50 Cent’s ‘Many Men’ Up 250% in Streams Following Donald Trump Assassination Attempt
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
This week: Only in 2024 could we use the phrase “post-assassination-attempt streaming bump” for a pair of hits — one new and one old — while the most recent albums from Megan Thee Stallion and Charli XCX both spin off new viral jams, and more.
Many Streams and Sales for 50 Cent Classic, New Tom McDonald Single Following Assassination Attempt on Former President Donald Trump
On Saturday night (July 13), the world was rocked by news of an assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump during a campaign rally near Butler, PA. As folks tried to make sense of what had happened, they inevitably turned to contemporary culture’s most reliable source of comfort in helping to process world events: memes. One of the most common such templates compared Trump to the rapper 50 Cent, who famously rose to fame following an attack that left him shot nine times. 50 himself got in on the game, posting a photo of his iconic Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album cover with a photo of Trump’s head crudely pasted over his own, along with the shrugging caption, “Trump gets shot and now I’m trending.”
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It wasn’t just his image that was trending, though: Listeners also flocked to 50’s Get Rich staple “Many Men (Wish Death),” the most frequent soundtrack for TikTok videos related to the assassination attempt, due to 50’s history and its “Many men/ Wish death ‘pon me” chorus. (Naturally, 50 himself also shared and responded to one or two over social media – and promoted his own “Many Men” T-shirts.) The result of it all was a massive surge in streams and sales for the song, as it collected over 2.2 million U.S. on-demand audio streams from July 13-15 – up 250% from the previous Saturday-to-Monday period – while also rising from a negligible amount of sales to over 2,000, according to Luminate.
50 wasn’t the only artist to capitalize on the event and its public reaction: Conservative rapper Tom MacDonald, who has been a regular presence on the Billboard charts over the past few years for his right-leaning, anti-woke anthems, also seized the moment with the July 14 release of new single “You Missed.” The song begins with the lyrics “They burning the country down with they progressiveness/ It started with changing what gender is” and goes on to blame the “evil” woke left for the assassination attempt, ultimately taunting: “B–ch, you missed/ Thank god the left can’t aim!”
Predictably, the song has resonated with its intended audience: “You Missed” racked up 423,000 on-demand audio streams over its first two days of release, as well as nearly 10,000 in digital song sales. If those numbers – particularly the latter one – keep up through the rest of the week, “You Missed” will likely hit on next week’s Billboard Hot 100 (dated July 27). – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Charli XCX’s ‘Apple’ Makes for Delicious TikTok Fodder
As Brat Summer continues, Charli XCX’s hit album has enjoyed plenty of viral moments — although “Apple,” the standout synth workout in the LP’s back half, has established itself as a fan favorite. As explained in the new Billboard cover story on Charli, “Apple” almost didn’t make the final cut of Brat — but now, the song has launched a multi-step dance routine on TikTok, which Charli performed herself alongside pals Troye Sivan and Terrence O’Connor.
Now, “Apple” is earning considerably more streams than it was a few weeks ago: during the week ending July 11, the track scored 2.71 million official on-demand U.S. streams, up 50 percent from its total two weeks prior (1.81 million), according to Luminate. In lieu of an official music video, Charli has been sharing fan performances of the “Apple” dance on social media, writing yesterday of the song, “It’s her world and we’re just living in it!” – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Megan Thee Stallion Eyes Bilingual Smash With Yuki Chiba Collab “Mamushi”
After topping the Billboard Hot 100 and eviscerating the rap game earlier this year with her blazing diss track “Hiss,” Megan Thee Stallion now has her eyes on another potential hit from her recently released Megan album.
According to Luminate, “Mamushi” — which features Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba (KOHH) — earned 10.2 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of July 5-11. That’s a whopping 39.5% increase from the 7.33 million streams the Koshy-produced track pulled during the week prior (June 28-July 4), following the album’s debut. And it’s still going up: Over the past weekend (July 12-14), “Mamushi” posted an 18.3% increase to 4.8 million official on-demand U.S. streams from the 4.05 million streams it earned during the previous weekend (July 5-7).
The somewhat unlikely hit has been significantly boosted by a viral TikTok dance craze, which has already seen participation from actress Tia Mowry, WNBA powerhouse A’ja Wilson and Thee Stallion herself. Dancer and TikTok user @mona712_official originated the infectious dance combination on June 29 – just one day after the Megan album hit DSPs. In the time since then, her clip has garnered over 19.4 million views, which helped the official “Mamushi” sound own over half a million posts in just two and a half weeks. On Instagram, the smash collab soundtracks over 327,000 reels. “Mamushi” is also far and away the most viewed audio clip from Megan, with over nine million views.
Already a Hot 100 hit – the track reached a new peak of No. 45 on the chart dated July 20 — “Mamushi” looks poised to continue climbing the chart.
Yaelokre Hops Into Viral Success With “Harpy Hare”
The folk revival continues with new artist Yaelokre and her song “Harpy Hare” which hit No. 1 on the Spotify Viral 50 Global and US charts this week. Yaelokre is unlike anyone else out there: The artist combines her folk songs with her hand-drawn woodland illustrations on all her artwork and lyric videos. Plus, when she performs live or to her TikTok audience (580.2K followers and counting), she wears a handmade animal mask. It’s almost as if Gorillaz existed in the same stylistic universe as the drawings of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, if that makes any sense.
While the visuals are certainly eye-catching, it seems that the music is what is turning TikTok scrollers in the true fans for Yaelokre. “Happy Hare” rose 577% in official on-demand U.S. streams from the week of June 14-20 to July 5-11 – and from last week to the first half of this week (July 12-14), it jumped again by 186%. – KRISTIN ROBINSON
Season’s Gainings: It’s Coming Home? Maybe Next Time
You know it’s football tournament season – the soccer kind, not the gridiron kind – when you start to see the whispers of “It’s coming home” spreading through social media, expressing optimism for England’s chances of finally claiming the Euro Cup championship. (Even American pop star Katy Perry got into the action on Sunday.) And with it, of course: a surge in consumption for Baddiel, Skinner & Lightning Seeds’ “Three Lions,” which was written as the team’s anthem when England hosted the 1996 Euro Cup, and has been revived for its Cup pursuit essentially every three years since – including last Sunday (July 14), where it spiked 714% from the prior Sunday to 72,000 official on-demand streams in the U.S. alone. Unfortunately, England fell to Spain in the Sunday championship finals – the country has still yet to win the tournament in its 66-year history – but hey, there’s always 2027. – AU
