*The week of October 25, 2025, marked an unprecedented setback for hip-hop: according to The AV Club, no rap songs made the Billboard Hot 100 Top 40.
The long-running hit “Luther” by SZA and Kendrick Lamar finally dropped off the list, positioning YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “Shot Callin” as the top rap entry at number 44. Songs by Cardi B and BigXthaPlug likewise hovered in the high 40s, signaling an unusual period without rap’s control of the charts. February 1990 marked the previous instance when no rap songs appeared in the Top 40, shortly before Biz Markie’s “Just A Friend” climbed the charts.
Billboard links some of this change to new recurrence guidelines, which eject falling songs from the chart once they slip past designated spots. The outlet writes, “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.”
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“Luther” was affected by recent changes to Billboard’s Hot 100 rules after falling to number 38 following a 46-week run, along with seven other songs that were also removed. While this could have paved the way for other rap hits to rise, Taylor Swift’s “The Life Of A Showgirl” dominated the Top 40, with all 12 tracks from the album remaining on the chart since its release earlier this month.
Rap music’s absence from the Billboard Top 40 reflects the ongoing debate over the “decline of hip-hop.” The genre peaked in 2020, capturing nearly 30 percent of the music market. Since then, hip-hop’s share has steadily decreased, with Billboard reporting it at 24 percent in 2025.
Professor Treva Lindsay commented on the state of mainstream rap to Newsweek: “The mainstream rap industry has been gasping for creative breath for quite some time. I think the radical potential of hip-hop remains in its lower frequencies. What we consume most often, though, is where I am most critical and underwhelmed.”
She added, “The hyper-commercialization and apolitical tenor of mainstream rap music are sources of ire and disappointment. I think some people may be welcoming its decline in the commercial sphere as they await innovation from the marginalized Black and Brown communities that pioneered hip-hop over 50 years ago.”
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