Its harder to get a number 1 song than people think. Michael Jackson “only” had 13 throughout his solo career. Prince had 5. Stevie Wonder 10. Madonna 13. Whitney Houston 11. These are the creme de la creme of hit makers we’re talking about. The fact Beyonce was able to get her 9th number 1 on a song outside of her established genre, within a historically RACIST and exclusionary genre, with no video, is a testament to her enduring popularity. For comparison’s sake, the title track to Thriller, despite wide spread popularity and with the assistance of the greatest video of all time playing TWICE per hour on MTV for an entire year, only reached number 4.