Kendrick Lamar's Catalog Up 154% in Streams Following Super Bowl Performance
This Valentine's Day, Drake released his first new album since before his 2024 feud with Kendrick Lamar changed everything about his career outlook and overall narrative -- the PartyNextDoor full-length team-up $ome $exy $ongs 4 U. While the final verdict on the album and what it might (or might not) do for Drake's overall trajectory is still out, the set and its early reception both make it clear that Drake's time as a major mainstream act is far from over -- but also that he still has a good amount of work to do in getting back to where he was as a pop star at his 2010s peak.
On this week's episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, we offer Drake some guidance in recapturing his old greatness, by putting him on our first-ever Pop Star Performance Improvement Plan. Host Andrew Unterberger and regular guest Kyle Denis each offer three action items for Drake to follow, in the hopes of getting his performance level back up to company standard. Should he stay away from certain sample sources? Should he enlist some new collaborators? Should he just go away altogether for a period of time? We discuss all these ideas and more, in order to assist our No. 4 Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century in getting back on track for the back half of the 2020s.
We also hop around the pop landscape to cover what was yet another busy weekend in the world of pop stardom. We discuss some of the finest pop star moments (and biggest missed opportunities) from the two cultural events that dominated the weekend -- the NBA's All-Star Weekend, and NBC's extended celebration of the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live -- and also quickly share thoughts on the new deluxe edition of Sabrina Carpenter's Short n' Sweet and first taste from the recently announced collaborative album between Selena Gomez and producer fiancé Benny Blanco. And of course, you can't have a discussion about pop stardom in early 2025 without some Kendrick Lamar talk, so we cover our Greatest Pop Star of 2024's big weekend -- one he dominated without actually even doing that much.
Check it out above -- along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most memorable moments from the packed weekend in pop stardom, all of which are discussed in the podcast -- and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
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