Original Publish Date: 7/3/23
Last Update: 11/30/23
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UPDATE: (July 31) Lil Uzi Vert was able to take the first No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 for hip-hop this year with Pink Tape.
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Hip-Hop has been fighting to get a No. 1 hit single on the Billboard Hot 100 all year. We have not yet topped the charts this year – which is 50th anniversary of the genre. But that doesn’t mean that there have not been great songs this year.
Hip-Hop has had several features from Ice Spice, Nicki Minaj, J. Cole, this year. Ice Spice released her debut EP Like..? in January. It had one feature from fellow Bronx emcee Lil Tjay on “Gangsta Boo.” The six-track EP also contained “Princess Diana,” “Bikini Bottom,” “In Ha Mood,” “Actin a Smoochie,” and her breakout hit “Munch (Feelin’ U).” Nicki Minaj also hopped on “Princess Diana” with Ice Spice in April. The two linked up again to release “Barbie World” together in June for the Barbie film soundtrack.
As for Nicki, she’s released two solo songs this year “Red Ruby Da Sleeze” and “Last Time I Saw You” but she has stayed in the studio. Besides her feature on “Princess Diana,” she has also hopped on Kim Petras’ “Alone,” Sexyy Red’s “Poundtown Remix,” YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “WTF,” and Machel Montano and Destra’s “Shake The Place.”
The latest has been her feature on Uzi’s “Endless Fashion,” and Young Thug’s “Money” with the late Juice WRLD.
J. Cole has since released “Procrastination (Broke)” and has hopped on Summer Walker’s “To Summer From Cole (audio hug)” from her Clear 2: Soft Life EP as well as Lil Durk’s “All My Life.”
R&B, however, has had a better chart record this year as SZA’s SOS hit “Kill Bill” stayed on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for 16 weeks. It beat Mary J. Blige’s “Be Without You” as the longest-running No. 1 single by a solo female artist prior to SZA’s “Kill Bill.”
Take a look at the best hip-hop and R&B songs that have been released this year so far: