Hip-Hop's 2024 Resurgence: From Struggles to Record-Breaking Moments
Explore how hip-hop rebounded in 2024 after a challenging year in 2023, with record-breaking albums and tours from icons like Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, The Creator, Eminem, and Travis Scott.
Between 2012 and 2019, hip-hop dominated as the world’s biggest genre. But by 2023, it seemed the genre had lost some of its spark, with few hip-hop tracks topping the charts.
Just five years earlier, in 2018, hip-hop had surpassed rock to become the most popular music genre in the U.S. However, its reign was short-lived. In 2023, the year hip-hop celebrated its 50th anniversary, the genre that once amplified voices worldwide appeared to be losing its mainstream appeal.
Despite star-studded performances by hip-hop legends at major events, newer artists struggled to achieve chart-topping success.
The future appeared bleak, but by mid-2024, there were signs of recovery. Hip-hop accounted for 33% of all top 10 hits on the Hot 100 during the first six months, reclaiming its place as the most common primary genre.
“Hip-hop/rap’s popularity has fluctuated over the past five years,” noted a report from Hit Songs Deconstructed. “After dropping to 23% in 2023, its lowest level since 2016, it rebounded to a level on par with 2021 by mid-2024.”
The rest of the year marked a powerful resurgence for hip-hop, with record-breaking moments from heavyweights like Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, The Creator, Eminem, and Travis Scott, alongside a wave of groundbreaking achievements from female artists. Dive into the details ahead.
Kendrick Lamar’s Triumphant Return with GNX
After dominating Drake in a legendary rap beef and delivering a triumphant Pop-Out concert, Kendrick Lamar's surprise album GNX debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 319,000 units—marking the best first-week performance for a hip-hop album in 2024, even without a physical release. The album also claimed the entire top five of the Hot 100. Kendrick closed out the year with three Hot 100 No. 1 hits (“Not Like Us,” “Like That,” “Squabble Up”), the most acclaimed and biggest-debuting rap album of the year, seven Grammy nominations, and Billboard's title of Pop Star of 2024.
Tyler, The Creator’s CHROMAKOPIA Makes History
Tyler, The Creator’s CHROMAKOPIA held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 for three consecutive weeks (as of the chart dated Nov. 23). Released on Monday, Oct. 28—defying the industry’s typical Friday drop—CHROMAKOPIA delivered the biggest debut week of Tyler’s career, racking up 299,500 equivalent album units in just four days of the tracking week.
Eminem’s Record-Breaking The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)
Eminem scored No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with the record-setting The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce). The project debuted with 281,000 equivalent album units in its first week and marked Eminem’s 11th No. 1 album, tying him with Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, and Ye for the fifth-most chart-toppers in Billboard 200 history. Eminem's 2005 compilation album Curtain Call: The Hits also set a record as the first hip-hop album to remain on the Billboard 200 for 700 weeks.
Travis Scott's Circus Maximus Tour Breaks Records
Travis Scott’s Circus Maximus Tour, launched in support of his album Utopia, and achieved monumental success. By November 2024, the tour had grossed an impressive $154.7 million across 63 shows, drawing 1.4 million attendees.
Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday 2 world tour also became one of the highest-grossing hip-hop tours of all time, earning $99.8M for 62 shows and selling 712,000 tickets.
The Historic Success of Female Rap Tours
For the first time ever there were multiple female rap tours among the top biggest tours of the year. In a historic milestone, women rappers outnumbered their male counterparts on the all-genre list. Nicki Minaj (No. 30), Doja Cat (No. 61), Missy Elliott (No. 70), and Megan Thee Stallion (No. 76) all made the year-end Top Tours chart, while ranking Nos. 2, 5, 6, and 7, respectively, on the Top Rap Tours chart.
This year marks a breakthrough, with more than one female rapper in the top 100—an achievement that had never before been reached, and only four women in hip-hop have ever appeared on the all-genre list since the first year-end roundup in 1991.
