DaBaby’s “Pop Dat Thang” Reaches No. 1 on Hot Rap Songs for the First Time Since “Rockstar”

DaBaby is back atop Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart for the first time in nearly six years, with “Pop Dat Thang” rising to No. 1 on the May 16-dated list. It’s a notable return, not just because the single moved up from No. 2, but because it did so across all three chart-counting measures, helped along by a well-timed remix with GloRilla, Yung Miami and YKNIECE.

Released through SouthCoast/Interscope/Interscope Capitol, “Pop Dat Thang” pushes aside Don Toliver’s “E85,” which had spent 11 straight weeks at the summit before slipping to No. 2. For DaBaby, the move marks only his second Hot Rap Songs No. 1, following “Rockstar” featuring Roddy Ricch, which ruled for nine weeks in June and August 2020. In other words, this is the first time he’s been back in that particular spot since the peak of that era, when “Rockstar” was hard to miss across rap radio and streaming.

According to Luminate, the song logged 8 million official streams and 20.1 million in radio airplay audience impressions during the May 1-7 tracking week, along with a negligible amount of sales in the United States. Each of those numbers moved upward from the previous week, with streaming up 24%, airplay audience impressions up 7% and sales up 19%. The remix appears to have played a meaningful role in the song’s streaming lift, especially in its first week of impact, though the original version still accounted for most of the activity even after the featured additions were folded into the track’s billing.

The track’s momentum is not limited to one chart. “Pop Dat Thang” also reaches No. 1 on Rap Airplay for the first time, climbing from No. 2 and giving DaBaby his fifth leader on that radio ranking. His previous No. 1s there were “Suge,” which spent 15 weeks on top in 2019, “BOP,” which led for one week in 2020, “Rockstar,” which controlled the chart for 10 weeks in 2020, and Pop Smoke’s “For the Night,” where DaBaby and Lil Baby were featured and which led for eight weeks in 2021.

Beyond rap-specific charts, the single keeps building. It moves from No. 6 to No. 5 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and jumps from No. 43 to No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100. On radio, it rises from No. 7 to No. 3 on Rhythmic Airplay and remains at No. 3 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay for a third consecutive week. That radio support also nudges it from No. 30 to No. 29 on Radio Songs, a reminder that the record’s climb has been powered as much by rotation as by streaming spikes.

Pop Dat Thang appears on DaBaby’s Be More Grateful, which arrived in January and opened at No. 6 on Top Rap Albums. The project gave him his fifth top 10 album on that chart, extending a run that has remained commercially durable even as the industry conversation around him has shifted.

DaBaby

Alex Grizz/Courtesy UMG