Hip-Hop Reverses Its Decline On The Charts With Major Comeback In 2024

After debates around the decline of hip-hop flooded social media in recent years, the numbers are showing a shift in 2024.

Future and Metro Boomin’s recent Billboard chart-topping success with their collaborative album “We Don’t Trust You” and Kendrick Lamar-assisted Drake-aimed diss track “Like That” set a new standard for single-week units moved in 2024 with 251,000. The album topped the Billboard 200 and the single debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 100 along with four other songs from the project entering the chart’s top 10.

The duo’s success highlights a shift in the fall from grace the music genre has experienced in recent years. “Like That” joins Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hiss” as two rap diss tracks to debut at No. 1 in 2024 while 2023 didn’t see a No. 1 rap song until Doja Cat’s “Paint The Town Red” in September. Other rap songs to top the Billboard 100 in 2024 include Jack Harlow’s “Lovin’ On Me,” and Ye, Ty Dolla Sign, Rich the Kid, and Playboi Carti’s “Carnival.”

2024 has already seen three No. 1 rap albums with 21 Savage’s “American Dream,” Ye and Ty Dolla Sign’s ‘Vultures,” and Future and Metro Boomin’s “We Don’t Trust You,” with their follow-up “We Still Don’t Trust You” among contenders for a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200. But it wasn’t until June 2023 that fans saw a rap album top the Billboard charts with Lil Uzi Vert’s “Pink Tape.” By the end of 2023, only four rap albums reached the No. 1 spot compared to 12 in 2022.

There were only 18 rap entries listed on the Billboard 100 at this same time last year, with a number of them being from dated albums like Kanye West’s “Graduation,” Drake’s “Take Care” and “Views,” and Tyler The Creator’s “Igor.” However, by mid-April 2024, there have been 38 rap entries with albums like “We Don’t Trust You” maintaining their top spot.

With raging rap feuds between big-name artists like Drake and Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj filling the social sphere, lyrical warfare is credited for helping reignite interest in the music genre.

“Diss tracks evoke larger conversations not just online but also in real life, and those who need to be up to speed on what’s happening inevitably have to listen to the songs that ignited it all, which have allowed “Hiss” and “Like That” to shoot to No. 1,” Billboard writer Heran Memo says.

“This level of competitiveness and s–t-talking is at the core of hip-hop’s spirit, so I definitely agree with Metro that the genre is alive and well. Rap is off to a great start in 2024, especially compared to where it was at this point in 2023, so I have high hopes for the genre.”

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