2023 marks the celebration of hip-hop's 50th anniversary, but the genre has yet to have a single or album atop the Billboard 200 or Hot 100 this year. According to Billboard, it's the longest hip-hop has gone in a calendar year without securing #1 spots since 1993.
The publication speculates it may be because of the lack of releases from the "most popular and reliable artists," and the failure of others, including Lil Durk and NBA YoungBoy, to dominate the charts, among other things. Still, hip-hop remains the country's biggest genre, with a 6.3% increase in overall units this year in comparison to 2022.
This time last year, Tyler, the Creator, Pusha-T, Future, Kendrick Lamar, Gunna and Lil Durk had already earned #1 albums, while Jack Harlow and Future and Drake secured #1 singles for “First Class” and "Wait for U," respectively.