As hip-hop continues to grow into a more versatile genre, where any sub-genre can sound completely different than another, its popularity continues to sprout as well. Hip-hop has essentially surpassed pop as the most listened to and coveted genre in the United States now, and it looks to stay that way for the foreseeable future.
On Thursday (March 10), Chart Data announced the Top 10 artists of 2022 based on their streams. Seven of these 10 artists are categorized as rappers, but some occupy completely different lanes of hip-hop than others.
The top 5 artists on this list have all eclipsed the 1 billion streams mark, and we are not even halfway through 2022. This top 5 includes No. 1 Drake, with 1.4 billion streams, No. 2 NBA YoungBoy with 1.3 billion streams and No. 5 Juice WRLD, who has posthumously recorded 1.1 billion streams in 2022.
All three of these are artists releases solo albums in the second half of 2021, with Drake's Certified Lover Boy, NBA YoungBoy's Sincerely, Kentrell and Juice WRLD's Fighting Demons.
In the 5-10 spots, Kanye West, who also released in the second half of 2022 with Donda, sits at the No. 6 spot with 840 million streams. Eminem occupies the No. 7 spot with 710 million streams, and Kodak Black and Rod Wave come in at No. 8 and No. 9, both hovering around 660 million streams.
These numbers reflect not only the growing popularity of hip-hop in the country, but the dedicated fanbases these artists have established, particularly younger talents like NBA YoungBoy, Rod Wave and Kodak Black.
Do any of these numbers surprise you?