The rise and rise of hip-hop in the US market isn’t only being reflected in the nation’s mainstream music charts – but also in the songwriters behind its biggest hits.
Once again, MBW has teamed up with Royalty Exchange to monitor the most successful hit songwriters in the US, this time across the first half of 2017 (ie. the six months to end of June).
At the top, a familiar face: Metro Boomin, aka Leyland Wayne, whose production/writing work resulted in his involvement with nine big Billboard Hot 100 hits in the six-month period.
Two of these hits featured the star’s name as a performer: ‘No Heart’ by 21 Savage & Metro Boomin and ‘X’ by 21 Savage & Metro Boomin [feat Future].
Other hit tracks on which Metro Boomin (pictured) collaborated include Future’s ‘Mask Off’ and Kodak Black’s ‘Tunnel Vision’.
The second biggest hit songwriter in the US in the first half of this year was Quavious Marshall – aka Quavo from Atlanta trio Migos – who contributed to no less than 19 Hot 100 hits in the period.
As well as Hot 100 hits involving Migos as a featured artist – such as Slide by Calvin Harris [also feat Frank Ocean] and Sacrifices by Big Sean – Quavo also collaborated on big singles for artists including 2 Chainz, DJ Khaled and Post Malone.
The Top US Songwriters chart for Jan-June this year has been exclusively compiled for MBW by online royalty marketplace Royalty Exchange.
The rankings are based on a simple methodology: each track on the Billboard Hot 100 chart across the six months is assigned a point value, with 1,000 points for a No.1 record and down 10 points for each subsequent weekly placing (so the No.100 song each week gets 10 points).
These points have then been split equally between all songwriters credited on each track, to create a cumulative total each week.
Other entrants in the Top 5 US songwriters in the six months include Kendrick Lamar, who performed on or contributed to no less than 17 Hot 100 hits in the period.
These included his own DNA, Duckworth, Feel and Fear, as well as Travis Scott‘s Goosebumps and Sia’s The Greatest.
The only non-hip-hop artist/producer featured in the Top 5 is Ed Sheeran at No.4 who, in addition to his own hits, worked on Hot 100 entries for Major Lazer and Liam Payne.
The Top 5 is rounded out by Aubrey Graham (aka Drake).
Music Business Worldwide
