HIP-HOP Hot Rap Songs Chart 25th Anniversary: Top 100 Songs

To honor the 25th anniversary of Billboard's Hot Rap Songs chart, we’re counting down the tally's top 100 tracks ever.

Rap is a victorious genre. Having built its history on songs of overcoming the harshest of hard-knock lives, in addition to observances of all of life's nuances, rap is more than just dope beats and rhymes. Its lyrics tell stories with insights and uncommon honesty, traits that have ultimately taken the genre from niched inner-city beginnings to a longstanding place at the heart of pop culture.

So it was fitting for Billboard to create a chart, in 1989, dedicated to the then-rising genre, birthed out of hip-hop. At the time, MTV's influential "Yo! MTV Raps" was only a few months old, and acts like Ice-T and N.W.A were not only ruling rap but beginning to enter the mainstream music conversation.

While rap has evolved, there’s no denying its ever-growing power. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart, we’re counting down the top 100 songs in the tally’s quarter-century history. From Salt-N-Pepa to Macklemore, we've got the genre's past quarter-century covered.

Hot Rap Songs 25th Anniversary: Top 50 Artists & More

MORE BILLBOARD ANNIVERSARY CHARTS:

Hot 100 55th Anniversary: Top 100 Songs

Alternative 25th Anniversary: 100 Songs | Hot Country Songs: Top 70 Songs

Scroll to the bottom of this page to see how this chart was formulated.