Rap Is Doing Just Fine on the Charts
Like a Buick Grand National, Kendrick Lamar keeps revving his way onto the Hot 100. The rapper just earned his third No. 1 of 2024 with “squabble up,” off his surprise album GNX, leading a decisive takeover of the charts while dethroning Shaboozey’s 19-week run at No. 1. In all, songs from Kendrick’s latest project — which also topped the Billboard 200 — currently make up the entire top five and seven of the top ten Hot 100 entries. (The last rapper to post three separate No. 1’s in a year? Drake, off his 2018 album Scorpion. The last rapper to own the entire top five? Also Drake, from Certified Lover Boy, in 2021.) It’s not just another big win for Kendrick: It’s the latest sign that rap’s numbers are doing just fine.
In 2023, Billboard watchers questioned whether the genre’s commercial downturn had finally arrived. The first seven months of the year came and went without a No. 1 album, until Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape broke the streak — but only for a single week. Meanwhile, a record number of country songs were leading the Hot 100. Rap had been music’s most dominant genre for years, but it seemed to be cooling off.
2024 proved those worries were overblown. It started with Lamar’s run of headline-making Drake disses: “Like That,” with Future and Metro Boomin, spent three weeks at No. 1; “Not Like Us” also debuted at No. 1 and bounced back a month later on the heels of a music video. (Drake is now boldly claiming UMG illegally boosted “Not Like Us,” but it’s hard to argue how much the song caught on with fans this summer.) Lamar’s beef with Drake turned those releases into blockbusters, and the charts responded accordingly.
Even before Kendrick’s surprise drop, rap had already seen chart success this year with Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia, which logged three weeks on top of the Billboard 200. Tyler hit his best opening-week marks ever despite releasing the album on a Monday morning, missing multiple days of sales and stream tracking. But he built anticipation with a series of high-concept video teasers, making Chromakopia’s arrival feel like a true event. Its longevity is especially heartening in the streaming era, when many rap releases take massive tumbles the week after their equally massive debuts. Instead, Tyler might be sticking around longer, at least on the Hot 100: One of the album’s songs, “Sticky,” has kept a steady spot in the top 20 since its debut.
The year’s other projects felt almost as big. Future and Metro Boomin’s A-list team-up accounted for two chart-topping albums, and the ever-reliable Eminem made something of a return to form on The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), sending a song to No. 2 on the Hot 100. Meanwhile, Travis Scott put a ten-year-old mixtape on streaming and nearly toppled Sabrina Carpenter, and Ye and Ty Dolla $ign’s debut as ¥$ earned a No. 1 album and song (this despite the growing list of blemishes on Ye’s name). Kendrick Lamar may have had the biggest year by far, but almost everyone in hip-hop had something to celebrate in 2024. Well, except Drake.
Related