BBC Sets UK Rap Chart Countdown
Originally published by AllHipHop Read the original
BBC Radio 1Xtra is putting British rap’s weekly chart race on the air, with Kenny Allstar hosting the first Official UK Rap Chart countdown on November 6.
The ranking will combine UK sales and streams for eligible UK rap singles, Official Charts announced. Allstar will reveal it during his Friday show, which airs from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. UK time.
“For me, this has been a long time coming,” Allstar said.
UK rap had already left its mark on the country’s wider singles chart years before this dedicated ranking. Dave and Central Cee released “Sprinter” on June 1, 2023, as the lead single from their joint EP, Split Decision.
That first chart week brought 108,200 units and 13.4 million streams. The streaming total set a new weekly high for a rap song on the UK chart at the time. By its fifth week at No. 1, the pair had passed the runs of Dave’s “Starlight” and Dizzee Rascal’s “Dance Wiv Me,” as AllHipHop reported. It showed how far a British rap collaboration could travel in a chart shared with the biggest pop releases.
The album chart told a similar story that summer. D-Block Europe reached No. 6 with DBE World, released July 7, 2023. It gave the South London duo a seventh UK Top 10 album, which was the most for a British rap act at that point.
The Streets had six Top 10 albums and Bugzy Malone had five. D-Block Europe’s earlier Top 10 entries included Home Alone at No. 6 in 2019 and PTSD at No. 4 that same year. Lap 5 peaked at No. 2 in 2022.
By the end of 2023, the full “Sprinter” run had stretched to 10 consecutive weeks at No. 1, from June to August. Beyond Britain, its Spotify tally had topped half a billion plays by that December, according to British GQ. In its December 19 report, GQ also listed it as Spotify’s most-streamed song in the UK for 2023. The track also generated 900,000 TikTok creations in its first two months, a separate sign of how listeners were using the song beyond the charts.
Fans can check the new ranking at OfficialCharts.com each Friday alongside Allstar’s radio countdown.
