Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro has scored his first song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for “Facts” with rapper Tom MacDonald.
The host of “The Ben Shapiro Show” and MacDonald’s rap collaboration hit the 16th spot on the Billboard chart, a first for Shapiro. The Canadian rapper MacDonald has now made the Billboard Hot 100 chart four times, but “Facts” marks his first top 40 hit, Forbes reported. Shapiro’s No. 16 spot is higher than the Billboard Hot 100 debuts of music stars including Taylor Swift who peaked at No. 40 with her debut song “Tim McGraw” in 2006.
Shapiro and MacDonald worked together on the track that takes a swipe at the insanity of things in our culture like gender identity and defunding the police. The music video “Facts” debuted on January 26, and within a very short amount of time, the song landed in the No. 1 spot on the hip-hop/rap chart and then soared to the top of the U.S. iTunes chart.
BREAKING
“FACTS” by @IAMTOMMACDONALD (ft. me) has now finally dropped from the top slot on iTunes, after 10 days of pure magic.
Rap Hannukah is over.
And so, with tears in my eyes, I have another announcement to make.
To all the little homies, who have been lifting me up… pic.twitter.com/7TpPLwtDo5
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) February 5, 2024
It remained in the No. 1 spot on iTunes for more than a week, beating out the likes of Minaj, Megan Thee Stallion, and Justin Timberlake.
“Facts” sold more than 76,000 copies in its first week, according to Luminate. As of Sunday, “Facts” remained the top song in the U.S.
On Monday, Shapiro made headlines when he announced his retirement from the rap game after dominating the charts.
“BREAKING. ‘FACTS’ by [Tom MacDonald]] (ft. me) has now finally dropped from the top slot on iTunes, after 10 days of pure magic,” Shapiro wrote on X.
“Rap Hannukah is over,” he added. “And so, with tears in my eyes, I have another announcement to make. To all the little homies, who have been lifting me up since I began this journey.”
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“It was an inspiring moment,” Shapiro continued. “A musical supernova. But now the time has come for me to walk away from my art. And so today, I announce that I am retiring from rap to spend more time with my family. It’s been real, dawgs. And never forget: the music never dies so long as the beat is in your heart.”
At the time of publication, the music video has been viewed more than 13.5 million times on YouTube and is still the #3 top trending song on the site.
On Feb. 1, Shapiro shared a screenshot that showed his rap collab was in the top spot on iTunes music and wrote, “Day 7 of Rap Hannukah. The flame is still lit. Buy now at …Billboard #1, we are coming for you.”
In a press release from MacDonald, after their rap dropped, Shapiro said, “As a longtime devotee of rap, becoming a rapper was the natural next step in my career trajectory. So, when Tom asked if I wanted to collaborate on a song, I leapt at the chance.”
“This was the moment I spent 20 years of classical violin training preparing for,” he added. “For those who don’t appreciate my artistic stylings, all I can say is that they didn’t appreciate Bach properly in his own time, either.”