Kendrick Lamar The Only Rapper In 2025 To Chart A Song Every Week On The Hot 100

BY Zachary Horvath 2.0K Views
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BET Awards 2025 - Show
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 09: Kendrick Lamar accepts the Album of the Year award for "GNX" onstage during the 2025 BET Awards at Peacock Theater on June 09, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)
Kendrick Lamar and SZA's "luther" was also recently named as the fifth best summer song of 2025. It was the only rap song on the list.

Kendrick Lamar is being his normal quiet self after the release of an album. However, that's only in terms of his own catalog. He's been about as loud as one can be elsewhere. He's gearing up for the second to last leg of his long-running Grand National World Tour later this month.

Moreover, he just popped out to help Clipse perform their electric collaboration on Let God Sort Em Out, "Chains & Whips," in Los Angeles. Dating back even to the first quarter of 2025, he cleaned house at the Grammys with "Not Like Us" and performed said Drake diss on the biggest stage, the Super Bowl.

On top of that, Kendrick Lamar's reign on the Billboard charts has especially been eye-popping as well. He's broken some truly historic records, doing so with his Halftime Show costar SZA. Their first of two collabs on GNX, "luther," spent 13 straight weeks at number one.

That's now the longest run atop the heap for a rap song. Moreover, K. Dot and SZA became the first duet comprised of a solo male and female artist to last 11 plus on top of the Hot 100.

So, yes that's quite a lot of accomplishments and special moments in nine months.

Kendrick Lamar GNX Tour

But Billboard is finding more and more things to recognize. Per Bars, the Compton superstar is the only rapper of 2025 to have charted through the first 50 or so weeks on the Hot 100. Of course, "luther's presence accounts for a majority of that.

To be more exact, it's about 25-26%. But Lamar can thank "Not Like Us" and other GNX cuts such as "tv off," and peekaboo" for the assistance. At the time of writing, "luther" and "30 For 30" off of the deluxe of SOS remain as his lone entries keeping the streak alive.

We will have to wait and see if his aforementioned shows for the tour will bring any more songs into the mix to bolster his probability of success. Mexico City will start the South American/Mexican stretch on September 23.

About The Author
Zachary Horvath is one of the Music Freelance News Writers at HotNewHipHop and has held that title since August 2023. Prior to this position, he held another freelance gig covering local high school football, girls and boys varsity basketball, in addition to recapping Cleveland Cavaliers games remotely. He's taken the previous experience and used it to become a jack of all trades at HotNewHipHop. Zach has thoroughly enjoyed tackling some of the trending topics in sports, with a larger focus on hip-hop and pop culture. Some of those include Bronny James's draft stock, a multitude of angles swirling around the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef, as well as Diddy's arrest and lawsuits. Separate from the headlines that everyone wants to hear about, he was fortunate enough to help spread Zaytoven's current thoughts at the time around mid-December in 2023. Even though being able to give his expertise on these stories is fulfilling, being able to share his passion for releases trumps that ever so slightly. Having the chance to express his excitement indirectly about what he thinks our readers should be checking out/revisiting grows his passion for writing that much more.

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