Megan Thee Stallion has officially brought hip-hop back into the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 with her latest single, “Lover Girl.”

For the past two weeks, no rap songs appeared in the Top 40—a rare and shocking absence that hadn’t occurred since February 1990, breaking a continuous 35-year streak of hip-hop presence on the chart. Megan’s latest success ends that drought.

To describe 2025 as a slow year for hip-hop would be an understatement. Album sales have dipped so much that Drake’s 2011 classic Take Care was among the top five highest-selling albums of the week — more than a decade after its release. But there’s an essential caveat behind those numbers.

Recently, Billboard implemented major updates to its Hot 100 recurrent rules, setting new limits on how long songs can stay on the chart before being cycled out. Under the new policy, a song will be removed if it falls below #5 after 78 weeks, below #10 after 52 weeks, below #25 after 26 weeks, or below #50 after 20 weeks. Because of these new rules, songs like “luther” left the charts.

Who had Megan Thee Stallion saving hip-hop on their bingo card?

Quincy

Quincy is the creator of Ratings Game Music. He loves writing about music, taking long walks on beaches, and spaghetti that fights him back.