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Like a Buick Grand National,Kendrick Lamarkeeps revving his way onto the Hot 100.
The rapper just earned his third No.
(The last rapper to post three separate No.
1s in a year?
Drake, off his 2018 albumScorpion.The last rapper to own the entire top five?
Also Drake, fromCertified Lover Boy, in 2021.)
In 2023, Billboard watchers questioned whether the genres commercial downturn had finally arrived.
The first seven months of the year came and went without a No.
1 album, until Lil Uzi VertsPink Tapebroke the streak but only for a single week.
Meanwhile, a record number of country songs were leading the Hot 100.
Rap had been musics most dominant genre for years, but it seemed to be cooling off.
2024 proved those worries were overblown.
1; Not Like Us also debuted at No.
1 and bounced back a month later on the heels of a music video.
Lamars beef with Drake turned those releases into blockbusters, and the charts responded accordingly.
But he built anticipation with a series of high-concept video teasers, makingChromakopias arrival feel like a true event.
The years other projects felt almost as big.
2 on the Hot 100.
1 album and song (this despite the growing list of blemishes on Yes name).
Well, except Drake.
