Barely a year after Chris Brown broke the record for the longest running No. 1 song on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, the proven radio hitmaker surpasses his own mark as “Go Crazy,” his collaboration with Young Thug, posts a 28th week at No. 1 to surpass the 27-week reign of the chart’s previous record holder “No Guidance,” featuring Drake.
The record-breaking moment for “Go Crazy” comes on the chart dated April 10, where the song retains its status as the most-heard track on R&B/hip-hop radio. The collaborative single registered 19.9 million in audience impressions in the week ending April 4, according to MRC Data, effectively even with its count from the prior week.
Brown had already been assured of claiming first and second place on the all-time leaderboard since “Go Crazy” outlasted the 23-week domination of Miguel’s “Adorn” in 2013-14 last month. Now, with the new order established, here’s a look at the songs with the most weeks at No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart since its debut in 1992:
28, “Go Crazy,” Chris Brown and Young Thug, 2020-21
27, “No Guidance,” Chris Brown featuring Drake, 2019-20
23, “Adorn,” Miguel, 2012-13
16, “Boo’d Up,” Ella Mai, 2018
15, “Be Without You,” Mary J. Blige, 2006
15, “Hotline Bling,” Drake, 2015-16
14, “We Belong Together,” Mariah Carey, 2005
14, “Blame It,” Jamie Foxx featuring T-Pain, 2009
14, “Pretty Wings,” Maxwell, 2009
14, “Hold On We’re Going Home,” Drake featuring Majid Jordan, 2013-14
“Go Crazy,” the first single from Brown and Young Thug’s joint mixtape, Slime & B, began its unprecedented command of the chart on the list dated Aug. 22, 2019. Since the closing weeks of summer, it only stepped aside for Drake’s “Laugh Now Cry Later,” featuring Lil Durk, for six weeks last September – October. (“No Guidance,” meanwhile, logged all 27 weeks consecutively, ensuring Brown claims that record, too.)
That stretch lies in a time where many major hits have extended shelf lives at radio, amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced shifts in radio and artist habits to some benefit for songs such as “Go Crazy.” Budgets for radio stations’ audience research have shrunk, according to industry sources, arming programmers with less measurable data and perhaps encouraging them to remain with proven hits instead of taking chances on newer unproven titles. Plus, a lack of many major releases by other A-list artists in the past year has reduced competition on airwaves for the highest tier of superstar acts.
Still, thanks to “No Guidance” and “Go Crazy,” Brown has embarked one of the radio format’s most successful campaigns in its nearly three-decade existence. In the 86 weeks since “Guidance” reached No. 1 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay in August 2019, Brown has led the list for 55 frames. On its own, that sum alone would make him the artist with the fourth-most career weeks in the top slot, behind Drake (161), Usher (68) and Alicia Keys (58), though Brown indeed has seven other champs to combine for a grand total of 96 weeks at No. 1.
Beyond its R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay triumphs, “Go Crazy” has also reinvigorated or established Brown in the highest rungs of other formats, too. The single became his second No. 1 on the Adult R&B Airplay chart in December 2020, after “No Guidance,” as he makes inroads to win over the adult-leaning sector of programmers and listeners in the R&B space. On Rhythmic Airplay, meanwhile, “Go Crazy,” perhaps surprisingly, clocked just one week at No. 1, but has maintained dizzying longevity: 41 weeks (and counting) in the top 10 – yet another record for the Brown – Young Thug collaboration.
Pop radio, though, has been the scene of a prominent reversal, as “Go Crazy” broke a pattern of moderate reception to 16 straight Brown singles in the past nine years. When the track rallied to No. 3 on Pop Airplay in February, it marked Brown’s first top 10 since “Don’t Wake Me Up” in 2012 and his best showing since “Forever” spent five weeks on top in 2008.
Flanked by heavy support from the pop, rhythmic and R&B/hip-hop sectors, “Go Crazy” also returned Brown to No. 1 on the all-genre Radio Songs chart for the first time since “Forever.” It also set a new personal best – its eight weeks passed “Run It!” and its seven frames for the most by any song of Brown’s career.
