Hot 100 Top 40 Lacks Rap Since 1990

For the first time since February 1990, the Billboard Hot 100’s top 40 contained no rap songs after Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s 13‑week No. 1 “Luther” fell off the Oct. 25, 2025 chart. Billboard’s updated recurrent rules — which remove long‑running, descending songs after they pass set time/position thresholds — precipitated the removal of “Luther” and seven other former top‑40 tracks. The highest‑ranking rap entry that week was YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “Shot Callin” at No. 44, with Cardi B and BigXthaPlug appearing in the upper 40s, and no rap songs were close enough to fill the newly opened slots. Observers said Taylor Swift’s album occupying many top‑40 places and major rappers being between album cycles amplified the vacancy, and hip‑hop’s market share has fallen from nearly 30% in 2020 to about 24% in 2025. The roughly 35‑year, eight‑month streak of rap presence in the Top 40 ended with this chart change, and the absence persisted into the following week as rap tracks inched but did not reenter the Top 40.