Long before his rise as one of the most commercially successful and celebrated creative forces in modern pop, the trajectory that redefined mainstream music first took hold in 2009, when a string of chart-topping tracks launched a career that would accumulate unprecedented milestones across every metric of global success. From that first wave of hits, the artist built a discography that earned him status as one of the best-selling artists of all time, with more than 150 million records sold worldwide across his solo work and collaborative projects. Beyond his output as a solo creator, he expanded his creative range as one half of the duo Silk Sonic, formed alongside Anderson .Paak, a project that added to his long list of cross-cultural, cross-genre successes that resonated with audiences around the world.