October 24 chart, moving past the 31-week run of “Luther” by Kendrick Lamar and SZA. The run is nonconsecutive, which almost makes it better: the song lost the top spot, including to Drake and Don Toliver’s “Solar Eclipse” on the October 17 chart, then came back and took the record anyway.

The numbers behind the record week are old-school radio numbers with streaming muscle. During the October 9 to 15 tracking period, the single pulled 5.03 million official U.S. streams and an estimated 51.9 million radio audience impressions, plus 1,000 downloads. The campaign started back on January 9, when “I Just Might” arrived as the first preview of his fourth solo album, The Romantic, released February 27. It was already a history-maker in January as his first song to debut at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and his tenth leader there overall. Ten months later, it is still sitting at the top of the chart that matters most in this genre.

My take: Thirty-two weeks. Songs come and go in two Fridays now, and Bruno is out here running a marathon at No. 1. Radio, streams, sales — he is winning every lane at the same time. That is not luck, that is a record built to annoy everybody chasing it.

No. 3 — The Rumour

Jay-Z, the Super Bowl and a Very Careful No Comment

This one is a report, not a booking, and the difference matters. On October 20, Puck reported that Jay-Z had selected himself to headline the Super Bowl LXI halftime show, set for February 14, 2027 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. The next day, after NFL owners met in New York on October 21, commissioner Roger Goodell faced the question directly and gave the most careful answer of the week: “We haven’t announced anything. Until we do, we won’t make any comment on that.” He did not confirm it. He also did not deny it or rule Jay-Z out.

The twist is that Jay-Z already helps run the show he is rumoured to star in. His company, Roc Nation, organizes the halftime show through its partnership with the NFL, so picking himself would be a very different move from picking Usher, Rihanna or Dr. Dre. He has thought about it out loud before: at the January 2024 premiere of The Book of Clarence, he told Entertainment Tonight that choosing himself too early would have been selfish, then left the door open with three words: “Maybe one year.” And because the universe loves timing, he opened a two-night run at SoFi Stadium itself on Friday, October 23, playing a two-hour set spanning three decades in the exact building where the Super Bowl lands in February.

My take: The man who picks the halftime act might pick himself, and the commissioner’s whole answer was basically “no comment” in a suit. Until the NFL says it out loud, it is a rumour. But Jay-Z playing SoFi this weekend with that question hanging over it? The catalogue did the talking.

No. 4 — The Drop

New Music Friday Was Stacked: .Paak and Cordae, Legend and Pharrell, Yung Miami, LISA

Friday, October 23 was one of those release nights where nobody’s playlist survived. The headline hip-hop drop was Heavy Is the Crown, the first full joint album from Anderson .Paak and Cordae: 11 tracks in just under 32 minutes, no filler. Their chemistry goes back to “RNP” on Cordae’s 2019 debut The Lost Boy, then “Two Tens” and “Summer Drop,” and the producer list reads like a family reunion: J. Cole, 9th Wonder, Conductor Williams and Swizz Beatz among them. Even the cover is a joke between friends, inspired by the comedy Step Brothers, while lead single “A Good Day” flips Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day.”

Right beside it, John Legend released Muse, a 16-track album on Republic Records produced entirely by Pharrell Williams — their first full-length album together after more than 20 years of friendship — with Clipse appearing on “Bodies On The Floor.” Yung Miami stepped out solo with Watch Dis, including “Just Might Go” with Travis Scott, following the run of her single “Spend Dat.” And LISA added a global lane with Press Play, a six-track EP led by “SaWaDiKa,” with songwriting credits for her on all six tracks. Joint album, soul album, solo statement, global EP — four different games, all played on the same night.

My take: This is how you do a Friday. .Paak and Cordae kept it lean at 32 minutes and let the bars breathe, Legend and Pharrell finally made the album 20 years of friendship promised, and Miami and LISA both bet on themselves. Clear your weekend, your playlist just got homework.

No. 5 — The Firsts

Cardi B Collects Firsts, Next Stop Toronto

Cardi B had the kind of week most artists spread over a season. Her NPR Tiny Desk debut premiered on October 19, shrinking her biggest records down to a live band and backing singers: “Be Careful,” “Up,” “Bodak Yellow” and a closing run through the Diamond-certified “I Like It,” with songs from her latest album Am I the Drama? in the set as well. Two days later, on October 21, she shared her T Magazine “The Greats” cover, the style magazine’s annual honour issue. In between, on October 22, she picked up nine new Canadian certifications.

The Toronto date is the one to circle. Cardi will receive Billboard Canada’s first-ever Global Woman of the Year award at its Women In Music event on November 24 at Rebel in Toronto. The selection, announced October 16, comes with receipts: 46 songs on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100, eight of them top 10 hits. It is also a sequel — she won Billboard’s U.S. Woman of the Year title in 2020, the first rapper ever to take it. Her Little Miss Drama Tour backed the numbers up too, ranking seventh among the world’s top touring acts in Pollstar’s midyear report with a $72.1 million gross, including stops in Vancouver, Toronto and Hamilton.

My take: Tiny Desk on Monday, a Greats cover on Wednesday, nine Canadian plaques in between, and Toronto waiting with a first-of-its-kind award in November. Cardi is not having a moment, she is having a whole era — and this city gets the victory lap. Okurrr, but make it Canadian.