Whitey Ford
07-10-2023, 07:01 AM
Hip-Hop’s Chart Dominance Is Slipping This Year
https://i.imgur.com/1lNuLWc.jpg
While much of the discourse has been around topping the Albums chart, hip-hop’s drought goes deeper than Number Ones. Based on chart data on the most consumed albums for the first half of 2023, new hip-hop overall is having a harder time competing with other genres, as well as older rap records.
That figure has been on a steady slide over the past half decade: By this time in 2018, 13 rap albums released that year comprised the genre’s top 25, a 76 percent drop compared to now. In 2019, there were just eight new rap albums in the top 25, though that was partly due to the significant number of popular hip-hop records released in the final two months of the year (like Meek Mill’s Championships and 21 Savage’s I Am > I Was).
There are several reasons hip-hop’s numbers are falling on the charts. For one, as Rolling Stone has previously pointed out, notwithstanding a few artists like Young Thug, Gunna, or Metro Boomin, many of hip-hop’s biggest stars (Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Future, Eminem, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj, among others) haven’t released any new music this year.
There’s also music’s continued globalization. Latin is one of the fastest-growing genres in the world, and it’s outpacing the overall U.S. music industry per the RIAA. While just two Latin albums were on the midyear 200 by this time in 2018, this year Latin’s up to 10. K-Pop also only had two albums in 2018, and now has six this year.
https://i.imgur.com/FUwEazE.jpg
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/hip-hop-s-chart-dominance-is-slipping-this-year/ar-AA1dzNnk
https://i.imgur.com/1lNuLWc.jpg
While much of the discourse has been around topping the Albums chart, hip-hop’s drought goes deeper than Number Ones. Based on chart data on the most consumed albums for the first half of 2023, new hip-hop overall is having a harder time competing with other genres, as well as older rap records.
That figure has been on a steady slide over the past half decade: By this time in 2018, 13 rap albums released that year comprised the genre’s top 25, a 76 percent drop compared to now. In 2019, there were just eight new rap albums in the top 25, though that was partly due to the significant number of popular hip-hop records released in the final two months of the year (like Meek Mill’s Championships and 21 Savage’s I Am > I Was).
There are several reasons hip-hop’s numbers are falling on the charts. For one, as Rolling Stone has previously pointed out, notwithstanding a few artists like Young Thug, Gunna, or Metro Boomin, many of hip-hop’s biggest stars (Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Future, Eminem, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj, among others) haven’t released any new music this year.
There’s also music’s continued globalization. Latin is one of the fastest-growing genres in the world, and it’s outpacing the overall U.S. music industry per the RIAA. While just two Latin albums were on the midyear 200 by this time in 2018, this year Latin’s up to 10. K-Pop also only had two albums in 2018, and now has six this year.
https://i.imgur.com/FUwEazE.jpg
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/hip-hop-s-chart-dominance-is-slipping-this-year/ar-AA1dzNnk