There Hasn’t Been A No. 1 Hip-Hop Tune Or Album But In 2023

Hip-hop is making historical past on the Billboard charts, however not in a great way. In accordance with a brand new report from the publication, there hasn’t been a single hip-hop tune or album that has topped the Billboard 200 or Scorching 100 charts in 2023. The decline marks the primary time in 30 years that hip-hop has been knocked off its high spot for this lengthy of a stretch since 1993.

Final 12 months, solely six hip-hop artists — Tyler, the Creator, Future, Kendrick Lamar, Pusha T Gunna, and Lil Durk — noticed top-charting albums, whereas Future, Drake and Tems’ “Await U” and Jack Harlow’s “First Class” turned No. 1 singles.

Billboard theorizes that the decline is because of the “hottest and dependable artists,” like Megan Thee Stallion and Younger Thug, not dropping new materials because of psychological and authorized points. Viral hip-hop favorites like Lil Durk and YoungBoy By no means Broke Once more have but to succeed in crossover attraction. Pop and nation albums like Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” and Morgan Wallen’s “Final Night time” have additionally seen prolonged runs on the Billboard Scorching 100, unable to be knocked off by rap singles.

Artists with endurance, like Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj and J. Cole, have been known as “the Mount Rushmore of the 2010s” by Billboard, who says the rappers “are nonetheless going sturdy and outperforming the style’s youthful stars.” Minaj additionally caught wind of the sentiment on Twitter.

So how can hip-hop, additionally nearing its fiftieth anniversary, prevail throughout this questionable time? Billboard speculates that the style might be nearing a dance-centric second, whereas Latin music and EDM proceed to rise.