Now that 2025 is officially behind us, it's time to look at Kendrick Lamar, Playboi Carti, and the other MCs who had a massive year on Spotify. The "MOJO JOJO" collaborators topped the streaming service's list of the most streamed hip-hop albums of the year, and the whole list is quite interesting.
Per Hip Hop All Day, Kendrick boasts 2.98 billion streams with GNX and Carti garnered 2.16 billion streams via MUSIC. Tyler, The Creator's CHROMAKOPIA is at number three, followed by Kanye West's Graduation, K.Dot's DAMN., Doechii's Alligator Bites Never Heal, and Travis Scott's UTOPIA. Drake comes in at number eight with Views, Travis again with ASTROWORLD, and Metro Boomin rounds out the top ten with HEROES & VILLAINS. Other notable albums in the top 50 (that actually released this year) include Central Cee's Can't Rush Greatness, Lil Tecca's DOPAMINE, and Lil Baby's WHAM.
According to other reports, Ye's Graduation was the most streamed rap album in 2025 when taking into account most, if not all, streaming platforms. Drake was Spotify's most streamed rapper in 2025, adding an 11th consecutive achievement in this category.
Most Streamed Hip-Hop Music Of 2025
Drake also secured that title for Apple Music. As for his rival, Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" was Apple Music's most streamed rap song in 2025. Beyond this binary and close-minded interpretation of these numbers, though, there are a lot of other narratives to consider.
One of them is the relative lack of new albums on this list, although folks would have to bring up previous year-end numbers to really make a point. Still, it speaks to the resonance of earlier classics and the difficulty in making a big hit these days, which is by no means a hip-hop-exclusive issue.
Still, 2026 could be a big year that counters this presumption. After all, Drizzy and King Vamp have new solo albums to drop, as well as highly anticipated releases from folks like Don Toliver. He landed on this 2025 list multiple times as well.
Will next year represent similar results or are we in for some more true blockbusters? We'll just have to wait and see...
