What a distinction a 12 months makes. From the sounds that captivated rap followers to the tendencies that took over, hip-hop has supplied many hits in several methods over the past one year. That movement translated closely on the charts. There’s stiff competitors when the sport’s greatest rappers go up in opposition to main pop and nation stars for the coveted Billboard 200 high place. Whereas pop had a steep rise final 12 months, hip-hop, paired with R&B, reigned supreme as the most well-liked streaming style.
“R&B/hip-hop continues to be the No. 1 streaming quantity within the U.S.,” stated Jaime Marconette, Luminate’s VP of music insights and trade relations, throughout a 2024 year-end webinar launched this previous January. “Nearly one in each 4 audio streams final 12 months was R&B/hip-hop. So it provides you a way of simply how dominant it has been, nonetheless, it’s dealing with elevated competitors. Its piece of the streaming pie is definitely down 2.3 share factors since final 12 months as different genres proceed to develop.”
That dominance over the past 12 months led to high canine like Kendrick Lamar, Future and Travis Scott, amongst others, touchdown No. 1s on the 200 chart. Out of the three, an acclaimed rerelease of Days Earlier than Rodeo from La Flame earned him the best first-week gross sales general with 361,000 models. He holds the title of being the rapper with the largest album debut in 2024. Shut behind is Ok-Dot’s GNX with 319,000 whereas Future had three initiatives hit the extremely sought-after chart place final 12 months with various top-notch numbers for every.
Three months into 2025, and the tradition has continued to rejoice its huge wins. Albums from Playboi Carti, Lil Child, Drake and others locked in additional No. 1s throughout these final three months. Rap might have rather less of the streaming pie on this new 12 months, however the artists and followers are nonetheless consuming.
Learn Extra: Drake’s First-Week Gross sales for Each Venture He is Dropped Show Why He is on High
Check out the largest first-week numbers for hip-hop over the past one year—from March 2024 to March 2025—beneath.
