2001 Rock Song, Once Banned by Radio Stations, Reaches 2 Billion Streams
System of a Down, the Grammy-winning metal rock band, once again proved its influence in the music scene with an extraordinary milestone.
The quartet, consisting of core members Serj Tankian on lead vocals, Daron Malakian on guitar, Shavo Odadjian on bass and John Dolmayan on drums proudly announced another achievement on the Billions Club.
This refers to the musical achievement by an artist, a band or a group where a single track accumulates over 1,000,000,000 plays on the streaming platform.
In an Instagram post, the band officially surpassed two billion streams on Spotify for their song "Chop Suey."
"2 Billion+ Streams of ‘Chop Suey!' Thank you," the caption reads.
Released in 2001 as the lead single from their second studio album, Toxicity, "Chop Suey" became the anthem of System of a Down, leading to massive commercial success.
While the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart along with their two other albums, Mezmerize and Hypnotize, the four-member group also scored their first Grammy nomination in 2002 for Best Metal Performance.
One of the producer, Rick Rubin, previously recalled how the track became SOAD's breakout hit and why it was iconic.
"It's an unusual song because the verse is so frantic," he told Far Out Magazine. "The style is so broken up and unusual. It's both difficult to sing and arguably difficult to listen to, but then the chorus is this big, soaring, emotional, surging, beautiful thing. It's just real heavy, biblical and grand. It's so unusual that it goes between these crazy rhythmic explosive verses and this emotional, anthemic ending."
However, amid its popularity, the track also faced criticism due to the song's lyrics and the unfortunate timing of its release.
The song's debut, which was just a month before the incident, marked a controversial moment in history following the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York City's World Trade Center, now often referred to as "Ground Zero."
Due to this, "Chop Suey" was banned from radio airplay by Clear Channel Communications, the country's largest radio conglomerate, now known as iHeartMedia, along with over 160 tracks that fell under the "post-9/11 list of lyrically questionable songs."
Despite the censorship, System of a Down continues to thrive with their signature hit which continues to be celebrated as one of the most iconic metal songs of the 2000s.
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This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 7:05 PM.