Platinum

Lil Baby’s “It’s Only Me” Reaches Platinum Status

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One of the most celebrated releases in hip-hop last year came from Lil Baby. His October album It’s Only Me was his first solo full-length project since 2020’s My Turn and its subsequent deluxe. It’s Only Me came with a whopping 23 songs and runtime over an hour. The features for the LP included Young Thug, Nardo Wick, Future, EST Gee and more. Additionally, producers like Murda Beatz, Wheezy, ATL Jacob and Tay Keith all contributed to the project. Baby provided a handful of promo singles for the album too, such as “Heyy” and “In A Minute.”

In its first week, It’s Only Me achieved staggering numbers. Fans had been dying for Baby’s return for months, and surely showed it when the project first dropped. On the Billboard Hot 100 the week following his release, Baby occupied 25% of the chart. A quarter of the songs on the Hot 100 included Lil Baby, and 21 of them were It’s Only Me songs. Baby was the youngest artists to achieve this feat. The album also ended up selling 216,000 units and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Lil Baby Goes Platinum

Now, just over four months removed from its release, It’s Only Me has reached another milestone. Typically a signifier for success, the LP reached platinum status on Sunday (Feb. 19), according to Chart Data. Selling 1 million total units in the United States, this is now Baby’s fifth album to go platinum, solo or collaborative. It first went gold in November, but unlike prior tapes Street Gossip and Too Hard, it was able to get over the platinum hump.

One main storyline for the album during its release week was the shots Baby threw at Akademiks. Rapping that Ak “know he ain’t as rich as me” on “From Now On” and “n****s think they can’t get touched” on “Top Priority,” Baby did not hold back. Akademiks took issue with this, responding with: “Lil Baby dissed me instead of Fani Willis (DA of fulton county) and his real opps.. Wat is Rap music.” Regardless of the small beef, Baby still proved to pull off a successful release. It’s Only Me going platinum is just another testament of Baby’s star power, regardless of the critics.

50 Cent Hints At New Music After 6 Singles Go Platinum

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50 Cent could come through with a new project in the near future or at least a new single. The rapper took to Instagram to hint at his return to the studio shortly after earning six additional platinum certifications to his collection. 

This week, the RIAA certified six of 50 Cent’s singles as platinum: “I Get Money,” “Outta Control” ft Mobb Deep, The Game’s “Hate It Or Love It,” “Window Shopper,” “Best Friend,” and “Patiently Waiting” ft. Eminem.

Following the news, 50 Cent hit Instagram where he celebrated the platinum certifications. “i got a couple joints, im a see what i sound like now,” he captioned the post.

At the top of the year, 50 Cent announced that he’d be coming through with new music during 2023. Though he didn’t share a timeline, it seems like we could expect at least a new single sometime this year. Additionally, he confirmed that he had even more TV shows on the way.

“Im gonna remind people i’m nice this year,” he wrote. “New Music New Tv New movie let’s go!”

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – JUNE 11: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) 50 Cent performs on day 1 of Parklife Festival at Heaton Park on June 11, 2022 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Burak Cingi/Redferns)

Though these singles are bonafide classics already, the fact that they were finally certified led to a surplus of reactions. Lil Meech, Larenz Tate, Kash Doll, and more extended their congratulated Fif on his feat. However, Joey Bada$$ felt surprised that “Hate It Or Love” only sold a million copies recently.

“How is hate it or love it now going platinum????” he wrote in the comments. “THIS STREAMING SHIT DONE FUCKED THE GAME UP.”

The Game celebrated the 18-year anniversary of The Documentary, which includes “Hate It Or Love It.” Despite their differences, the Compton rapper extended a warm thank you to Fif for giving him the opportunity.

“8 years ago today…. A hip hop classic was born. All I wanted to do was tell my story & make sure my son would never live the life I did. Snoop Dogg passed me the torch, Busta Rhymes kept me focused… Dr. Dre laid the foundation & 50 Cent helped put the puzzle together,” The Game wrote.

Are you looking forward to new music from Fif? Let us know in the comments.

Future Is Officially One Of The Top Achieving Gold And Platinum Rappers Of All Time

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Future Rolling Loud Miami 2022
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Usually, when the current rap hierarchy is discussed, the same three names come up as the best: Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and J. Cole. Things get a bit murky when it comes to the next spot, with names like Kanye West and Nicki Minaj often coming up. However, there is a strong hive that advocates for Future deserving a spot in the conversation, and his latest achievement certainly adds to their argument. On July 27, the DS2 artist was recognized by the RIAA for over 95 million units certified Gold, Platinum, or more over the course of his career.

The Grammy award-winning rapper was honored in a private event at Soho House Miami Beach where RIAA COO Michele Ballantyne and Epic Records Chairwoman and CEO Sylvia Rhone were both in the building. They gifted him with special plaques commemorating this unprecedented milestone.

Future’s career spans of nine albums and 68 songs, placing him in rarified air with one of the highest totals in history throughout RIAA’s 65-year-old existence. It comes on the heels of his latest album, I Never Liked You, reaching Gold status in under three months, with the standout record “Wait For U” featuring Drake and Tems already double Platinum and “Puffin On Zootiez” certified Gold.

Ballantyne had this to say about the major moment: “We’re thrilled to celebrate that Future now has 95 million RIAA certified units spanning 9 albums and 68 separate singles! He’s in an elite group – very few artists have achieved this level of success in the history of our nearly 65 year old program. Congratulations to Future and his incredible Epic Records and Freebandz teams!”

That number four spot in the rap hierarchy might have just been officially claimed.

Check out Future’s reaction to the moment via Twitter above.

Doja Cat Now Has The Second-Most Platinum Singles Ever For A Female Rapper

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Doja Cat ELLE Women 2022
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Doja Cat has had a massively successful last few years, racking up victories and nominations across a variety of prominent award shows, putting on stellar live sets, and regularly being called upon by stars of today and yesteryear to add her versatile spice to their records. Today (July 1), she has earned a whopping 22 new RIAA certifications, which has helped put her in rare air: She now has 14 total Platinum singles, which is tied with Nicki Minaj for the second-most ever for a female rapper. The Planet Her and Queen artists now only stand behind Cardi B within these specific rankings, with the Invasion Of Privacy artist holding firm at 17 Platinum singles.

The RIAA has certified the 26-year-old’s singles “Juicy,” “Need To Know,” “Ain’t Sh*t,” “Streets,” “Rules,” “Get Into It (Yuh),” “Woman,” “Cyber Sex,” “Candy,” “You Right” featuring The Weeknd,” “Like That” featuring Gucci Mane, “Tia Tamera” featuring Rico Nasty as Platinum, with “Say So” and “Kiss Me More” featuring SZA now five-times and four-times Platinum, respectively. Additionally, “Freak,” “Bottom B*tch,” “So High,” “Mooo!,” and “I Don’t Do Drugs” featuring Ariana Grande are officially Gold-certified. Lastly, Doja Cat’s 2019 LP Hot Pink and 2021 LP Planet Her are officially Platinum, with 2018’s Amala reaching Gold status.

Though the multi-talent unfortunately has to miss some major upcoming shows due to tonsil surgery, surely some good news like this will comfort her in the recovery process before she is back to doing what she does best. It may just be a matter of time before she reaches No. 1.

Check out the full list of Doja Cat’s RIAA certifications here.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Every Song Off Cardi B’s ‘Invasion Of Privacy’ Has Gone Platinum, Setting An Impressive Record

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Cardi B is popular. She’s popular with the hip-hop heads because she’s got real bars peppered all over her debut album, Invasion Of Privacy. She’s popular with pop fans, because she knows how to turn out a hook like almost nobody else. She’s popular with moms, because she’s a mom, and she’s popular with young women because of the way she speaks her mind and never backs down from the haters. In other words, pretty much everyone on the planet has found a reason to love this woman, that’s just how charismatic she is. So it’s not really actually that surprising that she’s once again set the kind of record that no one else has achieved yet.

Every single song off Cardi’s debut album, Invasion Of Privacy, has now gone platinum. So for anyone who wanted to claim back in the day that “Bodak Yellow” was just a one-hit wonder, well, it’s quite the opposite; in fact, every single song this woman has put out is a hit. When the news broke, Cardi tweeted about it, and let listeners know that she is still working on her long-awaited follow-up project. “AMAZING ….can’t wait for my second album. Thanks for all the love & support,” she wrote.

We can’t wait for that second album, either! Hopefully we get an update soon.