NEW YORK • XXXTentacion has achieved what David Bowie and Prince could not, scoring a No. 1 hit after death.

The rapper was fatally shot on June 18 and Sad!, a sorrowful electronic ballad, has skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, unseating Drake's God's Plan.

It had previously peaked at No. 7 in March.

The song jumped from No. 52 in the week after XXXTentacion was killed, making it the first posthumous No. 1 hit for a lead soloist since 1997. That was the year when rapper Notorious B.I.G. was killed and his anthem, Mo Money Mo Problems, raced up the charts.

Eight other songs by XXXTentacion are also in the Billboard Hot 100, seven of which re-entered the chart after his death.

When Prince died in April 2016, his record sales skyrocketed by 40,000 per cent in a mere five days, the Los Angeles Times reported.

He hit the top of the Billboard 200 chart, which tracks album sales.

But none of his individual songs rose to No. 1.

Bowie, who died in January 2016, saw a 5,000 per cent increase in his record sales.

But still, like Prince, there was no No. 1 song.

Ditto Michael Jackson, who sold more than nine million copies of his albums in the first three weeks after his death in 2009.

WASHINGTON POST