Is rap losing steam on the charts? The latest data from the Billboard Hot 100 indicates this. For the first time since 1990, there is no song of the genre in the top 40 of the list, which is mainly pop.
After spending 13 weeks at number 1 on the Hot 100, ‘luther’ disappeared from the list on October 25 after a few weeks of hopeless decline. In this way, the first hip hop song we find on the list is at number 43, by YoungBoy Never Broke Again with ‘Shot Callin’. It’s followed by BigXthaPlug’s ‘Hell At Night’ at number 50 and Tyler, the Creator’s ‘Sugar On My Tongue’ at number 51. The latter isn’t even hip hop at all.
The last time rap songs were not found in the top 40 was in February 1990, not long after the genre’s own birth. At the time, Biz Markie’s classic ‘Just A Friend’ was charting at number 41, rising the following week to number 29 and eventually peaking at number nine. The streak that this started lasted 35 years and has just ended.
The 12 songs on ‘The Life of A Showgirl’ are spread across the top 26 spots on the list, but it makes no sense to blame this on Taylor Swift. The first explanation derives from a new rule on the Billboard chart that went into effect the same week that ‘Luther’ disappeared.
Until then, every song that had been on the list for 52 weeks and fell below number 25 was eliminated from the Hot 100. Now, the rules have changed and the threshold is lower, leaving the top if they meet these requirements:
– Below 5th place after 78 weeks on the list.
– Below 10th after 52 weeks.
– Below 25º after 26 weeks.
– Below 50º after 20 weeks.
In the case of ‘Luther’, it had dropped to number 38 after being on the chart for 46 weeks, thus disappearing from it. According to Billboard data, there is also another factor that has led to this event: the decline in commercial dominance of the genre itself.
The popularity of rap reached its highest point in 2020. At that time, at this time of year, 16 songs in the top 40 of the Billboard chart were rap. Three years later, in the same week, there were half as many. Now, none. This may also be due to a rebound effect of the notorious beef between two of the biggest giants of the genre, Kendrick Lamar and Drake.
The Canadian released ‘$ome $exy $ongs 4 U’ in February of this same year and had a notable hit with ‘NOKIA’, which reached second place on the Hot 100, but he has not been able to maintain it on the chart as in the past. Their latest singles, supposed previews of an album titled ‘Iceman’, also reached good positions on the Hot 100, but both disappeared after 12 weeks on the list. Is Drake the only one who could resume rap’s streak in the highest positions?
