POOH SHIESTY’S STEADY RISE

HIGHLIGHT

FAST FACT

Pooh Shiesty has seen more than

239 million on-demand audio streams to date. WHILE SOME ARTISTS take off in a sprint, with a TikTok hit taking them from zero to a million streams overnight, Pooh Shiesty’s rise has been much more gradual — a steady build from a simmer to a boil that has been taking place over the past six months. After the Gucci Mane signee was featured on the compilation Gucci Mane Presents: So Icy Summer, he reached the Artists 500 chart for his first time in September 2020, and through the fall, he steadily inched his way toward the Top 200.

So far, the Memphis rapper has shown no signs of slowing down, which tends to happen to artists who find viral TikTok success. In January, Shiesty reached the Top 100 of the Artists 500 for the first time, after seeing a 59 percent month-on-month growth in streams, compared with December. Most of his January success was thanks to the

Lil Durk-featuring

“Back in Blood,” which became Shiesty’s first RS 100 hit. By the end of January, “Back in Blood” was in the Top 25.

Shiesty managed to reach Number 73 on the Artists 500 all before he released a single mixtape. Shiesty Season, which he dropped in early February, was at the top of Apple Music’s weekly pre-add chart at press time — a spot previously held by country star Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, which went on to break the RS 200 record for the biggest debut for a country album.

Shiesty sees his consistent pace as one of the main reasons for his success. “Hard work, consistency, and my loyal supporters,” he says, citing the factors that have gotten him here. “They’ve been showing me a crazy amount of love from city to city. I also have people like Gucci in my corner — he’s been guiding me like a big brother through this whole thing.”