Billboard’s recent rule change ends a three-decade-long streak for the genre

Kendrick Lamar poses for a photo onstage at the Super Bowl LVIX Pregame & Apple Music Super Bowl LVIX Halftime Show Press Conference at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on February 06, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana

Kendrick Lamar in February 2025.Credit : Michael Owens/Getty

 

The 35-year streak of rap songs charting on the Billboard Hot 100 has come to an end.

Billboard announced on Wednesday, Oct. 29 that Kendrick Lamar’s song “Luther,” featuring SZA, had been removed from their chart tracker following a rule change.

Previously, Billboard removed songs that slipped below No. 25 after 25 weeks or No. 50 after 20 weeks. Now Billboard will remove songs given the following parameters of chart descent: Below No. 5 after 78 weeks; No. 10 after 52 weeks; No. 25 after 26 weeks; and No. 50 after 20 weeks.

“Luther” finished at No. 38 in its final week, but failed to reach No. 25 after 26 weeks on the chart, resulting in its removal per the new guidelines.

Kendrick Lamar and SZA in the Luther music video

Kendrick Lamar and SZA in the “Luther” music video.Kendrick Lamar/YouTube

This news comes after a critically successful year for Lamar, 38. The album that features “Luther,” GNX, made history this summer as the longest-running No. 1 album on the Billboard Top Rap Albums chart. Furthermore, he headlined the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show and won a Grammy in all five categories he was nominated for.

Meanwhile, every track from Taylor Swift’s massively successful recent album release The Life of a Showgirl, appears on the chart.

Other pop stars, including Justin Bieber, Olivia Dean and Alex Warren, whose single “Ordinary” has spent 37 weeks on the chart, also maintain strong holdings.

Despite the absence of rap high on the chart, there are lower-ranking tracks that could make a comeback in the top 40.

The Oct. 25 Hot 100 featured YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “Shot Callin” at No. 44, plus Cardi B’s “Safe” (featuring Kehlani) and BigXthaPlug’s “Hell at Night” (with Ella Langley) at Nos. 48 and 49, respectively.

BigXthaPlug attends the 2025 BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards at Fairmont Century Plaza on August 28, 2025 in Los Angeles, California., Ella Langley attends the 60th Academy of Country Music Awards at Omni Frisco Hotel at The Star on May 08, 2025 in Frisco, Texas.

BigXthaPlug and Ella Langley, who collaborated on track “Hell at Night”.Lester Cohen/Getty; Jason Kempin/Getty

The lack of rap songs in the Hot 100 is “the latest sign of a recent dip in rap’s commercial dominance,” Billboard suggests. Since hip-hop hit a market peak in 2020, it’s been a slow decline ever since, the outlet reports.

On the Oct. 24, 2020 chart, there were 16 rap songs in the top 40, with half the number for the equivalent week in 2023.

The last time no rap songs lingered in the top 40 slots was the first week of February in 1990, when Biz Markie’s hit “Just a Friend” had just climbed to No. 41. The next week it jumped to No. 29.