New Around the World: Yung Lean & XXXTentacion Bring Early Recordings to Global Charts
Gunna and Kodak Black continue to circle the top 20 of the Billboard Global 200 with “Pushin P” and “Super Gremlin,” respectively, helping to define the sound of rap worldwide in 2022. Simultaneously, two of their peers debut with some of their earliest works, expanding the genre’s global reach with the help of social media and streaming platforms.
Up first, Yung Lean’s “Ginseng Strip 2002” scores the highest debut on the Global 200 dated Feb. 12, at No. 47, and on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart, at No. 54. In the week ending Feb. 3, the song drew 16.8 million streams and sold 1,600 downloads worldwide, according to MRC Data.
“Ginseng Strip 2002” was released in 2013 as the second of three tracks on the Swedish rapper’s Lavender EP. While it circulated online and became one of Yung Lean’s signature songs, it made no U.S. chart impact upon its release. But as we’ve seen with hits by Aurora, dhruv, Frank Ocean and many others, social media has helped create a landscape where relatively obscure, years-old songs can find new life on the charts whenever TikTokers see fit.
The Yung Lean track has sprung onto the global charts thanks to a TikTok trend in which two people mouth the song’s lyrics while pressing their faces up against one another. Its spread has been quick in the last two weeks, with streams up 112% and then 111% week-over-week, and sales rising by 508% and then 234%.
“Ginseng Strip 2002” also debuts on U.S.-based Billboard charts, at No. 13 on Rap Digital Song Sales and No. 18 on R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales, thanks to 1,200 sold domestically.
Meanwhile, XXXTentacion hits the Global 200 at No. 143 with “Vice City.” The track was originally released as the opening cut on the late rapper’s first mixtape, 2014’s XXX. Announced on Jan. 23, “Vice City” was released for the first time on major streaming services Friday, Jan. 28. In its first full week, it yielded 9.9 million streams and sold 400 downloads globally.
“Vice City” doesn’t debut on the Global Excl. U.S. chart, as more than half its streams were from the U.S., compared to the week’s average of 23% for all songs on the latest survey. To further frame the debuts for Yung Lean and XXXTentacion, “Ginseng” and “Vice” drew nearly the same number of domestic streams (5.3 million and 5.2 million, respectively), but “Ginseng” recorded 11.6 million outside the U.S., compared to 4.8 million for “Vice.”
