Billboard explains why Rihanna ranked over Drake on their ‘Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century’ list: “Anytime these people are together, Rihanna looks like the most glamorous and desirable woman on the planet and Drake looks like a simp. Rihanna is always burnt into your brain, like, she’s Cleopatra of the 21st-century music. Drake has 13 #1s but his first two #1 hits are ‘What’s My Name’ and ‘Work’. Those are not Rihanna’s first two #1 hits, those are her eighth and fourteenth. She’s like, ‘Here my Canadian friend, have a couple of my #1 hits on me.’ 14 #1 hits that’s more than Drake has in his entire career. By the time, he started racking them up as a lead artist, she’s gone. She’s like ‘I’m done with the game.’ She has the most #1s this century…She’s been innovative. None of Rihanna’s #1s are cheap #1. A lot of Drake’s #1s are racked up in the streaming era when he can debut at #1 but it slowly slides down. Rihanna never had that advantage. She had to build up to a #1 hit and it became the #1 biggest hit of the decade. I don’t think there’s any of the 14 that you would say, ‘I don’t remember that one.’”
