On July 30 2015, Drake posted two tracks onto his Soundcloud page, the first titled “Right Hand” and the other “Hotline Bling (Cha Cha Remix)”. These tracks first premiered on Drake’s Apple Music radio station a couple days prior, but any buzz surrounding their initial release got eaten up by the titanic, meme-igniting Meek Mill diss track “Back to Back”.

To this day, the initial SoundCloud track has only 601K streams. Comparatively, the song has 632 million streams on Spotify and 1.2 billion views for its music video on YouTube. The song came upon renewed success in the coming months in large part due to said music video, with its immense viral popularity and meme-creating powers.

The success of “Hotline Bling”, a track that at first seemed like nothing more than a throwaway DRAM remix, mirrors the recent rise of many other Soundcloud loosies.

“Bad and Boujee” and “XO Tour Llif3” have blown up

Migos’ “Bad and Boujee” was released in August 2016, yet didn’t become a smash hit until December. The song’s popularity grew as a result of the Internet seizing its catchy and easily manipulated chorus (‘Rain Drop, Drop Top’) to create a seemingly endless amount of memes and video mashups. The song even managed to reach Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January due to its viral fame and a notable co-sign by Donald Glover. Considering that the song is very much a trap anthem, containing no sugary pop hooks, it’s pretty incredible that it managed to reach №1 in the entire nation. 137 million Soundcloud streams (5th most ever), 283M Spotify streams and 371M Youtube plays certainly help.

Perhaps an even more unlikely smash hit comes in the form of “XO Tour Llif3”, a song released by Lil Uzi Vert in February. Lil Uzi is a Philadelphia rapper known for making irresistibly catchy tracks that younger listeners love (he was Soundcloud’s most followed artist in 2016) while simultaneously making ‘Real Hip-Hop Fans’ lament about the state of their genre.

The title of “XO Tour Llif3” references how Lil Uzi has been on tour with The Weeknd in the early part of 2017, but the most unique part of the song is the lyrics. The song’s chorus features Lil Uzi half-singing/half-yelling the line “Push me to the edge, all my friends are dead” over and over. The rest of the song goes over Uzi’s tumultuous relationship and break-up with his long-time girlfriend. Tracks featuring depressing lyrics on top of a hard trap beat are not something new, but having such a blatantly morbid chorus is certainly unusual.

Even more surprisingly, the song has found incredible success since its release on Soundcloud as seemingly only a throwaway. As of writing, the song is Number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, has 78 million Soundcloud streams, 114M Spotify streams and 119M Youtube plays.

Billboard Charts Better Reflect How People Consume Music Now

The Music Industry is becoming increasingly reliant on Digital Sales (Blue)

The reason more and more of these songs are appearing on Billboard Charts can be easily traced to Billboard’s decision to include streaming and digital track sales into their ranking. Billboard charts now include track-equivalent sales, meaning that 150 streams of a song are treated as equal to one song sold. Fans are listening to music more and more through services such as Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Music and even YouTube. The change in the charts means that they will be more accurate and up-to-date with how people consume media going forward.

This revamp benefits a lot of genres, but none more so than hip-hop. Why? Because the history of hip-hop revolves around the ability of artists using any available form of technology to create and promote their work.

As writer Banksy Gonzalez documents, hip-hop’s origins can be traced back to the Bronx during the 1970’s. The DJ’s of that time became well known for chopping up sections of popular records and mixing them to create completely new tracks. The technology they used were the latest tools they could get their hands on: turntables and loud sound systems. This process laid down the groundwork for the genre and as a result, sampling has been a staple ever since.

In the early 2000’s, Napster, a peer-to-peer file sharing service, became highly popular as a way to find and illegally download music. In response, older rock bands from left and right began to sue the fledgling platform, seeking compensation for lost sales. However, some rappers began to use the site in order to promote their work and share their favorite songs. As music sales stagnated, rappers began to release album-worthy mixtapes free on the Internet, hoping to raise their relevance in the short-term and their financial standing later on. The path to increasing their financial standing? Longer tours and more merch sales — the run of adaptation continued.

As such, it only makes sense that hip-hop music has been quick to dominate streaming platforms. Streaming services’ user bases are young, and it’s no secret that hip-hop as a genre tends to appeal to younger people. Streaming sites are also either free (Soundcloud for the most part) or cheap (Spotify subscriptions cost $5/month for students). Considering that tech-savvy teen and 20-something listeners can easily pirate full albums in a matter of minutes, having affordable alternatives is a big deal.

Desiigner is an example of how artists can become smash hits overnight (Billboard)

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons: a platform like Soundcloud allows for an even playing field; teenagers making songs in their basements can have their music right beside multi-platinum artists. A natural sense of hustle has always been a facet of hip-hop as a genre, so it makes sense that the music sharing network has become the go-to spot to release new songs and mixtapes in hopes of becoming an overnight sensation.

The Grammys took notice of Hip-Hop’s Chart Dominance

A count of Soundcloud’s most streamed songs of all-time was done in January of this year, and an incredible 41 of 50 fell into the rap/hip-hop category

fell into the rap/hip-hop category Drake is the most streamed artist in Spotify’s history, and Kanye West’s 2016 record The Life of Pablo was the first streaming-only album ever to go platinum

For the most recent Billboard Hot 100 chart (week ending May 27), a whopping 46% of the songs on the list are by artists in the hip-hop/rap category. That’s damn near half the entire ranking, taken up by one genre. It’s truly mind-boggling.

In recognition of the changing ways in which music is being distributed and consumed, in 2016 the Recording Academy officially changed their rules to allow both free and streaming-only albums to be eligible for consideration at The Grammys. Their change of heart is due in no small part to Chance the Rapper, a highly successful artist who is known for putting out his music for free.

Chance’s high-profile backing of a petition which urged the Academy to forgo its old standards of only accepting commercial projects helped cause a significant change in the music industry. The most prestigious honor in music can now be bestowed upon artists who never actually sell a physical copy of their work. And these changes may only be the beginning, as mixtapes releasing on platforms such as Soundcloud, Datpiff and LiveMixtapes could very well be eligible going forward.

Adding in streaming numbers across multiple platforms as well as having the Grammys recognize new types of projects is a huge win for hip-hop. Instead of thousands of plays of a mixtape going uncounted on a random music-sharing site, that same project can be released on Soundcloud and potentially snatch a Grammy in the following year. For a genre that has always been on the cutting edge, due to necessity not choice, these processes will only boost its commercial success and impact on culture.