Top Rappers of 2026

How to rank

Ranking date 2026-08-08. This piece only ranksrapperswith the criteria locked to 2025–2026: for the year in question, we use Billboard's 2025 Year-End Top Rap Artists and Hot Rap Songs; for the current landscape, we use Billboard's Hot Rap Songs weekly chart (2026), plus a rap-focused aggregation of Spotify monthly listeners. We don't use older "all-time editorial lists" as the primary table—those are historical narratives, not heat from the past year or two.

Billboard 2025 Year-End Top Rap Artists

Kendrick leads the year-end rap artists chart—the GNX cycle plus the lingering aftermath of "Not Like Us" locked in his composite score. Drake is second, Tyler, the Creator third; BigXthaPlug, Playboi Carti, GloRilla, Lil Baby, Rod Wave, Travis Scott, and Doechii round out the top ten.

2025 Hot Rap Songs Year-End Chart

Kendrick becomes the first artist to top the Year-End Hot Rap Songs chart two years in a row; several of the top four tracks are his. Drake’s “Nokia” lands at No. 5. The songs chart shows which tracks dominated rap radio and streaming, not a replacement for the year-end artist ranking.

2026 Hot Rap Songs Weekly Chart

At the time of pulling the data, Drake's "Janice STFU" was still holding the top spot (around 11 weeks), with Lil Baby's "Dead Fresh" and Yung Miami's "Spend Dat" trailing behind. The year-end chart is the final tally for 2025, while the weekly chart reflects songs still spinning in summer 2026—looking at both together keeps you from getting stuck in last year.

Spotify Monthly Listeners (Rap-Focused)

Third-party live rankings by monthly listeners (noted as a 2025 heat snapshot): Drake leads with roughly 90.8 million, Kendrick is second at about 69.0 million, followed by Travis, Eminem, Ye, Future, Lil Wayne, and others. Post Malone and Chris Brown often get pulled into these roundups—they lean crossover, so when building a template, give them their own slot rather than lumping them in with pure rap.

Monthly listener counts shift week to week; the figures here reflect the snapshot used for this roundup. For 2025–2026, the year-end artist #1 and the Spotify monthly-listener #1 happen not to be the same person—the two charts serve different purposes, so don’t force them into a single ranking.