“Hot Girl Summer,” a boisterous collaboration between Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj, debuted at Number One on the RS 100 this week with 17.8 million streams in the period of August 9th to August 15th. “Hot Girl Summer” started as a meme before transforming into a song with help from Ty Dolla $ign, who sings a radio-ready hook, and co-producers Juicy J, Bone Collector, and Crazy Mike, who are responsible for the single’s pummeling beat.
The Rolling Stone Top 100 chart tracks the most popular songs of the week in the United States. Songs are ranked by Song Units, a number that combines audio streams and song sales using a custom weighting system. The chart does not include passive listening like terrestrial radio or digital radio. The Rolling Stone Top 100 chart is updated daily, and each week Rolling Stone finalizes and publishes an official version of the chart, covering the seven-day period ending with the previous Thursday.
As Megan Thee Stallion vaulted to the top of the latest singles chart, two other rappers also enjoyed strong debut weeks. Nine songs from Rick Ross’ Port of Miami II appeared on the latest RS 100, joining his previously released Drake collaborations, “Gold Roses” and Money in the Grave.” And Trippie Redd placed four new tracks on the chart, including “Snake Skin,” which debuted at Number 28 thanks to 5.2 million streams.
There weren’t a lot of debuts from non-rap this week. Katy Perry’s “Small Talk,” co-written and co-produced by Charlie Puth, just missed the Top 40, arriving at Number 42. Looking towards next week, Taylor Swift’s new song “Lover” and a pair of Young Thug tracks, “Hot” and “Bad Bad Bad,” are off to strong starts.
