Music

Kanye song from 2005 finally cracks Billboard chart

An eight-year-old Kanye West track has vaulted onto the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart after being featured in a viral video last week.

“Gone,” off of the rapper’s 2005 album, “Late Registration,” is the backing track to Marina Shifrin’s “An Interpretive Dance For My Boss Set To Kanye West’s Gone.” In the video the writer/comedian dances around a deserted office while announcing that she’s quitting her job as a video editor at Taiwanese animator Next Media Animation.

Because of the video’s popularity, its already registered over 15 million views, interest in “Gone” skyrocketed, with the song registering 9,000 digital sales placing it at number 18 on Billboard’s singles chart. The song also ranked at number four on the rap chart, and number six on the hip-hop/R&B chart.

Over the same period, use of the track in parody and response videos earned it 6.2 million US streams, placing it at number four on the magazine’s Streaming Songs chart.

Although it’s not common, songs out of their initial release cycle do appear on the charts from time to time. The magazine’s policy is that a song is eligible for the charts if it ranks “in the top half of the Hot 100 and genre hybrid rankings.”

“Gone,” which also features verses by Cam’ron and Consequence, was never officially released as a single.