Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion Top the Charts

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion have broken the record for the most streams by a song in its debut week, in a historic sign that women artists are making their mark on hip-hop like never before.

The Wall Street Journal reports “WAP,” the raunchy song by the irreverent 27-year-old rapper Cardi B, tops the latest Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, thanks largely to its 93 million U.S. streams in the week ended Aug. 13. That is the most streams for a song in its first week in history. Its digital sales of 125,000 copies also marks the biggest sales week for a single so far this year. “WAP” is the fourth No. 1 hit for Cardi B, who already held the record for the most chart-toppers by a female rapper. The song also features Megan Thee Stallion, a 25-year-old Houston rapper known for her old-school flows and internet savvy.

The song’s huge numbers owe much to the shock value of its lyrics—the title stands for “wet-ass p—”—and its offbeat music video, which shows Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion wandering through an arty, Alice in Wonderland-like environment. Such factors have turned it into a cultural sensation and social-media juggernaut. The music video so far has more than 100 million views on YouTube; on YouTube’s Top Songs charts, “WAP” hit No. 1 in 15 markets, including the U.K., Finland and Kenya. About 200,000 TikTok videos have been created using the controversial tune.

In recent days, the song’s bawdiness and obscenities have elicited disapproval online from some listeners—sparking a moral outrage rare nowadays in pop music. Mini-controversies related to the video’s images of tigers and its inclusion of celebrity Kylie Jenner added fuel to the fire and helped increase the song’s streams and views.

Yet, “WAP” has also been hailed by some critics as a major artistic statement and part of a long history of boundary-pushing female rappers. Some have defended the song, saying it’s no more explicit than what male rappers often rap about. The feel of the song and video were influenced by late 1990s rappers Lil’ Kim—who, like Cardi B, worked with Atlantic Records during her heyday—and Missy Elliott.

The song’s outsize success is the latest sign that female artists are increasingly making strides in hip-hop, which has long been a male-dominated genre.