Kanye West may be dominating headlines more for personal matters than professional as of late (i.e. relationship with Julia Fox, publicized spats with ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her new boyfriend Pete Davidson, and more), but the rapper’s dedicated fans aren’t letting the hoopla distract them from spinning his jams of yesteryear in preparation for the forthcoming LP, ‘Donda 2.’
Look inside to see how their streaming and sales activity helped extend his reign in Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) history books recently.
Kanye is already listed in RIAA record books as one of the best-selling artists of all-time, but – if the streaming and digital download activity of fan favorites from his catalog are to judge by – he’s showing no signs of loosening grip on that title any time soon.
Over the month of January alone, the 44-year-old learned five of his titles had their certification statuses upgraded. Look below to see the updates.
Gold (signifying sales of 500,000 in the United States)
- ‘Jail’ (featuring JAY-Z)
1x Platinum (signifying sales of 1 million in the United States)
- ‘Gorgeous’
- ‘Hurricane’ (featuring Lil Baby)
- ‘Don’t Like 1’ (featuring Jadakiss, Big Sean, Chief Keef, and Pusha T)
4x Platinum (signifying sales of 4 million in the United States)
- ‘Flashing Lights‘ (featuring Dwele)
With the certification advancements, Kanye’s cumulative digital singles sales sit at 121.5 million in the U.S.
Among American rappers, he is the highest-certified of all-time and leads a list that sees Eminem (107.5 million), Post Malone (95 million), Juice WRLD (74.5 million), and Lil Wayne (70 million) as his closest competitors.
Among all artists, only Drake (163.5 million), Rihanna (151.5 million), and former nemesis Taylor Swift (134 million) have sold more digital records than West.