FUTURE’S FIERY NEW ALBUM SPEARHEADS EPIC’S HOT STREAK

It’s a big look for Epic chieftain L.A. Reid to have the #1 selling album with Future’s EVOL (A1/Freebandz) going into the Grammys. The set is Future’s fourth studio album in five years, which he dropped by surprise on Friday 2/5—just after the release of Reid’s book, Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic and Searching for Who’s Next.

It’s a fine time to be on Team Epic in general as Grammy night approaches, considering labelmate Meghan Trainor is widely considered to be the frontrunner to win Best New Artist. Her breakout set Title boasts an RTD of 1.1m and has sold more than 11.5m singles, led by the 5x platinum-selling “All About That Bass,” which hit #1 at Pop and went Top 10 at Rhythm.

Coming out of last week’s iHeartRadio Pop Summit, Trainor’s new single, “No”—set to hit radio in March—was one of the most talked about tracks by programmers.

As Future’s EVOL begins to explode, “Jumpman”—the lead single off Future and Drake’s collaborative mixtape What a Time to Be Alive (YMCMB/A1/Epic-Republic)—is just crossing to Pop after spending two weeks atop the Rhythm chart and three weeks atop Urban prior to that.

Epic’s got a handful of buzzing artists right now, led by Travi$ Scott, whose “Antidote” (Grand Hustle) is currently crossing to Pop. It topped the Rhythm chart last month and peaked at #2 at Urban in December. Scott’s just about to join the North American leg of Rihanna’s massive ANTI Tour, which kicks off 2/26 in San Diego. His debut studio album, Rodeo, bowed at #3 on the HITS Album Sales Chart in September and hit #1 on iTunes’ overall chart.

Meanwhile, Pop songstress Zara Larsson looks destined for her breakout moment, as she prepares to chart at Top 40 with “Never Forget You” f/MNEK. Larsson—a VEVO DSCVR artist with 50m video views and 125m+ Spotify streams—was also the #3 Biggest Gainer at Shazam USA this past week.

And Yo Gotti’s “Down in the DM” topped the Urban chart last month and is currently #10 at Rhythm.

In sum, it's good to #BeEpic. It’s always good to be hot, especially with all the industry events around the Grammys.