Kanye West has made history as “Carnival” has dethroned Beyoncé‘s “Texas Hold ‘Em” from the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
The track, which is a cut from Ye’s Vultures 1 album with Ty Dolla $ign, also features Playboi Carti and Rich The Kid. Upon hitting No. 1, it has broken two new records for the Chicago native
Not only is the Yeezy boss the first rapper in history to top the Hot 100 in three different decades (2000s, 2010s and 2020s), but he now also boasts the longest run of No. 1 hits among rappers in the chart’s history as it arrives over 20 years since 2003’s “Slow Jamz” topped the charts.
Ye and Ty’s album arrived in February and topped the Billboard 200 for the first two weeks after its release. The second installment, Vultures 2, was originally set to arrive exactly one month later on March 8, but it has yet to go live.
When it does drop, however, it might not be available on streaming services as Kanye has suggested that he might instead list it for $20 online.
The idea to release it independent of streamers emerged earlier this month when Ye told a fan account on social media called YeFanatics that he has been “talking with the team” about the method of release and was exploring different options.
“We sell albums on Yeezy.com. I got 20 million instagram followers,” he wrote in a text exchange. “When 5% of my followers buy an album [t]hat’s 1 million albums sold[.] That’s 300k more than the biggest album last year.
“We sold 1 million items on Yeezy.com on Super Bowl Sunday so we know it’s possible. How do you feel about us not streaming and only selling the album digitally[?]”
Ty also seems to be on board with the idea, as the aforementioned account shared a text exchange in which he wrote: “It’s time to figure out the unlock on how to bring the music straight to our audience and cut the middle man out. Artists are getting raped and that has to stop.”
An updated release date has not yet been announced.