Drake vs. The Beatles: Who’s Got More Slaps?

Drake’s bold proclamation that he’s “got more slaps than The Beatles” gives way to an interesting debate.

Written by Thomas Galindo

Illustrated by Maricella Kaples

In the 1960s, The Beatles ushered in “The British Invasion” — a global phenomenon that popularized a mass of pop bands from the United Kingdom. While this brought along many British bands that are still remembered today, such as The Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Kinks, The Beatles certainly led the charge and set records in sales that still stand today. Fast forward to now, where hip-hop and trap music rule the mainstream and dominate social media trends, as well as the charts. Drake, “The Beatles” of his time, is one of, if not the leading pioneer of this trend, topping the charts with each new release. 

After a 2015 feud and exchange of diss tracks with Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill, the two reconciled and reunited in 2018 for “Going Bad,” the lead single on Meek’s 2018 album Championships. Drake used the opportunity to spit one of the boldest claims a music artist could proclaim, and ignite a separate, narrative based beef with the ultimate Goliath. He opens the song with the infamous bar, “Back home, smokin’ legal / I got more slaps than The Beatles.” But, is this really true?

In order to test the validity of this assertion, it is important to understand what having “more slaps than The Beatles” means. What on earth is a “slap?” The Urban Dictionary lists several definitions for the word: “music that is desirable,” “slap is tight music, something you can go dumb to,” or simply “good as f--k.” In the annotation for the lyric on the Genius website, it says, “‘Slaps’ is slang used for a hit song or simply to describe a song that sounds good.” With all this being said, there seems to be a general consensus for what a “slap” is: a really good song. But, while the definition is essentially nailed down, what constitutes a “really good song” is neither clear nor objective. Perhaps we should refer to the charts to bring some clarity to this assertion.

The Billboard Hot 100 chart has been published every week since 1958, posting the 100 most popular songs of the week according to sales (and now streams), in order. At the end of January 1964, The Beatles achieved their first song on the chart with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” debuting at No. 45 and eventually reaching No. 1 on Feb. 8, 1964. This song undeniably “slaps,” and since then, The Beatles had 71 songs chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Four of these songs include “featured artists” and only one of them does not list The Beatles as the main artist. Drake, however, has had 227 songs chart on the Billboard Hot 100, with 161 of them crediting him as one of, if not the main artist on the song. This means that on 66 of the charted songs, Drake is only credited as a feature. Despite this technicality, he’s still had more than twice as many songs as The Beatles chart on the Billboard Hot 100. 

But, does a song simply making the ‘Hot 100’ qualify it as a “slap?” Perhaps looking at a more rigorous standard of quality on the charts is necessary. In terms of “Top 10 hits” on the Hot 100 chart, Drake has 42 to The Beatles’ 34. But again, Drake is listed as the main artist on only 26 of these hits, meaning that he only has a feature on 16 of the 42 Top 10 hits in his repertoire. If we’d like to narrow it down even further, The Beatles have 20 No. 1 hits on the Hot 100 chart, while Drake has a mere seven, with only five listing him as the main artist. It may matter little whether or not only having a feature constitutes a song as yours or not, but Drake did say he, himself, has more slaps than The Beatles. In this case, it wouldn't be unfair to count only the songs on which he is the main artist listed. But we must also consider that there are many songs on which Drake’s featured verse contributes the most, such as “Going Bad” by Meek Mill, or any song DJ Khaled has put out with Drake, like “POPSTAR” or “For Free,” (especially considering the fact that DJ Khaled is essentially just a glorified A&R). So, it really is up to the listener to decide if a song is Drake’s or somebody else’s when he is featured. Another important but subjective distinction to make is how strict the listener is with their criteria of a “slap.” While Drake has more songs that are popular (likely due to accessibility via the streaming age), The Beatles arguably have more high-quality hit songs that have reached peak popularity, and in the No.1 hits region, the competition isn’t very close at all.

We could get into a discussion about the respective discographies of Drake and The Beatles — more specifically, comparing their albums — but that isn’t the task at hand. We need to decide who has more great songs; it seems plain and simple but couldn’t be any more challenging or tedious. For one thing, the only objective standard of measurement is the charts, which is a flawed system because popularity does not always equate to quality. Also, the Billboard Hot 100 is only published based on sales in the United States — Drake is from Canada, and The Beatles were from the United Kingdom. While the U.S. is the biggest music market in the world and a neutral site of competition for these two foes, it may not truly reflect how much of an impact either of these two artists’ songs have had, especially with their home audience. To add on to the challenge of comparison, the number of “slaps” or just great songs by both artists differs by each individual listener. “Hey Jude” or “Come Together” by The Beatles could make one listener nauseated, while another may consider those songs to be legendary. The same goes for songs like “God’s Plan” and “Toosie Slide” by Drake. It seems that there is no impartial way to determine who has more slaps. 

With all of that being said, Drake doesn’t have much of an upper hand in this debate when referring to the charts. The Beatles are the ‘gold standard’ of popular music for a reason: their feats are nearly impossible to overcome. Regardless, Drake definitely deserves credit for taking this comparison head on. Most rappers may feel a sense of invincibility when they rap, like they are untouchable artists. But there are very few who are worthy competitors to such a revered band like The Beatles. Heck, even Future decided to rap the bar, “I'm Evel Knievel, these n----s some divas / I'm really havin' more hits than The Beatles” in his verse on Pop Smoke’s song “Snitching” from earlier this year. That, however, is an entirely different, and likely less competitive discussion to be had. For now, we’ll stick to the Drake vs. The Beatles battle, where a final consensus is probably impossible to reach — but it’s hard to imagine The Beatles losing.