Boardroom explores how the Louisiana MC used nontraditional means to grow a rabid fanbase and conquer the streaming game.
YoungBoy Never Broke Again is easily one of the most popular rappers on the planet, but who, exactly, listens to his music? He’s not the culture-dominating pop star like many of his peers. When you think of the most successful artists in hip-hop, a different conglomeration of stars comes to the forefront: Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Kanye West (granted, to a lesser extent these days), Tyler, The Creator, Travis Scott, and more. Even among hype chasers or more regionally focused fans, artists like Clipse, Playboi Carti, and Lil Baby generate more buzz than YoungBoy when they drop new albums. And yet, with his latest (unfortunately named) LP, MASA, debuting at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, the 25-year-old MC has now charted more albums than any rap artist ever. Granted, the artist who now holds the second most charting rap albums is E-40, a regional star but significantly less popular than other icons of the genre. But the Bay Area star’s impact has always been tied to culture and sonic developments, versus his stature among novice rap consumers. YoungBoy lands somewhere between the A-list and E-40’s role as a sonic architect within the genre.
Part of YoungBoy’s relatively low profile, it seems, is a product of the Baton Rouge rapper’s own making. He’s one of the most prolific artists in the game, having released seven projects in 2022, four in 2023, and two already in 2025. Last year, by comparison, was a staggeringly light year, with only one new YoungBoy release out in the world. But still, plenty of artists release tons of music and don’t have nearly the same results as the 25-year-old MC. Recently released from federal prison in March, and with his latest LP, MASA, reaching a peak position of No.6 on the Billboard 200, YoungBoy is firmly in a new era. Will his popularity finally match his consistently impressive numbers?
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One of the main reasons why YoungBoy seems like the most popular rapper not known by the largest number of casual rap fans is because his core audience are passionate devotees. With 17.9 million monthly listeners on Spotify, YoungBoy has a paltry number of monthly listeners compared to other rappers with similar chart success. When MASA landed in the top 10 on the Billboard 200, it marked his 16th top 10 album, tying him with Jay-Z and Nas for the third-most after Future (18) and Drake (17). Future is nearing 53 million monthly listeners, Drake has over 83 million, and JAY-Z has 35 million. The listeners that spend their time digging through the vast discography of YoungBoy generally stay there for longer periods of time, and listen to fewer other artists, the data suggests.
YouTube also plays a serious role in YoungBoy’s success. “Wine & Dine,” one of the singles from MASA features a music video that was uploaded to the website two weeks ago. It’s already racked up 3.4 million views. On Spotify? The song has 1.138 million streams. Even “Games of War,” a song that doesn’t have a music video, has accrued almost a million views on YouTube. The song’s streaming numbers are only slightly better. To give you an idea of the scale of his success on YouTube, YoungBoy’s video for “Genie” has racked up nearly half a billion views since being posted seven years ago.
As Billboard points out in their report on YoungBoy’s latest chart record, it doesn’t matter what sort of project he drops. His fans are gonna tune in early and often. As Xander Zellner explains, “Of his 34 entries, only eight are technically studio albums (including MASA), while 20 are mixtapes, three compiled various cuts and three are EPs.” YoungBoy almost exists outside of the critical apparatus entirely. Regardless of general consensus regarding quality, number of hits, and perceived effort from the MC, his fans will support whatever he decides to drop. Even a project like More Leaks, a compilation from March that was marketed as a holdover for fans while YoungBoy awaited his release from prison, peaked at number 29 in the Billboard 200. It was explicitly released as filler, a way for the rapper to keep up his prolific pace while gearing up to record more new music.
Just 18 days after MASA was released, YoungBoy shared another project, the DJ Khaled-hosted DESHAWN mixtape with not much by way of teases, hints, or any clue that a new project would arrive so soon after MASA. After an extended period of releases more akin to the traditional rap format, YoungBoy seems eager to get back to his old ways of releasing as much music as possible. DESHAWN touches on many of the same themes as MASA, but does so across 13 tracks instead of 30 and features plenty of uplifting proclamations from Khaled. The question, of course, is why drop this so soon after the release of MASA? It’s simple: because people will listen.
With MASA, YoungBoy Never Broke Again continues a trend of very long albums, with moments of some extraordinary rapping and other songs that could have used the assistance of a discerning editor. But that’s never been the rapper’s mission. He’s presented his work as a grab bag of his psyche, and his most devoted fans have repaid him by eating it up with some of the most voracious appetites in music. YoungBoy may never be as recognizable as some of the biggest names in rap, but his ability to move units with consistency and in large volume tells a different story. After all, numbers don’t lie, and YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s are massive.
Will Schube