What a distinction a yr makes. From the sounds that captivated rap followers to the developments that took over, hip-hop has provided many hits in numerous methods over the past 12 months. That movement translated closely on the charts. There’s stiff competitors when the sport’s greatest rappers go up towards main pop and nation stars for the coveted Billboard 200 high place. Whereas pop had a steep rise final yr, 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.,” mentioned Jaime Marconette, Luminate’s VP of music insights and business relations, throughout a 2024 year-end webinar launched this previous January. “Nearly one in each 4 audio streams final yr was R&B/hip-hop. So it offers 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 proportion factors since final yr as different genres proceed to develop.”
That dominance over the past yr led to high canines 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 total with 361,000 items. He holds the title of being the rapper with the largest album debut in 2024. Shut behind is Okay-Dot’s GNX with 319,000 whereas Future had three tasks hit the extremely sought-after chart place final yr with various top-notch numbers for every.
Three months into 2025, and the tradition has continued to have fun its massive 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 yr, however the artists and followers are nonetheless consuming.
Learn Extra: Drake’s First-Week Gross sales for Each Challenge He is Dropped Show Why He is on High
Check out the largest first-week numbers for hip-hop over the past 12 months—from March 2024 to March 2025—beneath.
