Doja Cat pounces to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart as “Paint the Town Red” leaps from No. 5 to head the list dated Sept. 2. The song’s jump traces to viral activity on TikTok fueling a rise in streaming and sales, while airplay reach also improves amid the single’s continued radio push.
With the new leader, Doja Cat collects her second Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs No. 1, after “Say So,” featuring Nicki Minaj, ruled for two weeks in May 2020. “Paint the Town Red” likewise ascends to No. 1 on the Hot Rap Songs chart, securing Doja Cat’s first champ there; she previously managed a No. 2 best with the Elvis soundtrack single “Vegas” last October. Plus, the track races into the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, with a 15-5 hike on the all-genre list.
For the tracking week of Aug. 18-24, “Paint the Town Red” registered 21.1 million official U.S. streams, according to Luminate, up 49% from the previous week. The streaming rally drives the track 4-1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs chart, where it becomes Doja Cat’s third champ, after “You Right,” featuring The Weeknd and “Ain’t Shit” each led for one frame in 2021. As with the streaming sector, “Paint the Town Red” also rules the genre’s sales recap and likewise vaults 4-1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales list. There, the song sold 5,000 downloads in the tracking week, up 81% compared with the prior frame.
The “Paint the Town Red” streaming and sales rallies stem from a wave of virality on TikTok, where the song has soundtracked just over 618,000 clips on the social media app. While activity on the TikTok platform does not directly contribute to Billboard‘s charts, the app can generate wide exposure for songs that spark gains on digital retailers or streaming services that contribute to Billboard‘s charts (such as Spotify, Apple Music and the iTunes Store).
In the radio world, “Paint the Town Red” continues to make progress at the rhythmic, R&B/hip-hop and pop formats. On Rhythmic Airplay, where Doja Cat was the top-performing artist of 2022, the new hit climbs 17-14 through a 34% surge in weekly plays; on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, the track repeats at No. 19 for a second week, though with an 18% rise in weekly plays. The track bumps 21-19 on Pop Airplay with 28% growth in weekly plays there. Combined strength at the three formats swings “Paint the Town Red” 34-24 on the all-genre Radio Songs chart, where it registered a 37% weekly audience addition, to 22.6 million from 16.5 million last week.
