Billboard Hot 100 has no rap songs in the Top 40 for the first time since 1990

“With Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s 13-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 ‘Luther’ falling off the Hot 100 dated Oct. 25, 2025, there were officially no rap songs in the chart’s top 40 last week,” Billboard reported.

Billboard reports that “the lack of rap songs in the Hot 100’s top 40 is the latest sign of a recent dip in rap’s commercial dominance,” while also pointing out that they made a rule change that contributed to the recent Lamar and SZA collab dropping out of the top.

“For the chart dated Oct. 25, descending songs were deemed recurrent and removed from the chart if they had exceeded certain durations on the chart while also falling below certain updated chart thresholds — for instance, if they had fallen belo

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