Hot Rap Songs Hot Rap Songs (formerly known as Hot Rap Tracks and Hot Rap Singles) is a chart released weekly by '' Billboard'' in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio stat ...

is a record chart published by the music industry magazine ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' that ranks the most popular hip hop songs in the United States. 77 songs topped Hot Rap Songs in the 2010s. The first number-one song of the decade was "

Empire State of Mind "Empire State of Mind" is a song performed by American rapper Jay-Z featuring American singer Alicia Keys from the former's 11th studio album, '' The Blueprint 3'' (2009). It was released on October 20, 2009. Produced by Al Shux, the song featur ...

" by

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...

featuring

Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. A classically trained pianist, Keys started composing songs when she was 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Col ...

. In 2012,

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

broke the record for the most Hot Rap Songs number-one songs, previously held by Diddy. During the 2010s, Drake spent the most weeks at number one and attained the most number-one songs on Hot Rap Songs, with 19 chart-toppers spanning 118 weeks. In 2019, "

Old Town Road "Old Town Road" is the debut single of American rapper Lil Nas X, first released independently in December 2018. After gaining popularity, the single was re-released by Columbia Records in March 2019. Lil Nas X also recorded a remix with America ...

" by

Lil Nas X Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), known by his stage name Lil Nas X ( ), is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his country rap single " Old Town Road", which first achieved viral popula ...

featuring

Billy Ray Cyrus Billy Ray Cyrus (born August 25, 1961) is an American country singer and actor. He has released 16 studio albums and 53 singles since 1992, and is known for his hit single "Achy Breaky Heart", which topped the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart and ...

spent a record-breaking 20 weeks atop Hot Rap Songs. The final number-one song of the decade on the chart was " Roxanne" by

Arizona Zervas Arizona Zervas, (born April 19, 1995) is an American rapper and singer. He is widely known for his song " Roxanne", which reached number four on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 2019, after being prominently featured in Spotify playlists.

. At the start of the decade the chart was airplay-based, with rankings based on each track's estimated audience as monitored by

Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems Broadcast Data Systems (also known as BDS or Luminate BDS), is a service that tracks radio, television and internet airplay of songs. The service, which is a unit of MRC Data, is a contributing factor to North American charts published by co-owned ...

from a panel of 134 radio stations. In October 2012, ''Billboard'' altered the chart's methodology to include digital download sales and

streaming data Streaming data is data that is continuously generated by different sources. Such data should be processed incrementally using stream processing techniques without having access to all of the data. In addition, it should be considered that concept d ...

. Under the new methodology, the Rap Songs chart became a distillation of the main ''Billboard''

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

chart, which according to the magazine "highlight the differences between pure R&B and rap titles in the overall, wide-ranging R&B/hip-hop field." "

Gangnam Style "Gangnam Style" ( ko, 강남스타일, ) is a K-pop song by South Korean rapper Psy, released on July 15, 2012, by YG Entertainment as the lead single of his sixth studio album, ''Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1'' (''Ssai Yukgap Part 1''). The term ...

" by

Psy Park Jae-sang (, ; born December 31, 1977), known professionally as Psy (stylized in all caps as PSY) (; ; ), is a South Korean singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Psy is known domestically for his humorous videos and stage perf ...

was the first number-one song to benefit from these changes, ascending from number 20 to the top spot on the chart dated October 20, 2012. The changes were met with controversy, with critics arguing that the new chart failed to take into account R&B and rap music's traditionally African-American demographic. Psy's climb to number one in particular was also criticized, with

Ebro Darden Ibrahim Jamil "Ebro" Darden (born March 17, 1975) is an American radio personality, broadcaster, and DJ. Until 2014, he was Vice President of Programming for Emmis Communications' New York contemporary urban station WQHT (Hot 97). He is current ...

, program director of New York City radio station

WQHT WQHT (97.1 FM, ''Hot 97'') is a commercial radio station, licensed to New York, New York, which broadcasts an urban contemporary music format. The station is owned by Mediaco Holding and operated by Emmis Communications under a shared service ...

, arguing: "Trust me when I tell you hip-hop does not consider Psy rap. ''Billboard'' has pull, but they cannot make people who live hip-hop believe Psy is rap." In response, ''Billboard'' chart director Bill Werde defended the changes as a necessary means of reflecting consumer tastes on genre charts. In a 25th anniversary listing of the top 100 songs in the history of Hot Rap Songs based on chart performance,

Macklemore Benjamin Hammond Haggerty (born June 19, 1983), better known by his stage name Macklemore ( ; (formerly Professor Macklemore), is an American rapper and songwriter. A native of Seattle, Washington, he has collaborated with producer Ryan Lewi ...

and

Ryan Lewis Ryan Scott Lewis (born March 25, 1988) is an American record producer, DJ, videographer, photographer, graphic designer, music video director, rapper, and songwriter. Along with producing his own album, ''Instrumentals'', Lewis produced the alb ...

' 2013 15-week number-one single "

Thrift Shop Thrift may refer to: * Frugality * A savings and loan association in the United States * Apache Thrift, a remote procedure call (RPC) framework * Thrift (plant), a plant in the genus ''Armeria'' * Syd Thrift (1929–2006), American baseball execut ...

" was ranked at number one, thanks in part to the new methodology.

Number-one songs

References

External links

Hot Rap Songs
at ''

'' {{featured list Lists of number-one rap songs in the United States United States rap singles 2010s in hip hop music