Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "NO RAP SONGS IN THE BILLBOARD TOP 40 FOR FIRST TIME IN 35 YEARS"

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

Linktree: ⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠Join The Normandy For Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme+! Join Here: ⁠https://ow.ly/msoH50WCu0K⁠In this segment of Notorious Mass Effect, Analytic Dreamz delivers a data-driven analysis of rap's historic absence from Billboard Hot 100's Top 40 for the first time since February 1990. On the week of October 25, 2025, no rap tracks cracked the upper echelon, ending a 35-year streak sparked by Biz Markie's "Just a Friend." Analytic Dreamz breaks down key stats: highest rap entry at #44 (YoungBoy Never Broke Again's "Shot Callin"), #48 (Cardi B feat. Kehlani's "Safe"), and #49 (BigXthaPlug feat. Ella Langley's "Hell at Night"). Kendrick Lamar & SZA's "Luther" fell off after 46 weeks (13 at #1), triggered by Billboard's October 2025 recurrent rule changes—removing songs below #25 after 26 weeks (vs. old 25-week threshold below #10). Hip-hop's U.S. market share dropped from 30% peak in 2020 to 24% YTD 2025 per Luminate. Analytic Dreamz examines competition: Taylor Swift's album occupies 12 Top 40 spots, K-pop soundtracks claim 7. Additional factors include streaming biases, artist dormancy (Drake, Kendrick), legal issues, and genre fragmentation. As of November 1, the drought hits two weeks, with "Shot Callin" at #43. Analytic Dreamz explores cultural reactions and whether this signals rap's cyclical shift amid pop dominance.Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Rapping up the year of 2025 with one of the most unfortunate bombs in hip hop history. As ladies and gentlemen, safe to say, for the first time in 35 years, eight months, and three weeks, no rap song appeared in Billboard Hot 100, Top 40. But then you know what I'm saying? I was like, damn, look at the state of hip hop. Like, what's going on? Now, when I look at this, obviously is upsetting as somebody who deeply cares about the genre of hip hop and of course R&B as well. But R&B is doing phenomenal.

I mean, I just covered Kalani's announcement for her track out the window and talking about the race and R&B is alive and well. I mean, they have multiple R&B stars doing what hip hop stars should be doing in the year of 2025. So shout out to them. Shout to the Leon Thomas's of the world with him having the 10th most played track with Mutt. Kalani with her having the 14th most play track with folded and then Chris Brown well it depends him having at 16th most play track and then you look at the overall longevity and mutt has been on the charts for 38 weeks and of course Kalani's track has been on the chart for 19 weeks and then Chris Brown's track it depends has been on the charts for

13 weeks the main thing I'm trying to say is R&B has had no shortage of chart topers in the year of 2025 because don't forget that in early 2025, Siza had one of the most popular albums in the world. Now currently, she has the eighth most play album in the world, but when it came to a single, she was also helping out SOT 7, I mean, White Tank Top as the last two tracks that he had on the tracks, on the charts, was Luther and 30 for 30. And guess who was on that, of course, Sizer?

So now that Luther fell, right? You're looking at the charts, and seemingly, there's no hip hop track in the future that's going to pierce the top 40 for quite some time unless the goat drops. Is it okay I got my dope on me? It has to be okay that Drake has his dope on him as I believe that Iceman will be released to the public soon and it's going to be an unequivocal classic. But wait.

Before y'all say I'm glazing. You guys. See, that's the problem. That's the problem. Because Drake's over here giving all type of stimulus packages left and right as far as a hip hop game. And then the first time that he tried to pull side seven back into the big three discussion as far as on a rap track, guess what White Tank Top said. He said, forget the big three. It's just big, it's just big me.

I know that ain't who I think it is. I know that's not the man shopping in the kids section talking about it's just big me. I know that ain't who I think it is Anyways, if you don't know what I'm referring to, because if you don't watch or listen to hip hop or listen to the podcast, you're probably lost right now. Essentially, Drake last year, was it last year or 2023? I think it was 2020.

Anyways, Drake wanted side seven on his track, first person shooters. Okay, that was 2023. And it was going to be Drake, it was going to be Jermaine, it was going to be Kendrick. Now, what could have that, what could have that track ended up being as far as in the future? Who knows?

Because whole time the Canadian trying to make peace, trying to have camaraderie with the top three icons in the hip hop, giving us another classic track. But guess what's side of seven-sixth? And went on to call my favorite rapper at Petafel. Sadden history. But then you know what I'm saying? I was like, damn, look at the state of hip-hop.

Like, what's going on? Now, there's a lot of things that happen before that as far as the notorious battle. One of the greatest ever, if not the greatest, hip-hop battles as far as. as a grand scale. I do believe, and I said this before, for all my superhero nerds out there, I'm going to make an analogy that is very fitting for what's going on in hip hop right now. Because when you look at the charts, and I have a lot of numbers to go through,

so we're going to be here for not too long because, you know, I try to make it concise. But essentially speaking, there's a 30% market share from hip hop as far as at its peak. When that happened, 2020. So now when you look at the continuation, of 2021, 2022, 2023, right? It kept going down and down to the point where in 2023 was just over 25%. And the year of 2025, we're looking at 23%, but maybe we'll get to 24, right? So it's on a downward decline. Going back to my superhero point, it's almost as if hip hop has already had its

MCU Infinity War type run because Kendrick versus Drake was the epitome of an end game that you could ever see. I mean, Drake crushed out in ways that I thought was impossible, right? What's the word in a fathomable? I know I had some extra syllables, but y'all get the word, right? That was beyond my expectations as far as how my favorite rapper would react to a battle like that. And the world got what they wanted as far as the final, the finite battle between the two hip-hop giants, which was Drake and Kendrick.

So now that we receive that, I mean, what do we have to look forward to? People getting beat up at the NBA, young boy concert, up-and-coming rappers selling out to make a whole country album. I mean, what are we really looking forward to as far as in the landscape of 2025? No disrespect to Cardi B, but a lot of people don't resonate with the stripper music, right? So what do we have to look forward to once again? The goats to drop. They got to come back.

They got to do what Kevin Feigey's doing with bringing Robert Downey back for Dr. We need Drake back for Iceman. we need side seven back for the deluxe or what no he's going to be gone for like at least four years um germane germane still in hip-hop timeout there's a lot of things that's going on in hip-hop that that adds to this overall um very poor performance on a on a genre perspective that i think it's fixable but currently post-battle i think this type of lull is not going to be the trend after a Titanic battle such like Drake and Kendrick. I believe that there's nothing else to look forward to that's as interesting, right?

So anyways, well, that means I said, I do believe we're going to come back with this being the first rat-free billboard top 40 since the 1990s. I mean, it's not the greatest indication as far as seeing a lot of legends and them not having an effect on the charts because young thug did drop. future then dropped future dropped last year i believe uh but even last year it was a decline as far as uh it being around 24 percent so if it keeps declining in 2025 we will have to have a real discussion on having more camaraderie it's crazy i'm saying this right as a drake fan having more camaraderie in the hip-hop game you know maybe instead of side seven saying forget the big three it's just big me maybe he should look at taylor swift Sabrina Carpenter basically giving Ali use for each other's albums to the point where they have

two of the biggest first week sales in the 2025. It's like Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallin, and then Sabrina, I believe, let me see. Because when it comes to camaraderie, a lot of these other genres, and don't even give me started about the Latin community, shout out to the people who enjoy my Latin music coverage, my Caritas tumbas coverage. But for the main thing, as far as hip hop. Let's see. Top 5. And let me see. I do believe. I would say that Taylor Swift maybe played with Carter would be on this list. Okay, so it's Taylor Swift, but goodness gracious, four million.

I still look at the number and just think, well, what in the world? What in the wishcraft? Taylor Swift sold $4 million in the first week. And her second up, which was Morgan Wallen, was $493,000 in his first week. week. What Taylor Swift did in the first week was the epitome of a marketing strategy. I mean, that's notoriously affecting the masses to a T. Anyways, the third highest first week sales was the weekend, will hurry up tomorrow. The fourth, surprisingly enough, was Straight Kids. You know, I definitely recognized that when I was covering Straight Kids. Strait Kids, their album,

Karma was the fourth most, was the fourth biggest first week sales, and of course Playboy Cardi with music as far as 298,000 first week. So this is why I have to say about that. Having a hip-hop artist as far as in the top first week sales, as far as overall 2025, it's still a nice indication on where we're going because longevity is the main thing I'm trying to pinpoint as far as not being a factor.

I would say Drake, Kendrick, Big X to Plug, had the best longevity in 2025. now of course they may not be towards the top actually i haven't looked up big x in a minute big x to plug okay that's not his supposed name big x there we go so his track his most his best performing track after he sold out to make a country album um the hell at night track featuring ella langley is the 50th most played track in the world i'm not going to lie to you if you're up-and-comer artist in hip-hop and you make a complete country album i'm not giving no type of excuses for for um poor performance so as far as objectively speaking

big X to plug is one of the top up and coming artists in the world but I do believe he should have more tracks on the charts because all you see is country artists in the top 10 Morgan Wallen Taylor Swift um Alex Warren Sabrina and no Sabrina's not in the top 10 as far as a single but you get the point it's a lot of country artists in the top 10 if you make a country album as a hip-hop artist I'm not giving you no type of leeway when it comes to the numbers because i think you sold out all the way so with that being said drake kendrick big x the plug i think when it comes to longevity not currently because currently NBA young boy has the most popular hip-hop album and uh single uh as of right now we should show you the landscape that we're in

right if young boy fans are the ones dictating hip-hop then we might as well just end it this is over you know what i'm saying the type of IQ that those fans have at this point in time i mean we may we may just wrap it up maybe you know what what young thugs say we may just have to tell finding willis to figure out what 4k trade may anyways um so mb a young boy does currently have the most popular track in hip-hop in the world as far as a shot call and being the 43 most played track in the world and then you have um his album titled massa yes ladies and gentlemen he was released from prison by certain ethnicity and then um he titled his album massa and his tour massive you guys see that's the problem so i just want to let you know that um that album is currently

the top played album as far as hip hop is the 16th most played album overall so that's the top charter currently but when it comes to longevity once again he's coming off a tour i think that's this is the peak of his current album and singles now he is putting out another album that's coming out soon but as far as hip hop in general dominating the top 10 with singles or the top 15 in singles i'm not going to lie to you carty b dropping i am the drama it is still the sixth most play album in the world but i will go out on the limb and say that she didn't have any type of smash on her album her most her best performing track is safe featuring kalani and i already talked about earlier what Kalani is doing on the chart.

So she already had, she already has her 2025 appeal as far as how people view her, right? I mean, even Drake said himself, you know, as far as the track folded being one of the most play R&B tracks in the world. Try now. We'll fold that up right now.

You know what I'm saying? And obviously that man was talking about music, not the video quality. You know what I'm saying? Shepherd. All right. So getting back into the music. Cardi B, I think from a single's perspective,

definitely underperform. From an album perspective, I think she's doing solid. She's doing serviceable numbers. She still has the six most play album in the world. I think her album came out like a month or two ago. So basically, Cardi was supposed to take the flag for the longevity side of things before Iceman dropped. I think from a single's perspective, Cardi dropped the ball and it's okay because she did phenomenal with the entire project. Drake, beefing one UMG being set to the side.

he should be able to hold the longevity for hip hop going into 2026. Kendrick is going to disappear for quite some time. I don't know what that man's going to do, but I can go back to Africa. And I'm not even trying to make a joke. Like literally he was in one, I forget where he was at before, but he was like, and he was overseas, right? He was just chilling. It looked like Africa.

I ain't going to kept to you. And then when it comes to Jermaine, 2026 is. the year of him to pinpoint falloff to be targeted towards the whole game of hip hop and that's his contributions to hip hop right because you already know i feel about germane so i don't want to make this too long but this is a real discussion as far as why is hip hop on the down word spiral as far as year after year after year the real indication of competition or hip hop is AI and in influencers being able to take away eyes and ears from your music. So whenever I'm saying stuff like that, it's not like, oh, I just made it up.

When you come to influencers having a mass effect and people choosing whether they want to listen to a podcast, whether they want to listen to a single, whether they want to watch a TV show, everything's so streamlined now with the evolution of technology. And AI is going to make it even harder to pick just. only listening to music versus a podcast versus a single versus an album. So the approach needs to be multi-platform and leaning away from only trying to be a musician. The days of being mysterious and people still finding your music, my brother, with the evolution of technology, you have more competition than anybody ever did in the past. I know people say, people love to say, oh, it's so much easier to blow up now. It's much easier to reach people, but can you keep them in the land of competition?

And that's the hardest thing to do because, of course, it's a lot of industry manipulation that makes you have to get certain teams to even affect the masses because there's a reason why the market share for the music industry, let alone this is really an indication of life. But in the music industry, the market share from the major label standpoint is UMG, which is universal music group having 63% Warner music group have an 18% Sony music entertainment have a 16% and others which I consider independence and smaller labels they have a whopping 3% I will tell you it's not impossible but that's a very good indication on what happens if you don't have a team behind you whether you're starting off or whether you're well off

you always have to take into consideration the plethora of all options that the consumer has and then adapt. So anyways, that's my little soapbox. You know what I mean? I got my little, uh, I say, I almost needed a tapping neighbor and say he's spitting. You know what I'm saying? All right, my fault. You guys.

So anyways, um, yeah, so hip hop. Hip hop, um, for the first time in 35 years, eight months, three weeks. No rap song has appeared on Billboard Hot 100's top 40. What do I think is going to happen as far as in the year of 2026? Drake and Jermaine could be. be the saviors as far as the longevity aspect but of course we would have to wait and see what hip hop and how hip hop responds to having one of the worst years since 1993 so that being said click my link in my bio let me know one of my social medias what do you think about hip hop not having a single

in a top 40 for the first time since the 1990s and what do you think hip hop should do to take back the market share and music