Genius Presents: The Month In Lyrics (May 2018)
All images by Tania Lili
Childish Gambino, Pusha-T, Drake, & Post Malone dominated this month.
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.
Top Artists
With just a single new song, Childish Gambino blew away the competition. His latest single “This is America” racked up millions of Genius pageviews, and was even (briefly) the fastest song to reach one million pageviews in Genius history. The track debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and inspired an uptick in interest across his catalog.
Both Drake and Pusha-T saw a huge surge in pageviews this month, with their respective diss tracks playing a role as well as new music from both artists. Pusha had the highest debut on the chart this month after not making the Top 20 in April. Post Malone also saw continued interest in his sophomore album beerbongs & bentleys, and rose three spots from last month to No. 3. Major albums from Korean boyband BTS, Shawn Mendes, and Arctic Monkeys also landed them in the Top 10, while A$AP Rocky’s third album helped him vault back onto the chart. Finally, rapper Juice WRLD managed to crack the Top 20 off the strength of his rising hits “Lucid Dreams” and “All Girls Are the Same.”
Top Songs
Unsurprisingly, Childish Gambino’s No. 1 hit “This is America” blew away the competition to land at No. 1 on this month’s Top Songs chart. It earned millions more pageviews than the next-highest song, Drake’s scathing Pusha-T diss track “Duppy Freestyle.” That song, along with Pusha’s response “The Story of Adidon,” managed to land at No. 2 and No. 4 in a month where the two rappers' beef dominated headlines. Kanye West’s trollish “Lift Yourself” rounded out the Top 5, with a surprising amount of people seeking out nonsensical lyrics about poop.
Drake was by far the most-represented artist in the Top 20, landing at No. 10 with his Lil Baby collaboration “Yes Indeed,” No. 14 with his post-diss single “I’m Upset,” and Nos. 19 and 20 with his still-hot singles “Nice for What” and “God’s Plan.” With his new album Scorpion set to drop next month, he’s bound to find even more representation on next month’s charts.
Select foreign-language songs continue to perform well, too, with Philippines rapper Shanti Dope’s ever-popular “Nadarang” leading the pack at No. 6. BTS landed at No. 9 with “Fake Love,” and Eurovision winner Netta Barzilai – נטע ברזילי reached No. 17 with “Toy.” Meanwhile, new songs by Juice WRLD, Khalid, Billie Eilish, Travis Scott, and Rita Ora also cracked the Top 20. Ora’s single “Girls,” which also features Cardi B, Bebe Rexha, and Charli XCX, was fueled largely by controversy, with the song being criticized for lyrics that some said trivialized the LGBTQ community.
Top Albums
Post Malone easily took the No. 1 spot with his long-awaited sophomore album beerbongs & bentleys, and album that remains No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart over a month after its release. Not far behind is a pair of non-English albums: Korean boyband BTS‘ Love Yourself 轉 ‘Tear’ and Philippines rapper Shanti Dope’s Materyal. New albums by Pusha-T, Shawn Mendes, and Juice WRLD helped each artist land in the Top 10, too.
Elsewhere on the chart, A$AP Rocky entered the Top 20 with TESTING, U.K. singer Anne-Marie found success thanks to her smash hit “Friends” with Marshmello, and Lil Baby rode his hit Drake collaboration “Yes Indeed” onto the charts, too. The Greatest Showman soundtrack continues to amaze nearly six months after the film came out, and the soundtrack for the second season of Thirteen Reasons Why also experienced significant success with some help from Selena Gomez. Playboi Carti and Charlie Puth rounded out the Top 20 with their new albums.
Top Lyrics
Intense interest in the lyrics to Childish Gambino’s “This is America” helped the song become the fastest to reach one million pageviews in Genius history, so it’s no surprise that it took the No. 1 spot on this month’s Top Lyrics. What’s more surprising is No. 2: the nonsensical poop lyrics of Kanye West’s trolling song “Lift Yourself.” In a month where beef grabbed major headlines, fans flocked to Genius to decipher diss tracks by both Pusha-T and Drake, who respectively took No. 3 and No. 4 on the chart. They also landed at No. 5 and No. 6 with other songs that played into the beef. Post Malone and J. Cole rounded things out this month.
1. Childish Gambino, “This is America”
2. Kanye West, “Lift Yourself”
3. Pusha-T, “The Story of Adidon”
8. Ariana Grande, “No Tears Left to Cry”
