Most people were already trying to write 2020 off as an abysmal year before the news hit on New Year’s Eve that one of hip-hop’s legends, MF Doom, had passed away a few months earlier. Rappers, producers, songwriters and journalist alike mourned the passing of such an iconic force, and the underground artist’s catalogue was celebrated by everyone from TDE’s Reason sampling a track, to Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) sharing a cover.
And though rappers may be in the unique position to perform or incorporate Doom’s songs out of respect to the late rapper, the main way most fans have been celebrating his life’s work is by listening to it. In fact, people have been listening to MF Doom’s music so much in the wake of his passing that Billboard reports his streams increased 870% since then. Almost a 900% increase by listeners is a massive gain, and it’s such a shame that it was a tragedy that spurred this. The data showed that during the week of December 31 through January 5, listens rose to 25.4 million streams, a huge leap over the 2.6 million streams he achieved the week before the news broke.
One of Doom’s side projects, Madvillain, also entered the Billboard 200 with the album Madvillainy appearing at No. 73. Streaming 11,000 equivalent album units, that number is
Concurrently, one MF Doom-related release re-enters the Billboard 200 dated Jan. 16, which covered the tracking week of Jan. 1-7. Madvillain’s Madvillainy appears at No. 73 with 11,000 equivalent album units, a new peak for the album and its first Billboard 200 appearance since reaching No. 117 in September 2014.