Spotify Removes 25M Streams from 21 Savage’s Latest Album

Photo Credit: 21 Savage’s What Happened to the Streets? cover art by Slawn

Spotify reportedly removes 25 million streams from songs by 21 Savage, raising questions about ongoing bot activity and the integrity of streaming.

The conversation around streaming integrity and rampant botting intensified this week as reports surfaced of Spotify allegedly removing 25 million streams from 21 Savage’s latest album, What Happened to the Streets? Spotify has yet to acknowledge the adjustment—but the change comes amid speculation that bots may have been used to inflate numbers tied to the album.

It’s notable that no formal accusation has been made on either side. But the sudden drop in streams appeared on Sunday and immediately sparked speculation across social media. Every song on the album, which dropped in December, has been affected.

Upon its release, What Happened to the Streets? debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 and earned 73,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. The album featured an impressive list of collaborators, including Latto, Drake, GloRilla, Metro Boomin, Young Nudy, Lil Baby, and Jawan Harris.

The album was already at the center of a cultural debate even before the speculation over its streams. 21 Savage weighed in on mounting tensions between fellow rappers Gunna and Young Thug shortly after the record’s release, and posted “fuck the streets” on the former Twitter.

But several artists, including NBA YoungBoy, 6ix9ine, and Fivio Foreign, publicly denounced the statement as dismissive of street culture, rather than a simple remark on perceived loyalty. That escalated the debate into a broad conversation around the role of street narratives in hip-hop, as well as authenticity and the effects of trauma on the creation of art.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen what Spotify or 21 Savage’s camps will say, if anything, about the streaming adjustment. Regardless, it fans the flames of speculation surrounding the rampant use of botting in streaming spaces and the authenticity of streaming as a metric.