FROM SIR, WITH LOVE (UPDATE)

Sir Lucian Grainge’s UMG, already in a commanding marketshare position, has a big new J. Cole release and is due to drop sets from Post Malone, Kanye West (one solo and one with Kid Cudi), Rae Sremmurd and Drake—which, in combination with top releases from Migos, the Pulitzer-winning Kendrick Lamar and his Black Panther, The Weeknd, XXXtentacion and Logic, will further solidify the company’s dominance via giant streaming records, most of them hip-hop.

UMG acts currently occupy seven of the Top 10 spots on the Spotify U.S. Top 50, including the top two (both from Drake), with a lockout on the Top 10 (nine Cole tracks and one Drake) at Apple Music. On our most recent Song Revenue Chart, the House of Grainge commanded a regal 68% marketshare, with all of the Top 5 (courtesy of Republic) and eight of the Top 10.

Drake, whose next release, apparently titled Scorpion, is due in June, has been exploding with tracks “God’s Plan” and “Nice for What,” following the colossal run of mixtape More Life, which dropped in March 2017—and which, of course, followed the stupendous run of 2016’s Views. Does the guy ever rest?

Post, whose Beerbongs & Bentleys drops on 4/27, has done 2.5m RTD on first album Stoney, which remains a chart thoroughbred; subsequent singles “rockstar” (635m streams, 1.15m track sales) and “Psycho” (180m streams, 230k track sales) have both been marketplace monsters. On the strength of these two tracks alone (700k in album equivalents, jointly), Beerbongs will be nearly three quarters of the way to platinum certification upon release.

Cole’s last full-length, All Eyez on Me, bowed in December 2016 with 511k, making it the third-biggest chart debut of that year. It's done 1.33m in total activity RTD.

Rae Sremmurd’s Sremmlife 2, featuring the monster “Black Beatles,” dropped in August of 2016 and was certified platinum last November.

And then there’s Kanye. 2016’s The Life of Pablo has racked up 1.3m, according to our calculations, though its initial reporting weeks were chaotic, to say the least.

Stay tuned for updates on further releases, mannequin challenges and Kardashians.