How Doechii Could Have Two Different Hot 100 ‘Anxiety’ Hits Next Week

No need to panic, but there’s a double dose of “Anxiety” for Doechii on the Billboard charts (dated March 15), as the rapper/singer appears on two different, but related, versions of the similarly named track, thanks to a saga that also involves Will Smith, Gotye and Detroit rapper Sleepy Hallow.

Rewind to 2019, when Doechii recorded the song “Anxiety” and shot a video of the recording in her bedroom for her Coven Music Session, Vol .1 mixtape. “Anxiety” prominently samples Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know,” featuring Kimbra, a 2012 hit that topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks, was that year’s No. 1 Hot 100 song and won two Grammy Awards, including record of the year, in February 2013.

At the time, when Doechii’s “Anxiety” was only available via YouTube, Sleepy Hallow lifted the song’s hook for the chorus of his own “A N X I E T Y” track. Billed to Sleepy Hallow featuring Doechii, it arrived in 2023, and upon release, reached No. 44 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and No. 3 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100.

After a year of dormancy, the song experienced a TikTok-led revival in recent weeks, as users soundtracked the “A N X I E T Y” chorus to a famous scene of Will Smith and Tatyana Ali dancing from an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the Smith-led sitcom that aired on NBC from 1990-96. User @mimeemzyy posted on Feb. 21 what appears to be the trend’s kick-off clip, which has swelled to 2.8 million views on TikTok through March 12.

Growing virality fueled “A N X I E T Y” streams to new highs. While the song hovered between roughly 600,000-700,000 U.S. official on-demand streams each week for the last six months, the total cracked new levels in the last four frames: 890,000 streams in the week ending Feb. 13; 882,000 (Feb. 20), 2.8 million (Feb. 27) and 10.5 million (March 6), according to Luminate. The latest week’s viral-backed surge prompted “A N X I E T Y” to debut on several charts this week, including a No. 45 launch on the Hot 100, at No. 11 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and No. 8 on Hot Rap Songs.

But that wasn’t the only impact: New attention for “A N X I E T Y” sent fans scrambling to Doechii’s solo, YouTube-only version, prompting Doechii to release her track to all digital and streaming retailers on March 4. After the midweek expansion, “Anxiety” spiked to 5.3 million U.S. streams and 2,000 downloads in the latest tracking week (Feb. 28-March 6), sparking a push to No. 3 on the Hot 100’s Bubbling Under chart.

Early signs point to an impending “Anxiety” explosion after its full tracking week. According to preliminary reports submitted to Luminate, the song registered 11.2 million official on-demand U.S. streams for March 7-10. (Next week’s charts, dated March 22, will reflect activity from the tracking week of March 7-13.) Should “Anxiety” reach the Hot 100, it will give Doechii her seventh entry on the list, and with at least a No. 44 start, become her best debut.

The “Anxiety” blowup adds to Doechii’s latest string of triumphs. The rapper won a Grammy Award for best rap album on Feb. 2, for her Alligator Bites Never Heal mixtape. Between the victory and Doechii’s performance on the telecast, the mixtape surged to No. 14 on the Billboard 200. Two singles have also gained traction in recent weeks: “Denial Is a River” cruised to a No. 21 Hot 100 peak in February, while “Nissan Altima” reached No. 73. And Doechii’s already lined up her next big honor: Later this month, the newly minted Grammy winner will be crowned 2025 Woman of the Year at Billboard‘s Women in Music celebration in Los Angeles.