It’s that time of the year again! Since 2016, Spotify has been sending its users end of year listening statistics called Spotify Wrapped. The stats are taken from January to October, so you can binge all your guilty pleasures and Christmas music now until January without it being included. (so turn up to Mariah Carey all you want)
Spotify delivers the stats with a bit of sass in an Instagram story-like fashion. Like many uses, I look forward to the musical reflection to see what I enjoyed most during the year. The last few years have been so uncertain, with music providing the audible chicken soup for our souls. Whether during quarantines, solo drives, or remote work music was always there for us. Recently podcast stats have been added to Spotify Wrapped’s lineup as well.
According to Spotify, I spent over 34,000 minutes listening this year, more than 85% of listeners in the United States. That’s about 577.5 hours, 24 days. So what were my top picks? Here’s a link to my top 100 songs playlist Spotify generates as well for listeners.
My top artists
- Mavercity City Music – I spent about 3200 minutes listening to Maverick City, and was in the top 2 percent of their listeners. I have a worship music playlist but I might as well just put Maverick City on shuffle as much as they dominate it. They also put out a lot of music this year, including a Juneteenth album. They are nominated for a few Grammys this year as well. I was able to see them in concert this year, it was a great experience. Surprisingly, my top genre overall was Christian Hip Hop, with Worship second.
- Tobe Nwigwe – I wouldn’t consider Tobe to be CHH, but I wouldn’t say he’s secular either. He’s in his own lane, socially conscious with great beats. God fearing and fearing no man. I wish there were more rappers like him. The song I’ve listened to ths most of his was Eat and I enjoyed the At the Crib version he did for his song Fye Fye, a slowed down version.
- Wande – You could say Wande is the top female CHH artist right now. She has some songs that feature some of my other favorite artists such as Nobigdyl. Her album Exit came out in 2020 which I listened to this year, as well as the remix to her song Blessed Up.
- Social Club Misfits – Social Club is a CHH group made up of two guys named Marty and Fern. I really like Marty’s fun personality and their songs have great beats. They are from the same state as me also, FL.
- Andy Mineo – I was expecting Lecrae to be in my top five, but Andy Mineo must have beat him out. Andy released an album called Neverland II this year that I listened to a lot. It is very instorspective and mature without losing Andy’s sense of humor. My favorite song on it is “Working on It” and features Chandler Moore from Maverick City Music, I would’t be surpised if it’s in my top songs for next year.
My Top Songs
All of my top songs have really unique beats to me, I suppose that’s why I had them on repeat. Seems like I was more into mainstream CHH this year. I did keep some more indie artist CDs in my car like Beautiful Eulogy and Dream Junkies so those plays were not counted. Spotify said I listened to my top song about 40 times this year.
Here’s some of my favorite lyrics from the songs, along with a link to their rap genius pages:
- BAND$ – “I got the Lord on my side and He stay with me/ “God first” in your bio, ain’t amazing to me/ I can’t let just anybody come and hang with me/ You gotta be about that life to be bae to me”
- Colossal – Give my thanks to the Lord I know without Him I’m nothing, I’m nada / They say, “Dyllie, how do you make it?” I told ’em, “Man, it ain’t all about talent” /You gotta work every night like you Jimmy/ I’m talkin’ Kimmel, I’m talkin’ Fallon/ Then when you done, gotta take a lil’ Sabbath/ Don’t let the internet make you an addict
- Slingshot – I got the key to the vault /They wouldn’t want me to fall, yeah/ I made the blessing my own/ I don’t go back to the old
- Coming in Hot – Yeah, coming in hot /Just like the fajita/I write what I live/ My life in the speaker / I’m nice with the flow/ Just like the demeanor
- Ella – Somos chicas con Dios, my faith international/ But really, we killing. Shout out to God, we do this for a living/ To say it’s all me but realy I would be fibbing/ God making the moves and I listen while kneeling/ Aye, mmm, yeah, yeah/ Still unashamed, Romans 116K/ They like “Wande, ¿cómo se dice?”/ To rep Christ you ain’t gotta speak inglés
What was your top listens in 2021? Happy listening in 2022!