Doja Cat’s ‘Agora Hills’ Climbs to No. 1 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay Chart

Doja Cat, already one of the biggest radio acts of the 2020s, expands her reach as “Agora Hills” rolls to No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart dated April 20. The song climbs from No. 3 to rule the list after a 19% surge in weekly plays that made it the most-played song on U.S. monitored mainstream R&B/hip-hop radio stations in the week of April 5–11, according to Luminate.

“Agora Hills,” released on Kemosabe/RCA Records, gives Doja Cat her first No. 1 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay through her eighth appearance on the chart. The singer/rapper’s previous best was a No. 8 finish for “Juicy,” with Tyga, in 2020.

While Doja Cat is new to the throne on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, the hitmaker has been a radio force in the roughly five years since her mainstream breakthrough. She has accumulated eight No. 1s on the Pop Airplay chart since 2020 – including “Hills,” which ruled for one week in March – and has the most leaders on the chart in the 2020s, four ahead of second-place acts Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift.

Likewise, Doja Cat is one of the decade’s top dogs on the Rhythmic Airplay chart, where she has scored 11 No. 1s, all, including two-week champ “Agora Hills,” since the start of 2020. In that time, she’s second only to Drake’s 13 champs for the most chart-toppers at the radio format.

The “Agora Hills” connection with the core R&B/hip-hop audience and programmers comes following a shift in Doja Cat’s musical style on her most recent album, Scarlet. The set is a full embrace of the rap side that she occasionally showcased on her prior albums and in guest features. Doja Cat recently doubled down on the era, releasing a deluxe edition entitled Scarlet 2 CLAUDE, on April 5. The expanded set’s impact hits this week’s chart, causing Scarlet to rally 34-8 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, with 28,000 equivalent units for the April 5–11 tracking week, up 142%. (Both the standard and deluxe editions are combined into one listing for tracking and charting purposes.)

Elsewhere, “Agora Hills” pushes 5-3 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, which ranks songs by combined audience totals from adult R&B and mainstream R&B/hip-hop stations. There, the track vaults to 14.6 million in audience, up 17% from last week. The former Pop Airplay champ sits at No. 5 on the format’s newest ranking, though it added 2% more plays in the past week. Similarly on Rhythmic Airplay, the ex-leader repeats at No. 6 on the latest list and essentially keeps even in plays for the week.

Thanks to steady performance at the formats, “Agora Hills” stays at No. 3 on the all-genre Radio Songs chart, after having posted seven weeks at No. 2 in February-March. In the latest tracking week, it rises to 65.2 million in total audience, an 8% improvement over the previous period.

Trevor Anderson

Billboard