Every day, millions of music fans come to Genius to find the deeper meaning behind the lyrics of their favorite artists, from rappers to pop singers to country stars. Our Top Songs Chart reflects what the world is listening to all day, every day. In 2018, we’re crunching numbers and compiling the Month in Lyrics on the first of every month to show what music is catching fans' eyes and ears the most.
The data is broken down into the following categories each month: Top Artists, Top Songs, Top Lyrics, and Top Albums.
In a month packed with major releases from some of the industry’s biggest artists, J. Cole stood solidly above the pack thanks to his well-received album KOD. Cole has always seen outsized popularity on Genius due to his complex storytelling, and his high-concept fifth album was no different. New projects also boosted The Weeknd to No. 2 and Cardi B to No. 3, with My Dear Melancholy, and Invasion of Privacy, respectively. Drake’s smash hits “God’s Plan” and “Nice For What” are sure to carry him over to the June release of Scorpion, while XXXTENTACION rounded out the top 5 by cruising off the continued popularity of ?.
Although Post Malone’s beerbongs & bentleys dropped just three days before the end of the month, the sheer number of pageviews helped him reach No. 6, while new songs from Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, and Ariana Grande also landed them in the Top 10. The lower reaches of the chart were mostly dominated by holdovers like Logic, BTS, Lil Peep, and Migos, while Marshmello & Anne-Marie scored another month in the Top 20 solely off their smash hit “Friends.”
J. Cole may have scored the month’s Top Album, but Drake is still hip-hop’s current king of hits. The Toronto rapper’s “Nice For What” spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this month, and it unsurprisingly dominated Genius' Top Songs chart for April. The Weeknd, Cardi B, and Ariana Grande were hot on his heels, however, with their own hit songs, all three of which were partially inspired by real events. “Call Out My Name” was speculated to be about The Weeknd’s relationship with Selena Gomez, while “Be Careful” seemed to draw inspiration from Offset’s cheating scandal. Meanwhile, “No Tears Left To Cry” was viewed as a major moment for Grande following the deadly terrorist attack at her concert in Britain last year. Marshmello and Anne-Marie rounded out the Top 5.
Cardi B and The Weeknd tied each other, both landing four songs in the Top 20. Cole followed behind with three, and Nicki Minaj earned a pair of entries, too with her bubbling tracks “Chun Li” and “Barbie Tingz.” Between those four artists, there wasn’t much room on the rest of the chart, with Lil Dicky, XXXTENTACION, and the Greatest Showman cast each nabbing a single slot to round out the Top 20. April was clearly a month of big new releases.
Genius' Top Albums chart is measured in average pageviews across a project, and The Weeknd’s six-song EP My Dear Melancholy, was naturally poised to take the top slot with a huge 646,677 pageview average. Just like the other charts, Cardi B and J. Cole were close behind, and Post Malone managed to sneak into the Top 5 with a late-month entry, too. Meanwhile, The Greatest Showman soundtrack continues to wow more the four months after the movie was first released.
Other new albums to reach the Top 20 include Rich The Kid’s The World is Yours, Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer, Bazzi’s COSMIC, and Famous Dex’s Dex Vs. Dexter. Aside from Dirty Computer, each album was propelled by a major hit, like Rich’s “Plug Walk,”, Bazzi’s “Mine,” and Dex’s “Japan.” Diplo rounded out the Top 20 with his EP California, featuring Trippie Redd, Lil Xan, and more.
Drake, The Weeknd, and J. Cole crowded out almost all of the competition on this month’s Top Lyrics chart, taking eight of the 10 slots between them. The Weeknd came out on top with his ‘Call Out My Name" opening lyrics, while Drake’s ode to selfies in the club landed at No. 2 and Cole’s explanation of the drug abuse theme on his album took No. 3. The North Carolina rapper also landed the fifth spot for his shots at new-school rappers, which many interpreted to be a diss aimed at Lil Pump and Smokepurpp.
The only other artists to make it were XXXTENTACION, whose “SAD!” continues to perform well, and BTS singer Jungkook with the English translation of his Korean lyrics for “BEGIN.”
We found each other
I helped you out of a broken place
You gave me comfort
But falling for you was my mistake
With your phone out, gotta hit them angles
With your phone out, snappin' like you Fabo
This is what you call a flip
Ten keys from a quarter brick
Bentley from his mama’s whip
K.O.D., he hard as shit
Blues away, way, way
I got two red pills to take the blues away
Blues away, way, way
I got two red pills to take the blues away
5. J. Cole, “1985 (Intro to "The Fall Off”)"
I heard one of em' diss me, I’m suprised
I ain’t trippin', listen good to my reply
Come here lil' man, let me talk with ya
See if I can paint for you the large picture
Wasted times I spent with someone else
She wasn’t even half of you
When I was fifteen years old, I had nothing
The world was too big and I was small
Who am I? Someone that’s afraid to let go, uh
You decide if you’re ever gonna let me know (yeah)
I didn’t know you were down for him finding out
I thought you had some kind of love for your man
Well, I’m not tryna break up something
You’ve been workin' out, you’ve been steady
But I’m ready to go all the way if you let me
Don’t you tempt me
She my number one, I don’t need nothing on the side
Said that I was done for good and don’t want no more lies
But my phone be blowing up, temptations on my line
I stare at the screen a while before I press decline
But she plants a seed and it still lingers in my mind
Told myself I’m strong enough to shake it and I’m trying
But I’m only human, I know loving you’s a crime
If I take this cookie now one day I’ll do the time
