At rapping yes. Nelly has bigger hits and sold more with his big albums than Drake did with his. Drake has the longevity. It's debatable either way but they are the same lane.

Nelly did over 1M first week?

Country Grammar sold 10mil copies WW, Nellyville sold 7mil. Drake's highest selling album is Views with 6mil(according to 2023 article)

Are you telling me that an album that's been out for 24 years has sold more cumulatively than an album that had been out for 7 years? That is truly profound

Hot In Herre is Nelly's biggest song and it's only 2x plat these guys aren't even in the same stratosphere

Less drake, more Nelly

Well if you wanna take it there--Drake benefits tremendously from streaming numbers and "digital sales". 1500 streams in this era is the equivalent of one album sold back in the day. Back in the day you actually had to physically go into a store, pick up the CD from a shelf and pay for it lol When Drake was working with the charts and formula Nelly was working with--he had zero number 1 records, either. So if you really want to dig deeper--Drake's numbers are even further than they seem from Em, Nelly, Pac, BIG etc..

You're not considering the full picture. There are pros and cons to artists like Drake with these new rules. Sure, streaming counts now for prolonged sales. But they lose a lot up front by not getting the pure sales. Nobody buys an album anymore, and do you think people are really putting 1500 streams up on an album? Only the most dedicated of dedicated fans will do that, and it's going to take a long time. I'm not sure I have 1500 streams on any Drake albums except NWTS and TC, and I've been a Drake 'stan' since like '09.

Rap artists lose a lot with the weighting of radio, too, for chart performance. Drake was in this weird in between era where pure sales had declined but streaming hadn't fully taken off yet at the beginning of his career, which robbed him of a bunch of #1s. Claiming he only benefited from SEA is a definite stretch

Also, regardless of any of this, you obviously can't compare 7 years of cumulative sales vs. 24 years. That's still dumb

Actual cd sales vs streaming for free on youtube/spotify

Is it Drake's fault that nobody purchases music now? How should we measure consumption? Free streams are already deweighted

its always drakes fault

Not his fault but comparing streaming based numbers to actual sales where ppl were coming outta pocket $20, there's levels to this s***

You should read my post above

Robbed everybody of a lot of #1's, wasn't just Drake lol NIP peaked at #5. N...In Paris bro..that song was everywhere I wouldn't even say robbed--thats just how it was back then lol I actually preferred that way. Now all big mainstream hip hop artist do is bait for #1 records imo

Just saying--it was way harder back then to have hits, at least as a rap artist. Nelly's biggest hit, via certifications--is It Was All A Dream(I think thats what it's called). But everybody knows his biggest songs are Ride Wit Me, Dilemma and Hot In Here. You may not like Nelly a lot--but imo Ride Wit Me is bigger than any Kanye, Drake, Jay, Kendrick, Cole, Future etc...song. One of the greatest singles in music history and arguably the most recognizable hip hop record ever.

You just had to be there for bandaid Nelly era comparing him to Drake is a compliment

the whole "pure" vs "streaming" era talk about drake is wild when his track record in the "pure" era was still being the #1 guy in terms of pure sales

a better way to look at different eras, similar to how u look at sports eras, is relative strength to your peers in that current era

u can see even tho nelly was selling like crazy, everyone in the 2000's was, so his albums werent even top 5 in the given year of release and finished in the 30's in the 2000;s in terms of overall sales compared to his peers during that era

But everybody knows his biggest songs are Ride Wit Me, Dilemma and Hot In Here. You may not like Nelly a lot--but imo Ride Wit Me is bigger than any Kanye, Drake, Jay, Kendrick, Cole, Future etc...song. One of the greatest singles in music history and arguably the most recognizable hip hop record ever.

You just had to be there for bandaid Nelly era comparing him to Drake is a compliment

This don't happen often on here, somebody has a pretty accurate opinion on what was going on before 2016. I'm in shock and in agreement.

Except saying Nelly has bigger songs than Drake/Ye/Future/or Kendrick

Hot in hurr the only song on THAT level of big but he did have a crazy run

Nelly was my favorite rapper back then. Me and my cousin was just talking about his career and how it ended with Sweat/Suit

they have to treat it the same to keep up MJ comparisons

Drake was selling physical copies and going platinum in a time period where people were barely going gold, especially in hip-hop (2009-2015).

If a mass-population of people consistently stream your music that’s always going to reflect in the sales. Regardless of the measurement of consumption.

Drake just adapted to the streaming market better than any other artist. I mean isn’t that what you’re supposed to do? We went from gramophones > vinyl > Cassettes > CD’s > Digital > Streaming.

Lmaoooo I thought it was the one after that

I see you n* having trouble going gold
Turning into some so and so's that no one knows
But so it go
Come live all your dreams out at OVO

lowkey

They never going to finish Drake