Hip-Hop Made Up The Largest Percentage Of The Billboard Hot 100 Ever In 2017

30 percent of 2017's Hot 100 hits were rap songs.
In 2017, hip-hop officially surpassed rock as the most popular genre in the U.S. for the first time. The genre also another important milestone milestone. According to a new data visualizer from Orbitz, hip-hop songs represented 30 percent of all tracks on the Hot 100 chart in 2017, the most ever. This number surpasses rap’s previous peaks: in both 1995 and 2016, it made up 21 percent of the songs on the chart.

Orbitz put together a year-by-year data visualizer showing Hot 100 trends in many categories since the chart was established in 1958. There are some discrepancies, such as the claim that any percentage of songs in 1965 were hip-hop, eight years before the genre’s invention in 1973. These issues may stem from broad classification methods, but the overall data for 2017 seems to line up with rap’s presence on the Billboard charts this year.

2017 was a huge year for rap. A recent Spotify report revealed that hip-hop streaming grew 74 percent this year, eclipsing every genre except Latin (which makes up a much smaller share of the total market). It was also the first year since 2006 that five rap songs hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart: DJ Khaled’s “I’m the One,” Kendrick Lamar’s “HUMBLE.” Migos‘ “Bad and Boujee,” Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow,” and Post Malone’s “rockstar.”

Other major rap hits this year include 21 Savage’s “Bank Account,” G-Eazy’s “No Limit,” Kodak Black’s “Tunnel Vision,” Future’s “Mask Off,” Lil Uzi Vert’s “XO Tour Llif3,” JAY-Z’s “The Story of O.J.,” and more.