I was looking through Common’s Spotify profile yesterday and I noticed something interesting:

His song “The People” from 2007’s Finding Forever currently sits at a whopping 611,957,421 streams. Is this actually true? Has this become a tik tok hit à la Sure Thing? Or is this just a funny Spotify glitch?

open.spotify.com/artist/2GHclqNVjqGuiE5mA7BEoc?si=UgSJ3cdvQn2nb3dcPRx2Vw

there are a lot of songs from bigger artists esp from that era like this which just have an absurd amount of plays for whatever reason. not a glitch

600 mil is insane

gotta be some algorithm s***, cause what tf album is “Jazzy Rap”

Prob featured on a popular hip-hop playlist or something

Not that uncommon tbh

Well deserved

prob one of my favorite ye beats at that

Nice pun

I wanna live like common people
I wanna do whatever common people do

Wait 600 mil??

The explicit version of Finding Forever isn’t available on Spotify in Canada for some reason

That’s why Spotify’s using some random comp imo

Amazing

This was a big song, played on MTV jams alllll the time

Now that I think of it, I heard this song at a brewery in what sounded like a 2000s conscious/backpack type playlist recently, thought they just had interesting taste but maybe it’s a Spotify playlist

The beat sounds like a lost Sonic 3 and Knuckles level

I dont think it’d have 600 million just from playlisting, def must have a viral tik tok sound or something but thats cool great song

Streaming really is crazy

For reference

Janet Jackson’s That’s The Way Love Goes was a #1 hit in 1993 (topped the Hot 100 for 8 weeks) and has 124,773,870 million streams on Spotify

Common’s The People didn’t even make the Hot 100 when it originally droppped in 2007, and now has 600 million streams on Spotify

I wonder what we can takeaway from this? Playlist insertion and payola lead to more streams? Tik Tok & social media can make any song viral?

You’d have to pinpoint if it’s actually a playlist or what happened to draw a conclusion

But of course playlists and social media are a big factor for what gets streams

another good example is Warren G Nate Dogg The Game "party we will throw now"

it's so cute seeing young people realizing that legacy play such a bigger part in sustainability than "being hot at the moment"

yes @op

people love Common. Everything isn't always due to a tik tok or a viral moment lmao.

surprised it wasn't the track 'Drivin Me Wild'

OP isnt wrong, 600m streams is interesting and there probably is something going on for it to reach that number considering it was never a hit, like literally look his other biggest songs, something like The Light is a classic rap record but only at 17m

I always thought that was his biggest hit. But I'm glad The People is number 1

If I recall The People is in movies fam lmao

but I thought it was legacy 🤔

why this one is at 600m but the one on Finding Forever is at 11m

Seems kinda crazy, love that song tho