NiLaja Hill

As Drake scores his seventh total chart-topper on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart with “Toosie Slide,” landing at the top, he has now become the first male artist — and second overall — to debut three songs at No. 1. However, many critics and fans wonder how Drake manages to be successful with overexposure. Drake is one of the few rap stars left of the blog era of rap , which leaves him in a unique position to effortlessly navigate through incessant waves of the internet, particularly social media. This double audience, at its core, loves both hip hop and social media trends. He understands this and has used it to his advantage throughout his entire career. He went from releasing singles via his blog like the rollout of his sophomore album, “Take Care,” to creating his own music festival (OVO Festival). He then started releasing diss tracks through multiple social media platforms , all while fulfilling the traditional roles of an artist signed to a major label. His new single...

For most, self-proclaimed “country trap rapper” Lil Nas X went viral and with dumb luck, caught a hit song. However, for a small section of the internet, it was much more complex. Like many before him, Nas would spam viral tweets with links to his music to no avail. One day, a stroke of genius inspired on how to specifically market his music on the internet and the rest was history. The first step in Nas’ marketing ploy is a nod to traditional methods by using product placement. He creates a Reddit account to start a thread to ask users for the name of a song using lyrics from his own song “Old Town Road.” It is uncommon for people to do two things: search for an answer or at least read the post so the lyrics are now stored somewhere in their memory for a future callback. Enter a piece of lil nas x’s marketing ploy, old school product placement. He made a point to place the song by lyric in random spaces of the internet so even if you’re not curious enough to search, it’s already in...