Lil Durk scores his first No. 1 as a lead artist on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, as “Broadway Girls,” featuring Morgan Wallen, debuts in the top slot of the list dated Jan. 1. The collaboration from the hip-hop star and country hitmaker also begins as the genre’s top-selling song of the week and in the top five of streaming.
With the arrival, Wallen joins a rare club, becoming the fourth act to claim a No. 1 on both the six-decade-plus history of the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. (“Broadway Girls” is not on the Hot Country Songs chart, but Wallen has reached No. 1 there with three other songs.)
“Girls” begins with 21,000 downloads sold in the week ending Dec. 23, according to MRC Data, prompting a No. 1 entrance on R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales. There, it becomes Lil Durk’s first sales leader among six visits to the top 10. Likewise, it is Wallen’s first chart-topper, too, on that ranking.
In the streaming race, “Girls” drew 22.2 million U.S. streams in the same period. That figure enables a No. 5 start on the R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs chart to become Lil Durk’s ninth to reach the top-five club, and Wallen’s first.
“Broadway Girls,” released Dec. 17, marks the first team-up between the pair. The unexpected collaboration also drew attention in the ongoing controversy surrounding Wallen, who used a racist slur in a video that leaked in February and was temporarily suspended by his label, pulled from radio play and uninvited from televised appearances and multiple award shows.
Before “Girls,” Lil Durk reached No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs through a featured turn on Drake’s “Laugh Now Cry Later,” which reigned for six weeks in November-December 2020. As a lead performer, his prior best result was the No. 5 showing of “Hats Off,” with Lil Baby and Travis Scott in June.
Wallen, meanwhile, makes his first appearance on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. At his home format of country, though, he’s emerged as one of the genre’s current top stars, with 35 songs on the Hot Country Songs chart since 2017, including three No. 1s. His 2021 LP, Dangerous: The Double Album, topped the all-genre Billboard 200 for 10 weeks and was named the chart’s top-performing album of the year.
Thanks to “Girls” and the three Hot Country Songs champs, Wallen is the fourth artist to visit the summit of both Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs since the lists began as all-encompassing genre song charts in October 1958. He joins Ray Charles, Billy Ray Cyrus and Justin Bieber as the only acts to pull off this particular double play.
Elsewhere, “Broadway Girls” also debuts at No. 1 on the Hot Rap Songs chart and enters at No. 14 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. On the latter, it arrives amid steep competition as the annual seasonal avalanche of holiday hits reaches its apex. Of the 13 songs above “Girls,” all but two – Adele’s “Easy on Me” and The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” – are holiday tracks.
