2020 Is The Year Rap Artists Rule The Rock Charts

While they may seem like two genres that couldn’t have less in common with one another, rap and rock aren’t actually that different, and fans of one can love the other. Throughout the years, some innovative artists have found ways to blend the two, with collaborations between stars from each field kicking things off and paving the way for those who want to create music that can be perfectly described with both labels.

The past few years have seen a wave of rising talents in the hip-hop space bring rock back into the fray, with emo-rap emerging as one of the most popular styles of music in recent memory. It follows as a natural successor to the rap-rock surge that brought names like Linkin Park to the forefront over a decade ago.

Now, it’s become harder than ever to classify one name or song as either rap or rock, and the Billboard charts show that 2020 is the year when rap musicians began taking over the rock rankings in a major way.

Earlier this summer, newcomers Powfu and Beabadoobee scored an unlikely global hit with “Death Bed,” which could be described as everything from hip-hop to indie-pop and more. The track rose all the way to No. 1 on the Hot Rock/Alternative Songs chart, the most important in that field. In fact, it became the first leader when Billboard renamed the tally from simply Hot Rock Songs to Hot Rock/Alternative Songs, adding the latter style into the mix (at the same time the company began releasing a Hot Alternative Songs tally every week as well). 

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That tune also reached No. 1 on the Hot Alternative Songs and Alternative Streaming Songs list, No. 2 on the Alternative Digital Song Sales and Alternative Airplay rankings and No. 3 on the Rock Airplay roster. Essentially, it was a huge hit on every rock chart there is.

At the same time, the distinctive cut became a top 10 smash on the Hot Rap Songs (No. 9), Rap Digital Song Sales (No. 4) and Rap Streaming Songs (No. 7) lists. It’s very rare to see the same track perform so well on both the rock and rap rankings, but “Death Bed” would be just the first in a stretch of similar hits.

As his first posthumous album Legends Never Die took over the Billboard 200 and the tunes featured on it dominated seemingly every Billboard list there is, the late, great rapper Juice WRLD found his way to both the rock and rap charts at the same time, though not with the same songs.

As Legends Never Die produced nine top 10 hits on the Hot Rap Songs chart, two cuts from the same set only appeared on the rock lists, even though he spent his career as one of the biggest names in hip-hop.

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“Come & Go,” a collaboration with Marshmello that ended up being the biggest hit of all the successes on Legends Never Die, peaked at No. 1 on the Hot Rock/Alternative Songs, Hot Alternative Songs, Alternative Digital Song Sales and Alternative Streaming Songs charts, immediately making that cut a huge win in that world. Not far behind came fellow album cut “Man of the Year,” which rose all the way to No. 2 on the Alternative Streaming Songs and No. 3 on the Hot Rock/Alternative Songs and Hot Alternative Songs rankings. 

This week, fellow hip-hop musicians 24kGoldn and Iann Dior take over the rock categories with “Mood,” their breakout smash. The cut wasted no time going right to No. 1 on the Hot Rock/Alternative Songs, Hot Alternative Songs, Alternative Digital Song Sales and Alternative Streaming Songs charts. At the same time, it also surged to No. 4 on the Rap Digital Song Sales ranking and No. 5 on both the Hot Rap Songs and Rap Streaming Songs tallies.

The aforementioned singles and artists certainly aren’t the first to appear on both the rock and rap charts, but the fact that there have been three huge leaders across the board in such a short span of time shows that the lines between the genres is blurring, and fast. There are sure to be many more examples of this cross-style pollination, and some other acts who have also landed big wins that seem to perfectly encapsulate both types of music might land No. 1 hits on both rosters any day now.

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