Doechii Earns First Billboard No. 1 as ‘What It Is’ Tops Rhythmic Airplay

Doechii earns her first career No. 1 on any Billboard chart as “What It Is (Block Boy),” featuring Kodak Black, crowns the Rhythmic Airplay list dated June 24. The track jumps from No. 4 for its coronation after a 19% surge in plays that made it the most-played song on U.S. monitored rhythmic radio stations in the week ending June 15, according to Luminate.

“What It Is” gives Florida native Doechii, born Jaylah Hickmon, her first Rhythmic Airplay champ with her first appearance on the list. Featured artist (and fellow Floridian) Kodak Black, meanwhile, collects his third No. 1, and first in more than four years. He previously ruled with “Wake Up in the Sky,” a collaboration with Gucci Mane and Bruno Mars, a three-week leader in December 2018, and “ZEZE,” featuring Travis Scott and Offset, a one-week champ in January 2019.

The new leader ousts Drake’s “Search & Rescue” from the summit after its two-week stay. The former chart-topper, which marked Drake’s record-extending 38th No. 1, slides to No. 5 after a 13% cut in plays.

Given that “What It Is” borrows from two prior major Rhythmic Airplay hits, it’s easy to see how Doechii and Kodak Black’s collaboration has found an equal measure of success. “What It Is” interpolates a reworked hook from Trillville’s “Some Cut,” featuring Litty, which reached No. 3 on Rhythmic Airplay in 2005, and a sample of TLC’s “No Scrubs,” which topped the chart for a record 15 weeks in 1999.

Elsewhere, “What It Is” lifts 13-12 on the plays-based Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart through a 4% increase in plays in the latest tracking week. The single slides 16-17 on the audience-based R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, despite a 2% gain in weekly audience to 6.5 million. Thanks to strong showings at the rhythmic and R&B/hip-hop radio formats, “What It Is” progresses 39-34 on the all-genre Radio Songs chart. There, it added 16% in audience to reach 19.3 million in the most recent tracking week.

Airplay advances help “What It Is” achieve new peak positions on both the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot R&B Songs chart, which blend radio airplay with streaming and sales data for their rankings. On the former, the collaboration flies 28-18, while it pushes 9-6 on the latter.