No fooling here: 4/1 marked the kickoff of
Sony Music’s fiscal calendar, and the
Rob Stringer-led music group’s Q1has begun just as its Q4 ended:
en fuego.
On the album side, Sony is delivering the year’s biggest back-to-back debuts with
Future &
Metro Boomin’s
WE DON’T TRUST YOU (
Boominati/
Republic/
Freebandz/
Epic) and
Beyoncé’s
COWBOY CARTER (
Parkwood/
Columbia).
Future & Metro’s album not only delivered the biggest streaming weeks of the hitmakers’ careers, it’s armed with the biggest new song in the U.S. in “Like That” f/
Kendrick Lamar, which has notched the most weekly streams for a song since
Miley Cyrus’ massive “Flowers.”
TRUST isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Queen Bey, meanwhile, leads off Sony’s fiscal year with a genre-bending blockbuster that’s achieving both commercial and critical acclaim—just as Sony has seen with
SZA,
Tyler, The Creator and
Harry Styles.
COWBOY CARTER will be Bey’s biggest debut since 2016’s
Lemonade and should be a lock for top-tier recognition come
Grammy time.
Sony was already hot on the song front—thanks to tracks by
AWAL’s
Djo,
RCA’s
Bryson Tiller,
Alamo’s
Bossman Dlow,
Cactus Jack/Epic’s
Travis Scott and RCA’s
Tate McRae—before Future,
Hozier ("Too Sweet") and Bey ("TEXAS HOLD 'EM") delivered hits in the last two weeks; the trio currently holds the top three spots at
Spotify U.S. Bey’s “II MOST WANTED” f/Cyrus has the early hallmarks of a smash as well. Another Sony hitmaker,
Kemosabe/RCA’s
Doja Cat, just announced that a new cut will arrive on Friday, with her giant look as a
Coachella headliner looming.
The logjam of Sony releases at the top of the DSP charts isn’t expected to break up anytime soon. Future & Metro have another album dropping 4/12 and rap fans can’t wait to see if additional
Drake-dissing tracks are on it. Until
Taylor Swift clears the deck on 4/19, expect Beyoncé and Future & Metro to trade #1 and #2 with 100k+ weeks.
Word has it that, inspired by SME’s killer run, aspiring industry professionals have started eating mince and potatoes for lunch.
