J. Cole’s Politically Charged ‘High for Hours’ Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks Chart

J. Cole’s “High for Hours” debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks chart (dated Feb. 4) after premiering the song on SoundCloud on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day last week.

Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks (which began in June 2014) is a weekly ranking of the most shared and/or mentioned songs on Twitter in the U.S., ranked by the volume of shares over a seven-day period (Monday to Sunday). The newest chart’s tracking week ended Jan. 22.

“High for Hours” is J. Cole’s first song to reach No. 1 on Top Tracks after 13 prior attempts since the chart began. The track was initially only released on SoundCloud, then released to Apple Music and the iTunes Store two days later.

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The song, in which Cole raps about his encounter with former President Obama, gained traction on social media surrounding Obama’s final days in office.

“I had a convo with the President, I paid to go and see him

Thinkin’ about the things I said I’d say when I would see him

Feelin’ nervous, sittin’ in a room full of white folks

Thinkin’ about the black man plight, think I might choke”

The stand-alone track comes less than two months after the release of his fourth studio album 4 Your Eyez Only, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (chart dated Dec. 31).

A slew of other artists — including Joey Bada$$, Father John Misty and Arcade Fire — have released politically charged songs since President Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20.

Speaking of Joey Bada$$, the hip-hop artist’s political song “Land of the Free” debuts on Top Tracks at No. 13. Bada$$ released the song — the first from his forthcoming sophomore studio album, A.A.B.A. — on Jan. 19, the day before Inauguration Day and Bada$$’ birthday.

The song received some notoriety on social media due to the lyric “Donald Trump is not equipped to take this country over.”

Elsewhere, Young Thug opens at No. 10 with “Wyclef Jean” after premiering the song’s music video on Jan. 17. The video has launched to 8.3 million global views on YouTube since its release.

The song was the first track off Young Thug’s latest mixtape Jeffery, which was released in August and reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200 (chart dated Sept. 17). The song also spent one week on the Hot 100 in September at No. 87.