Rap music just vanished from the Billboard Top 40 for the first time in 35 years

Billboard/Yahoo! ^ | Oct 30, 2025 | Aidin Vaziri

[CondoleezzaProtege]

For the first time in more than three decades, not a single rap song ranks among the 40 most popular tracks in America.

Last week's Billboard Hot 100 marked the end of a remarkable 35-year streak, after Kendrick Lamar and SZA's "Luther" - a 13-week No. 1 hit - dropped off the chart. With that departure, the genre that once dominated the nation's listening habits found itself completely absent from the chart's upper tier.

Not since February 1990 has the Billboard Hot 100 gone without a rap entry in its upper ranks.

The gap has been widened by Taylor Swift's "The Life of a Showgirl," which has kept all 12 of its songs in the top 40 for three weeks.

Beyond technicalities, the lull points to a deeper shift. Hip-hop's market share - once nearly 30% in 2020 - has slipped to 24% this year. Two years ago, eight rap songs sat in the top 40, while just five years ago, there were 16.

Meanwhile, pop and country acts have borrowed from hip-hop's rhythms and swagger - sometimes blurring the boundaries so completely that the sound persists even when the artists themselves aren't rappers

---

TOPICS: Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: billboard; criminalcabal; dindunuffin; dustbinofhistory; gangsta; hiphop; hollywood; music; musicindustry; notmusic; oyvey; rap; whoownstheindustry

[ek_hornbeck]

To be music, something needs melody and harmony. Rap has neither. Just a beat or rhythm don't make music, otherwise a jackhammer would be a great musical instrument.

I'm glad that rap is fading in popularity, though that being said, the anodyne youth market pop that's clogging up the airwaves now is only marginally better.

[newfreep]

Joe Walsh’s brother-in-law was a drummer for a small quartet from the UK.

IIRC, his band mates called him Ringo...

[SamAdams76]

Rap was a very ugly and angry genre of music.

For over 50 years, I have listened to virtually all other genres of music and find plenty to like in all.

But rap just makes me want to break into a Best Buy and drag out a big-screen TV.

[Noumenon]

Yes, we sing that around the city Christmas tree every year now. So uplifting.

[AFB-XYZ]

the anodyne youth market pop that's clogging up the airwaves now

Agreed. Sounds to me like just a bunch of infected adenoids.

[minnesota_bound]

Country rap is still @rap!
Begone rap noise.