Are we living through a rap drought? The Billboard charts suggest we are

(CNN) — It feels like the Billboard charts could use a good rap beef right about now.

That’s because, according to the publication, for the first time since 1990, there is no hip hop in the Top 40 of the Billboard 100 chart.

“With Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s 13-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 ‘Luther’ falling off the Hot 100 dated Oct. 25, 2025, there were officially no rap songs in the chart’s top 40 last week,” Billboard reported.

The last time that happened was the week of February 2, 1990, “when the top-ranking rap song was Biz Markie’s eventual top 10 hit ‘Just a Friend,’ which had just climbed to No. 41 on the chart.”

The following week, that song shot to the number 29 slot, “starting a Hot 100 streak of rap songs in the top 40 that would last for the next 35 years, eight months and