*Is hip hop as popular this year as in years past?
Billboard reports that 2023 marks the first year since 1993 that the genre has yet to yield a No 1 song or album by June. Not one single rap artist has topped the Billboard Hot 100 or the Billboard 200 albums chart this year, while just six hip-hop singles have cracked the top ten.
By comparison, six different rappers had released No 1 albums by June of last year Gunna, Pusha T, Future, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Durk and Tyler, The Creator all reached No. 1 in the first half of 2022, while Jack Harlow, Future and Drake topped the Hot 100 with tracks like “First Class” and “Wait For U.”
Musicradar.com asks if these stats mark “the beginning of the end for a genre that’s been on a decades-long commercial hot streak and celebrates its 50th birthday this year?”
The site points out that despite the lack of 2023 chart toppers thus far, hip hop’s overall sales have remained strong this year, having increased by 6.3% compared to the first half of 2022. But the genre is “gradually losing its primacy in terms of market share,” the site notes, adding, “R&B and hip-hop collectively accounted for 26% of the US market in 2023 so far, a figure that’s down 1.8% from the same figures in June 2022. Though it’s a small dip, it’s a telling one, as both country music and Latin music have made significant gains this year, suggesting that they might be on track to supersede hip-hop and R&B in the years to come.
Meanwhile, Billboard believes that a decision from hip hop’s biggest artists not to release albums this year is one factor in the genre’s absence from the top thus far.
Below, the video for this week’s highest charting hip hop single, “All My Life,” by Lil Durk feat. J. Cole.
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