Hot 100 First-Timers: Odetari Manages to ‘Keep Up’ With His Chart Debut
Odetari first broke through on Billboard’s charts in 2023, and now he’s officially a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist.
The Houston producer scores his first entry on the Hot 100 (dated Oct. 12) with “Keep Up.” The song debuts at No. 96 almost entirely from its streaming sum: 5.7 million official U.S. streams in the Sept. 27-Oct. 3 tracking week, according to Luminate.
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TikTok has been a huge factor in the song’s growing profile, largely due to a viral dance trend. A portion of its audio has been used in nearly 1 million clips on the platform to date. That activity pushed the song 14-4 on the Oct. 5-dated TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart.
“Keep Up” also rises two spots to No. 6 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs. It’s Odetari’s 16th career entry on the chart, and sixth top 10. His first hit, “Narcissistic Personality Disorder,” reached No. 10 in May 2023, followed by “Good Loyal Thots” (No. 8); “Look Don’t Touch,” with Cade Clair (No. 9); “GMFU,” with 6arelyhuman (No. 5); and “I Love You Hoe,” with 9lives (No. 3).
Odetari’s music style is fast-paced and hectic EDM, a genre that he calls “ODECORE.” Earlier this year, Billboard reported that Odetari has a unique approach to releasing his songs. While the original versions of his songs are posted on his primary Odetari Spotify profile, various other versions and remixes of his songs are released under a separate Spotify profile called ODECORE. “[He] frequently has two to three different versions of records coming out a month,” explained Corey Calder, svp of marketing and creative services at Artist Partner Group, Odetari’s label. “If we were to have that all sit on his page, it would feel cluttered and make it hard for his fanbase to follow and track it all.”
It’s a growing trend that has also been adopted by Odetari’s collaborator and labelmate 6arelyhuman, who releases music under his own name, plus remixes under the name Sassy Scene.
Before Odetari’s music career took flight last year, Billboard reported that in February he was substitute-teaching at a high school in his native Houston. He said that he would even upload his music during school hours. “The students were, like, hitting their dab pens in class, secretly under their sleeves,” he said. “The teachers walked in and smelled it and were like, ‘You should have been supervising the class better.'”
By the end of 2023, Odetari wrapped at No. 7 on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Artists annual recap. He also landed six songs on the year-end Hot Dance/Electronic Songs ranking, including “Good Loyal Thots” and “Look Don’t Touch” at Nos. 16 and 19, respectively.
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