Over the last decade, it is clear that hip-hop has been one of, if not the most, commercially successful genres of music. Since 2019, Spotify has reported that over a quarter of the streams for songs has been for rap, which is the largest percentage of any single genre. Also, rap songs hold second place for quantity on the 25 most-streamed songs of all-time list. Even in terms of billboard success, hip-hop has tended to do well. However, in 2023, hip-hop seemed to take a large fall-off. In terms of top 10 hits, Billboard reports that hip-hop fell to third place after country saw a dramatic rise to 23% of total songs, which was tied with pop. Rap, as a genre, did not see a number one album chart until July 15th with Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape. Rap also saw only 11 weeks at number one total, in terms of albums. There also was not a number one rap song until September 16th with Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red”. In total, there were only 4 songs that went number one, which spanned a combined six weeks. Not only was there a large drop in commercial success, but it also felt like there were much fewer standout rap albums than in previous years. The music seemed to have lost lots of its magic last year, but now, hip-hop is back on the rise.
2024 was the much anticipated year of return for hip-hop. The genre, coming out of what could be considered one of the worst years ever, needed some of its biggest stars to return. From the last two weeks of December to mid-February, popular rapper Playboi Carti dropped six singles on YouTube and Instagram that genuinely surprised fans. Carti hadn’t dropped anything music related since December of 2020, so the year started off in quite a surprising fashion. In January, major artists like 21 Savage, Kid Cudi, and Benny the Butcher all dropped high quality albums, which set the genre up for great success in the coming months. Rap also saw great commercial success with Jack Harlow starting his five week reign at number one with his single “Lovin’ On Me”, and 21 Savage topping the charts with his number one album American Dream for two weeks straight.
In February, controversial music superstar Kanye West dropped his long-awaited collaborative album with Ty Dolla $ign called Vultures 1 which saw great commercial success, and was the first number one album ever released by an independent artist. The album included features from Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, Quavo, Chris Brown, and others. The album spent two weeks at Billboard number one and the song “Carnival” featuring Playboi Carti, went number one on the Hot 100 chart for songs. There was great commercial success during this month, but also great quality from artists like Yeat and Kid Cudi (again).
The beginning of March was a quiet month in terms of commercial success, but it brought some of the best albums of this year in terms of pure quality. Artists like ScHoolboy Q, That Mexican OT, MIKE, Yung Lean and Bladee, and Chief Keef created some of the best projects of the year so far that very much flew under the radar in terms of topping the charts. However, by the end of the month, the whole rap game was flipped upside down and the eyes of music lovers became fixated on the hip-hop genre.
Future and Metro Boomin released their highly anticipated album We Don’t Trust You that had fans in shock with what they had listened to. The album was some of the producer/rapper combination’s best work and had many superstar features like Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, Rick Ross, the Weeknd, and the one man who had started a civil war. Kendrick Lamar had broken his silence with a verse that put the game in shock, by calling out Drake and J. Cole. Metro and Future had bars throughout the album that had taken aim at Drake as well, with a Captain America: Civil War-esque shift being made. One side made by Kendrick, Future, the Weeknd, Rick Ross, and Metro, which took aim at the side of J. Cole and Drake (with various other artists). The song Kendrick was featured on, “Like That”, also spent three weeks straight at the number one position. In response to this, J. Cole responded with a surprise mix-tape of songs that he had recorded, while touring with Drake. The final song on the album titled “7-Minute Drill” was considered as “warning shots” by Cole which took direct aim at Kendrick. In even more surprising fashion, however, J. Cole removed the diss-track from streaming services after he said he regretted making it.
Future and Metro had already announced dropping a second album a few weeks after We Don’t Trust You which is titled We Still Don’t Trust You. This new album also went number one but was very much an R&B album with an additional EP on the end with seven additional tracks that were all rap. The album had features from the Weeknd (3x), A$AP Rocky, Lil Baby, Ty Dolla $ign, and most shockingly; J. Cole. The feature left fans very confused as many had thought that he was on Drake’s side of the conflict, with this fact still being unclear. The album also went number one to support more commercial dominance from Future.
On April 13th, a leak on the social media platform “X” left many fans excited about the coming weeks in terms of music. That leak turned out to be a completely real diss-track from Drake titled “Pushups” that attacked Future, the Weeknd, Metro Boomin, Rick Ross, and Kendrick directly by name. The diss-track sent the rap community in spirals, as this quality of a diss track hasn’t been seen since Drake released “Back to Back” in 2015. The track officially released on April 19th and was matched in the same week from a counter-diss from Rick Ross. Drake then doubled-down on his original diss-track with a series of instagram stories and a second diss-track by Drake featuring AI verses from Snoop Dogg and Tupac, who are Kendrick’s two biggest idols.
As fans desperately await a response from Kendrick, with the entire music world having their gaze directly on the rap genre, it seems like rap has not seen this level of competition since the early 2000’s between Nas and Jay-Z. There is no other genre where direct battles and confrontations are encouraged and examined quite like in hip-hop. Even with such a high-level battle taking the forefront of the discussion, there is still a great level of anticipation for projects coming this year. The likes of A$AP Rocky, J. Cole, Kanye West, Playboi Carti, Baby Keem, Drake (potentially), the Weeknd, and Childish Gambino are all expected or confirmed to be releasing albums before the year’s end. Hip-hop is back to its once great form similarly to the years from 2015-2018, the late 1990’s to the early 2000’s, and the early to mid-1990’s. The level of competition may be at an all time high, and the quality and creativity level of the genre are at a point that will be remembered for years to come.
