\u201cRich Men North of Richmond,\u201d the out-of-nowhere viral protest song by Oliver Anthony Music, is the country\u2019s No. 1 single for a second time, after playing a key role in last week\u2019s Republican primary debate.<\/p>\n
\u201cRich Men,\u201d a spare acoustic track uploaded to YouTube just weeks ago by the largely unknown Anthony, quickly caught fire as an angry cry against corporate and political elites, though it also took shots at welfare recipients. Embraced by conservative commentators, the song shot to the top of Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 chart, with big download and streaming numbers.<\/p>\n
Last week, the first question at the Republican debate was about the significance of \u201cRich Men,\u201d and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida spun it as a sign of policy failures by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n
In a video response posted to YouTube, Anthony \u2014 real name Christopher Anthony Lunsford \u2014 said he was bothered by how his song has become a political talking point. \u201cIt\u2019s aggravating seeing people on conservative news try to identify with me like I\u2019m one of them,\u201d he said. \u201cI see the right trying to characterize me as one of their own. And I see the left trying to discredit me.\u201d The song, he added on Facebook, \u201cis about corporate owned D.C. politicians on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRich Men\u201d repeats at No. 1 on the all-genre Hot 100 with 23 million streams and 117,000 downloads, according to the tracking service Luminate. It is also No. 1 on Billboard\u2019s country chart.<\/p>\n
On the Billboard 200 album chart, Travis Scott\u2019s \u201cUtopia\u201d marks a month at No. 1 with the equivalent of 161,000 sales, including 92 million streams and 92,000 copies sold as a complete package, according to Luminate, driven by discounted vinyl sales on the rapper\u2019s website. According to Billboard, \u201cUtopia\u201d is the first rap album to spend its first four weeks at the top since 2018, when Drake\u2019s \u201cScorpion\u201d had five. (In 2021, Drake\u2019s \u201cCertified Lover Boy\u201d spent its first three weeks at No. 1, then returned to the top for another two weeks later on.)<\/p>\n
Morgan Wallen\u2019s \u201cOne Thing at a Time\u201d holds at No. 2, while the singer-songwriter Hozier opens at No. 3 with his new \u201cUnreal Unearth.\u201d The \u201cBarbie\u201d soundtrack remains in fourth place, and Taylor Swift\u2019s \u201cMidnights\u201d is No. 5.<\/p>\n