Posted on 10/31/2025 3:56:10 PM PDT by Drew68
The baton that has passed from one hip-hop hit to another for more than three decades has been dropped. Kendrick Lamar and SZA‘s hit single “Luther” departed the Billboard Hot 100 following rule changes to the chart that removed the record after 46 weeks, of which the song spent 13 weeks at Number One. The record was still a Top 40 hit — landing at No. 38 in its final week — but didn’t maintain a placement at Number 25 or above after its 26th week on the chart, which per the recurrent rule change led to it being nixed.
For the first time since 1990, the Top 40 on the Hot 100 doesn’t contain a single rap song. The space is occupied, instead, by the entirety of Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl — now in its third week — as well as hits from Morgan Wallen, Olivia Dean, Kehlani, and Alex Warren, whose single “Ordinary” has spent 37 weeks on the chart.
A significant portion of the records in the Top 40 have been slow-burn hits, like Ravyn Lenae’s “Love Me Not” and Leon Thomas’ “Mutt.” Others, like Justin Bieber’s “Daises” and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild,” made high debuts and stuck around.
Still, there are a few rap records lingering just outside of the Top 40 that could break through. YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “Shot Callin,” which debuted on the Hot 100 in late September, has inched its way up to Number 43. It doesn’t have much competition in the genre. Other songs on the chart that qualify as rap — determined by songs that are also eligible on the Hot Rap Songs chart, where “Luther” remains Number One — include BigXthaPlug and Ella Langley’s “Hell at Night” at Number 50 as well as Cardi B and Kehlani’s “Safe” at Number 57.
It is worth noting that there are rappers on the Hot 100 who are holding placements outside of rap music. Tyler, the Creator’s “Sugar on the Tongue,” which appears on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, has spent 14 weeks on the chart with a peak position of Number 41 and a current position of 51. A little further down, Doja Cat’s “Jealous Type” has slipped to Number 57 after peaking at Number 28 in September.
Our long national nightmare is over
unfortunately “rap” has infected a lot of other musical genres already.
Hooray, rap is crap.
you won’t believe it, I was looking for that very quote from Gerald Ford, came back and for a second, thought I’d time warped and already posted it.
The national nightmare is over.
That’s 24 years, 11 months, and three weeks too late.
Seems I’ve heard that somewhere before ....
Rap music just vanished from the Billboard Top 40 for the first time in 35 years
10/30/2025 6:21:45 PM PDT · by CondoleezzaProtege · 122 replies
Billboard/Yahoo! ^ | Oct 30, 2025 | Aidin Vaziri
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4349728/posts
Now let’s get rid of Hick Hop and Bro Country.
It just seems like 35 years.
H***, some of them have prison terms longer than that.
Rap music and rap song are both oxymorons. We thought disco was bad but we hadn’t seen bad until they called rap “music”.
Yes I posted about this yesterday as a fan of old school hip hop 🫢 and some religious rap as well: I once heard the entire Gospel account of the Crucifixion rapped at a Good Friday service and it communicated the details of that day with the grit, pain, spiritual power, and poetry only rap can capture. And I thought, well makes sense why Satan stole it!
The genre has been an uninspired wasteland for quite some time…but I also think some singers may be holding back from releasing around Taylor Swift’s albums…? LoL so it could just be a business decision too.
Sigh...
I searched "rap" but three letter words are apparently too small for FR's search bar.
And then I searched "songs" and didn't see it.
Oh well. Different source, I suppose.
Yup, this development took long enough...
Hick Hop some how managed to be even worse than regular rap.
But but but what will aspiring rappers aspire to now?
Rap fatigue!!
FINALLY!!!!
Unfortunately, we've planted kudzu to fight the soil erosion of rap.
Taylor Swift’s latest album is a massive hit and contains the song “Wish List” where she sings about wanting white babies and raising them in a suburban neighborhood where everyone looks like them.
Don’t we all.
I heard “Monster Mash” today. I thought, that might be one of the first rap songs.
It still sucks
Country pop
Horrible pop in general
Rap which baring a Hanfful of numbers like Tupac California I’ve never liked anything about it
That’s what streams or gets played except older stuff by boomers like me or younger people discovering it
The red dirt Oklahoma and Austin country is good but mostly made by lefties
P
A few exceptions like Whiskey Meyers
Tyler and Zach think they’ve become Springsteen aping lefty tropes
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