Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 Has No Rap Songs for First Time Since 1990

The baton that has passed from one hip-hop hit to another for more than three decades has been dropped. Kendrick Lamar and SZA ‘s hit single “Luther” departed the Billboard Hot 100 following rule changes to the chart that removed the record after 46 weeks, of which the song spent 13 weeks at Number One. The record was still a Top 40 hit — landing at No. 38 in its final week — but didn’t maintain a placement at Number 25 or above after its 26th week on the chart, which per the recurrent rule change led to it being nixed.

For the first time since 1990, the Top 40 on the Hot 100 doesn’t contain a single rap song. The space is occupied, instead, by the entirety of Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl — now in its third week — as well as hits from Morgan Wallen, Olivia Dean, Kehla