The news in October that there were no rap songs in the top 40 of the Hot 100 for the first time since 1990 occasioned a lot of handwringing about the health, commercially or otherwise, of hip-hop as a genre. I don't really have a hot take on it, I think this too shall pass, but I do think it's notable how cautious everyone has become in mainstream rap, from Carti and Cardi delaying albums for literally years to even Drake being a little more choosy about releasing music after the Kendrick beef. There are dozens of rappers who could get into the Top 40 on any given week with a new album or lead single, but they're all holding back at the moment, leading to more weeks with no rap in the Top 40, or just one or two inconsequential singles by Gunna or Megan Thee Stallion helping the genre hang by a thread.
Here's the Spotify playlist:
1. BigXthaPlug - "The Largest"
#5 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #71 Hot 100
I don't follow hip-hop producers like I used to, especially in southern rap, simply because it's so much harder to identify someone's sound or contribution when they're typically one of 2 to 6 producers on a given song. But Bandplay is one beatmaker that I became a huge fan of during his years working with Young Dolph, and he's one of the two producers who flipped the War classic "Slipping Into Darkness" into a monstrous, lurching groove for Dallas rapper BigXthaPlug. Within months of BigX's first top 10 album, he started releasing collaborations with country singers for a whole country rap album, which was better than I expected it would be, but I hope he keeps making a lot more music in this style instead of just gunning for that crossover money. Incidentally, one of BigX's country songs is the highest rap song on the Hot 100 this week, at #47.
2. Clipse - "So Be It"
#22 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #62 Hot 100
Pusha and Malice get a lot of well deserved credit for how great Let God Sort Em Out is, but the hype about how perfect the 'rollout' for the album felt a little ridiculous to me, especially after I realized how chaotic things were with the album's most accessible and radio-friendly song. They shot a video and did a whole Funk Flex premiere for "So Be It" without clearing the Talal Maddah sample, and were fully prepared to release the album with a mediocre remix Pharrell threw together, "So Be It Pt. II," until Swizz Beatz intervened and heled get the sample cleared at the last minute. Props to Swizz for that one.
3. Kendrick Lamar f/ SZA - "Luther"
#1 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #1 Hot 100
The 2024 documentary Luther: Never Too Much discussed how Luther Vandross was one of the greatest vocalists of his generation and enormously successful without quite reaching the brass ring he coveted, a #1 pop hit (even when he duetted with Mariah Carey, it peaked at #2). Vandross did get there via sample in his life time (on Twista's "Slow Jamz") but I feel like it was even cooler than Vandross's voice spent 13 weeks at number one on a song named after him. What a lovely, beautifully put together track.
4. Tyler, The Creator f/ GloRilla, Sexyy Red and Lil Wayne - "Sticky"
#7 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #10 Hot 100
Tyler, The Creator became one of the most popular rappers in the country in part by sneering at pop rappers like B.o.B on songs that were attention-grabbing but in no way radio-friendly, but by 2018 he started to openly pine for hearing his music on the radio like his idols. That started to happen gradually with songs like "See You Again," "Earfquake," "Wusyaname," and "Dogtooth" becoming minor radio hits. But he didn't really have a big radio song until he loaded up a track on 2024's Chromakopia with features from three rappers that are always in heavy rotation. And yet "Sticky" doesn't feel like a capitulation, because those brief 4-bar guest verses are woven into a weird, unpredictable structure that showcases Tyler really well as a rapper and as a producer.
5. Drake - "Nokia"
#6 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #2 Hot 100
By any normal standard, Drake had a great year, with three top 10 radio hits from $ome $exy $ongs 4 U plus one advance single from Iceman (the tepid, defensive "What Did I Miss?"). That's pretty mild compared to Drake in any year from 2009 to 2023, but I don't think he gets enough credit for bouncing back. And as someone whose favorite Drake songs are shit like "Nice For What" and 'stomach on flat flat,' I thought "Nokia" was awesome, instantly my favorite the first time I listened to $$$4U. But I really think that Elkan, the producer from Sierra Leone who made two different catchy-ass beats for "Nokia" and also delivered two catchy-ass hooks, really should've gotten a feature credit and appeared in the video, Drake didn't have to hog all the glory like that.
6. Megan Thee Stallion - "Bigger In Texas"
#29 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #84 Hot 100
One of her best songs ever, I feel like it could've been bigger if it wasn't released as a deluxe album bonus track, but I'm glad it got a little radio run. The songs Meg released in 2025 mostly got a cranky reception, but I think that's partly because people know how talented she is and what she's capable of on songs like "Bigger In Texas," and I mostly enjoy whatever she puts out.
7. Doechii - "Denial Is A River"
#12 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #21 Hot 100
It was pretty fun when this witty high concept song with no chorus was briefly an exciting new rap star's biggest hit. Then a kind of embarrassing Soundcloud song she made in 2019 with a big obvious sample stole all its thunder.
8. Kendrick Lamar f/ Lefty Gunplay - "TV Off"
#3 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #2 Hot 100
For a few weeks from May to March, three songs from GNX were in the top ten of the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, along with SZA's "30 For 30," just a ridiculous amount of airplay saturation for one artist or one album, and it was very deserved. DJ Mustard made the beats for "Not Like Us" and "TV Off" at the same time with samples from the same Monk Higgins album, so it's not surprising that this became the album's big spontaneous viral hit, but I'm glad it did.
9. Cardi B - "Outside"
#6 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #10 Hot 100
2018's Invasion of Privacy was a total party of album by a newlywed and fast rising superstar, but it still had some pretty angry lyrics about Offset cheating. Seven years later, the newly divorced Cardi B finally released her second album, and even on the lead single her mood constantly alternates exhilaration about her new relationship and her anger at Offset, sometimes within a single rhyme. The crazy part is it actually works, we all know about Cardi's life and she has enough personality to pull off a club banger with this much baggage.
10. Metro Boomin f/ Quavo, YK Niece, and Breskii - "Take Me Thru Dere"
#6 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #69 Hot 100
Metro Boomin's A Futuristic Summa, a mixtape that lovingly recreated the sound and spirit of 2008 era Atlanta swag rap, is kind of the equivalent of, I don't know, Def Leppard namechecking a bunch of early '70s glam rockers on their 1989 hit "Rocket." That could've turned out terrible or forced, but I really did feel like it restored a feeling that had been missing from southern rap for a minute, even Quavo hasn't sounded like he was having this much fun since Takeoff died.
11. Lil Baby f/ Young Thug and Future - "Dum, Dumb, and Dumber"
#21 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #16 Hot 100
Part of the reason Atlanta rap needed a nostalgic pick-me-up from Metro Boomin this year is because the YSL trial completely disrupted the reign of one of the city's biggest current crews, and even after Young Thug got home, things became stranger and more bitterly divided between him and longtime associates like Gunna, and Thug's ill-fated comeback album was overshadowed by an increasingly bizarre series of leaked jail phone calls. For a moment, though, this posse cut from Lil Baby's latest album was the first big musical statement after Thug's return, and his verse had an encouraging spark of the offhanded wordplay ("dog on the side like a bus," "pocket full of grandparents") that had made him one of rap's most unique and influential stars.
12. Playboi Carti f/ The Weeknd - "Rather Lie"
#7 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #4 Hot 100
One of the reasons that I wish Young Thug's return hadn't fizzled is that we so completely live in a rap landscape that he helped shape. One of Thug's disciples is Playboi Carti, who mastered the art of maximizing fan anticipation with years of delays for his his fourth full-length project Music, resulting in the biggest first week numbers of any rap album in 2025 (way behind Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen, but well ahead of Drake/PND, Travis Scott/Jackboys, Cardi B, etc.). For a long time, Playboi Carti kind of moved like a cult favorite whose only serious radio hit was 2017's "Magnolia," so I was wondering if the album would spawn any big singles, and it seemed kind of boring that the song featuring The Weeknd was the one that popped off. But I have to admit, I was skeptical of the Weeknd/Carti pairing but all three of the songs they've done together have been good and have been hits.
13. Rob49 - "WTHelly"
#12 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Skrilla's "Doot Doot (6 7)" gave us the biggest meme of 2025, but the song was so utterly awful that radio didn't touch it. "WTHelly" is a more transcendently silly meme record, and the beat is hard as hell, although even this song didn't blow up the way it seemed it was going to when Rob49 teased a remix with Justin Bieber that never materialized (the official remixes of "Doot Doot" and "WTHelly" that did come out both featured G. Herbo, the journeyman Chicago rapper who inexplicably finally started getting national radio play in 2025, years after he stopped making decent music).
14. Gelo - "Tweaker"
#7 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #29 Hot 100
Almost a decade after LaVar Ball became a divisive sports media celebrity by confidently trumpeting his three sons' NBA career prospects, you have to hand it to him: two of the Ball kids are in the league, and the other one scored a left-field rap hit and signed to Def Jam for millions. It took a while for LiAngelo Ball's rap name on streaming services to be changed from 'G3 Gelo' after they realized that nobody on Earth was going to call him that, and ultimately he didn't do much with all the buzz that was around "Tweaker" at the beginning of 2025 -- he released an album in July, and it missed the Billboard 200 completely. But for a few weeks, everyone went absolutely nuts for the California former college basketball star's goofy approximation of early 2000s Louisiana rap.
15. YoungBoy Never Broke Again - "Shot Callin"
#11 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #43 Hot 100
NBA YoungBoy is actually from Baton Rouge but a lot of his music has always sounded to me like a middling imitation of early 2000s Louisiana rap. The kids love him, though -- he's actually been the most streamed rapper or the most streamed artist in general on YouTube just about every year since 2019, despite spending a lot of that time locked up or on house arrest from various assault and weapons charges. This year, YoungBoy received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump, and thanked Trump by naming his 2025 album and tour MASA (which stands for Make America Slime Again) -- it's all really very embarrassing and horrible, the world we live in right now. But a whole lot of young NBA YoungBoy fans getting to see him live for the first time wound up being a pretty huge cultural event that even helped get one of his songs on the radio, one medium that has historically more or less ignored him.
16. Offset f/ JID - "Bodies"
#29 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #72 Hot 100
I've never totally loved JID's music (why is there a Kendrick soundalike on Dreamville? there's not a J. Cole soundalike on TDE!), but the guy is clearly talented. And he can be a lot of fun in a stunt rapper capacity on other people's songs, especially this one.
17. GloRilla - "Typa"
#5 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #42 Hot 100
After absolutely running 2024, GloRilla remained ubiquitous on rap radio in 2025 without really doing much besides coasting with songs riffing on old mid-2000s hits. I don't care at all for that song with Sexyy Red that's a lazy retread of "Wipe Me Down," but it was fun to hear Glo rap over Keyshia Cole's resurgent classic "Love." Glo raised a lot of eyebrows a couple weeks ago when she tweeted that she's going to do "a rnb album," especially since we've really never heard her sing, but if she's just gonna rap on R&B samples like on "Typa," that could be good.
18. Monaleo - "Putting Ya Dine"
#25 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
Houston's Monaleo has been one of my favorite up-and-coming rappers of the last few years and it really feels like she reached a tipping point in just the last couple months, it's been fun to start hearing this song on the radio.
19. Travis Scott - "4x4"
#17 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #1 Hot 100
Travis Scott is the kind of songs that hit #1 on the Hot 100 without really feeling like #1s, "Sicko Mode" aside. "4x4" didn't totally disappear from pop culture after its week at #1 like "The Scotts" and "Franchise," but it didn't have a ton of staying power either. I loved how the "4x4" beat flipped a viral video of a marching band playing the minor Migos hit "Say Sum," though, it ended up way harder than the original Migos track.
20. Kendrick Lamar - "Squabble Up"
#7 R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, #1 Hot 100
"Squabble Up" was the song from GNX that got a big push -- previewed in the "Not Like Us," then given its own video as part of the album rollout and debuting at #1. Over the next few weeks, it felt overshadowed by the more fan-driven success of "Luther" and "TV Off," but "Squabble Up" ultimately didn't feel like one of those hollow Travis Scott-style #1 hits because it did stick around. "Squabble Up" was ultimately only the album's fourth-biggest radio hit after "Peekaboo," but it had legs and I enjoyed it every time I heard it.
The 10 Worst Rap Radio Hits of 2025:
1. G Herbo - "Went Legit"
2. Drake - "What Did I Miss?"
3. Zeddy Will & StaySolidRocky - "Twerkin Wit Ya Fiends"
4. DaBaby - "Phat"
5. Loe Shimmy f/ Don Toliver - "3am"
6. Bow Wow f/ Chris Brown "Use Me"
7. Jack Harlow f/ Doja Cat - "Just Us"
8. GloRilla f/ Sexyy Red - "Whatchu Kno About Me"
9. Doechii - "Anxiety"
10. Lil Durk f/ Jhene Aiko - "Can't Hide It"
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