When Nas said “hip-hop is dead,” this certainly isn’t what he meant. Since 1990, rap music has topped the music charts as arguably the most impactful genre in the world. But for the first time in history, rap is falling off big time, and there might be one person primarily responsible for the decline.
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There’s no denying that Canadian rapper Drake is of the biggest hip-hop acts of all time. From hits like “God’s Plan” and “In My Feelings” to classics like “Headlines” and “Worst Behavior,” he surely has the perfect formula for how to get to– and stay at– the very top of the Billboard charts. In fact, Drake’s been running mainstream rap since before 2018, but now something has changed.
At the height of his 2024 beef with Kendrick Lamar, Drake was still the rapper to beat with over 360 Billboard Hot 100 entries, 81 top 10 records and 13 no. 1 singles before the beef, Billboard reported. Here’s the issue: Once Lamar dropped his diss, “Not Like Us” — the song of the 2024 summer — Drake’s musical reputation took a major blow. Even still, no one has yet proved they can take his spot.
This year, Billboard announced that from the Oct. 25 and Nov. 1 Hot 100 charts, no rap songs appeared in the top 40. That makes two consecutive weeks that rap music was not at the forefront of mainstream music, according to the numbers. Still, many hip-hop lovers online said they weren’t paying attention to the stats anyway.
“Maybe it’s just me but I never looked at the billboard chart to find what rap I need to listen too..all my favorite songs probably never even charted..9/10 the billboard song my fav rapper made is the one I skip,” @Rome_Streetz wrote on X.
@euIVmusic tweeted, “Rap fans are not looking at the billboard for music.” And can you really blame them? For decades, rappers have complained that real rap music gets overshadowed by diluted rap/pop music because it’s easier for mainstream media and executives to digest. And who was the poster child for that pop wave? Drake.
In fact, it wasn’t until Drake that rap and pop music became practically one in the same, the New York Times reported. By 2018, the public practically expected the “Hotline Bling” artist to drop at least one major hit every year. But what happens when someone (Kendrick Lamar, in this case) turns core rap fans against you?
New York rap legend Mos Def broke down exactly what Drake’s problem is. “Drake is pop to me, in the sense like, if I was in Target in Houston and I heard a Drake song… it feels like a lot of his music is compatible with shopping. Or shopping with an edge in certain instances,” he said last year. “It’s likable.”
Since Drake’s debut, dozens of rapper like Doja Cat, Lil Yachty, and Young Thug have blurred the lines of pop music and rap successfully, but clearly, no one does it quite like Drake. And because of this, hip-hop is at a crossroads.
Despite losing his battle with Lamar, Drake is still dropping music like “Nokia” and “What Did I Miss.” But the jury is still out on whether he can make a full recovery in the eyes of the public, and if he doesn’t, then the rap community will certainly feel his absence.
In the meantime, rap returned to the charts after Megan Thee Stallion dropped her song, “Lover Girl,” on Oct. 24. The record is expected to debut at No. 38 on the Nov. 8 charts, according to Billboard.
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