Kendrick Lamar will eventually slow down, but it is not this day. Moreover, he just surpassed 80 million monthly listeners on Spotify, reportedly making him only the third rapper ever to achieve this. The previous two MCs to surpass this number on the streaming platform are Eminem and... Wouldn't you know it, Drake. He's currently facing a lot of heat right now for his federal defamation lawsuit against his distributor Universal Music Group for releasing K.Dot's "Not Like Us" diss track, which also made a whole lot more people listen to the Toronto superstar's music. It seems like this created a similar effect for the Compton lyricist, which we can't express too much surprise over given his incredible year.
What's more is that there are a couple of big events on the horizon for Kendrick Lamar that could potentially make these numbers even higher. For one, there's the upcoming Grammy Awards, where "Not Like Us" and the Future and Metro Boomin track "Like That" both have multiple nominations in big categories. Also, his Super Bowl halftime show is right around the corner, which might make many more listeners add him to the rotation. Finally, the pgLang creative has his stadium tour with SZA to look forward to as well, which might hold its own huge moments that garner even more attention.
Kendrick Lamar Surpasses 80 Million Spotify Monthly Listeners
Apart from all these achievements, announcements, and more, Kendrick Lamar himself hasn't really said much about anything, although everyone's itching to hear what he might think about the UMG lawsuit. Elsewhere, a lot of people around his circle provided interesting reflections on his recent run, such as Mustard's revelation that multiple rappers passed on the "hey now" beat off GNX before Kendrick hopped on.
There are also big name collaborations that never came to fruition, which only excites us for what could arrive further down the timeline when it comes to new Kendrick Lamar music. We're in no rush, but if he keeps this stretch up, he'll carry over his 2024 victory for longer than people expected. A break is inevitable, but we doubt it will arrive anytime soon.
