For the first time in the streaming era, hip-hop has gone nine straight months without a top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 — a gap that’s now being called the genre’s longest chart drought in modern history.

As of April 2026, the last rap song to break into the top 10 remains Drake’s “What Did I Miss?”, which peaked in July 2025. Since then, no hip-hop track has managed to climb back into the chart’s upper tier, marking a sharp shift for a genre that dominated streaming for over a decade.

Industry data and commentary point to a broader slowdown. Reports from Luminate show that new rap releases saw roughly a 9% drop in streaming toward the end of 2025, while other genres — particularly country and Latin — gained ground on the charts.

Several factors appear to be driving the dip. Changes in label strategy and artist rollouts have slowed the pace of major releases, while Billboard’s recurrence rules have also reshaped chart turnover, removing long-running hits and limiting how long tracks can stay visible. That includes songs like “Luther” by Kendrick Lamar and SZA, which had extended runs before being cycled out.

At the same time, the conversation around hip-hop’s current moment has split. Some fans and analysts argue the genre is lacking breakout stars or culturally dominant releases, while others frame it as a natural reset after years of saturation at the top of the charts.

Whether it’s a structural shift or a temporary lull, the numbers mark a clear change in momentum — one that could be reversed as major artists gear up for new releases, or deepen if hip-hop’s next wave fails to reconnect at the same scale