By Lisa Respers France, NCS
(NCS) — It feels just like the Billboard charts may use a good rap beef proper about now.
That’s as a result of, in line with the publication, for the primary time since 1990, there isn’t a hip hop within the Top 40 of the Billboard 100 chart.
“With Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s 13-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 ‘Luther’ falling off the Hot 100 dated Oct. 25, 2025, there were officially no rap songs in the chart’s top 40 last week,” Billboard reported.
The final time that occurred was the week of February 2, 1990, “when the top-ranking rap song was Biz Markie’s eventual top 10 hit ‘Just a Friend,’ which had just climbed to No. 41 on the chart.”
The following week, that music shot to the quantity 29 slot, “starting a Hot 100 streak of rap songs in the top 40 that would last for the next 35 years, eight months and three weeks.”
There are, nonetheless, rap songs at the moment down decrease on the Hot 100 listing.
YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “Shot Callin,” got here in at quantity 44 adopted by Cardi B’s “Safe” (that includes Kehlani) and BigXthaPlug’s “Hell at Night” (that includes Ella Langley) at 48 and 49, respectively.
So is hip hop declining or nah?
Billboard stories that “the lack of rap songs in the Hot 100’s top 40 is the latest sign of a recent dip in rap’s commercial dominance,” whereas additionally declaring that they made a rule change that contributed to the current Lamar and SZA collab dropping out of the highest.
“For the chart dated Oct. 25, descending songs were deemed recurrent and removed from the chart if they had exceeded certain durations on the chart while also falling below certain updated chart thresholds — for instance, if they had fallen below No. 25 after spending over 26 weeks on the chart,” the publication defined. “That particular change resulted in the departure of ‘Luther,’ which had fallen to No. 38 on the previous week’s Hot 100 in its 46th week on the listing.”
Lamar’s newest album, 2024’s “GNX,” was bolstered by his now legendary beef with fellow rapper and former collaborator, Drake.
The hip-hop famous person won five Grammys in February, two of them in main classes for his hit “Not Like Us,” a diss observe of Drake.
Drake filed suit against his own record label, UMG Recordings, Inc. The Canadian rapper and actor’s declare was that the label participated in defaming him by publishing and selling the music.
Lamar was not named as a defendant within the lawsuit, and it was recently dismissed by a federal judge. This week, although, the meat goes on, as a result of Drake’s attorneys made it known they’d file an attraction.
The-NCS-Wire
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