Which city leader can’t get enough of Drake and ‘Kill Bill’ by SZA?

CHARLOTTE — As hundreds of Channel 9 Government Reporter Joe Bruno’s friends shared their top Spotify songs last November, Bruno had a question that pretty much no one else in world also had: What is on the Spotify Wrapped of Charlotte city councilmembers?

Spotify Wrapped is the annual data released by the streaming company that lists each user’s top songs and artists. To make sure there was no funny business with leaders pretending an artist was their favorite when it wasn’t, Bruno submitted a records request.

The request, made on Nov. 30, was: “This applies to Mayor Vi Lyles, all Charlotte City Councilmembers, Marcus Jones, Tracy Dodson and Jason Schneider: If they have the app Spotify downloaded on their city phone, I am requesting their “Spotify Wrapped” data associated with the account on their city device.”

A spokesperson for the city of Charlotte, Jason Schneider, laughed when notified of the request and apologized for not having Spotify on his city phone. He told Bruno he was looking forward to seeing what he finds out.

On March 7, the city of Charlotte fulfilled the request. The following Charlotte City Councilmembers do not have Spotify on their city devices: James Mitchell, Dimple Ajmera, LaWana Mayfield, Victoria Watlington, Malcolm Graham, Tiawana Brown, Renee Johnson, Marjorie Molina, Tariq Bokhari.

City Manager Marcus Jones, Assistant City Manager Tracy Dodson and Jason Schneider, the head of Communications and Marketing, do not have Spotify on their city devices either. Councilmembers Ed Driggs and Dante Anderson have Spotify on their city iPads. But according to Public Records Specialist Jennifer Cook, they have “no responsive data associated with the account.”

Only one person had a Spotify Wrapped associated with the Spotify account on their work devices: Mayor Vi Lyles.

Records obtained by Channel 9 show Mayor Vi Lyles’ top artist in 2023 was Drake. According to her Spotify Wrapped statistics, Mayor Vi Lyles is a top 19% fan of Drake and listened to 147 minutes of his songs. Following Drake, her top 5 artists were Doja Cat, SZA, The Weeknd and Kane Brown.

Spotify Wrapped statistics show Mayor Vi Lyles’ top song of 2023 was “Kill Bill” by SZA. The data shows she listened to “Kill Bill” 17 times in 2023. Her next four top songs were “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus, “Fast Car” by Luke Combs, “All My Life” by Lil Durk and J. Cole and “Calm Down” by Rema and Selena Gomez.

Mayor Vi Lyles’ top podcast was “The Daily” by the New York Times. She listened for 1,262 minutes in 2023 and is a top 16% fan. The other four podcasts in her top five were: “The Moth,” “Wait Wait.. Don’t Tell Me,” “All-In with Chamath,” “Jason, Sacks & Freidberg” and “Snap Judgment.”

According to Spotify Wrapped data, the city she best shares her music taste with is Brisbane, Australia. Spotify claims people in Brisbane are “far more likely to be fans of Luke Combs, GoNoodle and Kidz Bop Kids.”

A spokesperson for Mayor Vi Lyles did not immediately respond to a request for comment on her music tastes.

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