Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Humble’ takes out triple j’s Hottest 100 of 2017

Kendrick Lamar has topped the 2017 triple j Hottest 100 countdown over the weekend, going one better than his #2 spot (‘King Kunta’) in 2015 to take top spot with his track ‘Humble’.

No other artist has made the jump from #2 to #1 before.

Last week triple j revealed that despite their controversial decision to change the date of the countdown away from Australia Day, the 2,286,133 votes received was the most of all time.

Lamar tied with Gang Of Youths, Lorde, and The Jungle Giants for most songs making the 100, with four tracks each. Significantly, Gang Of Youths nabbed three songs in the top 10 (only Chet Faker in 2014 and Powderfinger in 2003 have achieved this feat previously).

‘King’ Kendrick is the first person of colour ever to take out the number one spot, and is also the sixth US act to take top spot.

Of the 100 tracks, 65 of them were by Australian artists, which is the second biggest portion ever (just falling short of 2016’s 66 Aussie tracks).

Baker Boy’s ‘Marryuna’ became the first song with Indigenous language to make it into the top 20, as he raps in both English and Yolngu Matha language. He was also the second highest ranking Indigenous artist.

Male artists continued to dominate the countdown, with 51 songs coming from male artists or groups, compared with 25 from female solo artists or all-female groups (and 24 from acts with both males and females). Females did however, appear in half of the Top 20 songs.

It was another strong year for Like A Versions, with three (Gang Of Youths, Paul Dempsey and Tash Sultana) making it in with their covers. Gang Of Youth’s cover of ‘Blood’ actually charted 23 spots higher than The Middle East’s original in 2009 (#64).

33 of the artists that featured rose from uploading music to triple j Unearthed (with five songs coming from 2017 Unearthed uploads).

Illy’s run of eight consecutive years in the countdown came to an end, while N.E.R.D returned to the countdown with ‘Lemon’ after a 13-year break since ‘She Wants To Move’ featured in the 2004 countdown.

You can find both the full countdown, as well as triple j’s 101-200 countdown, here.