If polled at the tail end of 2019, it's unlikely that many would have predicted that Roddy Ricch would have the best-selling song of 2020. After all, the young Compton rapper was only beginning to gain recognition, propelled into his debut album by the momentum of formative mixtapes like Feed Tha Streets 1 & 2. When he did drop off his major-label introduction Please Excuse Me From Being Antisocial, it became clear that Ricch had all the makings of a star. Now, a little over nine months later, "The Box" continues to stand proudly as the year's definitive anthem.
To this day, Roddy Ricch's featureless single has sold over seven million album-equivalent units, which places it comfortably into septuple-platinum territory. Not too shabby for a young artist who only recently cemented his presence in the mainstream eye. Clearly, something about Roddy's cinematic and slightly off-kilter banger resonated with a variety of different listeners. For some, it was the infectious and hypnotic windshield squeaks that did it. For others, it was Roddy's confident delivery and flow. And of course, some simply came onboard for the TikTok potential.
Currently sitting pretty as the best-selling song of the year, it doesn't seem like "The Box" will be losing its momentum anytime soon. And with a new album set to come "soon as fu*k," Roddy Ricch has some big shoes to fill whenever his next single does end up landing. Keep an eye out for that, and in the meantime, be sure to revisit "The Box" before the world moves on from it -- though at this rate, it's unclear as to whether it ever will.
