From Beastie Boys to Shaggy to 24KGoldn, 19 Songs That Have Made Both Billboard’s Rock and Rap Charts
Even though it's been historically unusual for a song to overlap on Billboard's rock and rap charts, it's still far from unprecedented.
24kGoldn and iann dior‘s “Mood” feels like a particularly fresh No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week — a catchy song by two newer rappers that (of course) achieved liftoff on TikTok. But it’s also a historic one for the Billboard record books: The collaboration between the two genre-bending artists is the first song to top both Billboard‘s Hot Rap Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts.
That seems a remarkable accomplishment, given the 30-plus year history of artists who have found success blending rap and rock in some measure. But before streaming, Billboard‘s genre charts were much more heavily determined by airplay — until October 2012, when (to match the Hot 100’s methodology) sales and streaming were added to the calculation for Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, it was the only factor measured for Billboard‘s most-citedrock charts. (Hot Rap Songs measured only sales from its 1989 introduction until 2002, when it switched to reflecting solely airplay. As with rock, in October 2012 Hot Rap Songs became an airplay-, sales- and streaming-based ranking.)
When it comes to genre airplay, rap/rock or rap/alt compounds were most often claimed by one format or the other, with very few making an impact on both — and those that did usually had a lower ceiling on each format, due to their hybrid nature. Before 2016, no song had even made the top 10 on both Billboard‘s main rock and rap charts.
Per the October 2012 chart changes noted above, all of a song’s airplay, sales and streams count for whichever multi-metric ranking on which it appears, so a hit that bridges, say, rap and rock would have all its weekly activity contribute toward both Hot Rap Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. Given that, and with genre in 2020 less siloed in hit songs than before, it’s likely that “Mood” will be part of a larger trend of shared rap/rock chart hits going forward. (“Mood” is actually the rare song equally popular on Billboard’s rap and rock radio charts, having so far hit No. 12 on both Rock Airplay and Rap Airplay.)
However, even though it’s been historically unusual for a song to overlap on Billboard‘s rock and rap charts, it’s still far from unprecedented. Here are 19 examples, in chronological order, of songs to impact charts in both genres — including both Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay chart (introduced in 1988 as Modern Rock Tracks) and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart (introduced in 2009 as Hot Rock Songs).
Beastie Boys, “Hey Ladies”
Alternative Airplay: No. 18 (8/26/1989)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 10 (8/26/1989)
Beastie Boys, “So What’cha Want”
Alternative Airplay: No. 22 (8/1/1992)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 18 (8/15/1992)
Shaggy, “Oh Carolina”
Alternative Airplay: No. 14 (8/21/1993)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 41 (12/11/1993)
US3, “Canatloop (Flip Fantasia)”
Alternative Airplay: No. 29 (11/13/1993)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 5 (1/8/1994)
Lucas, “Lucas With the Lid Off”
Alternative Airplay: No. 22 (10/29/1994)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 27 (11/22/1994)
Eminem, “My Name Is”
Alternative Airplay: No. 39 (4/3/1999)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 10 (3/13/1999)
Cypress Hill, “(Rock) Superstar” / “(Rap) Superstar”
Alternative Airplay (“(Rock) Superstar”): No. 18 (7/9/2000)
Hot Rap Songs (“(Rap) Superstar”): No. 43 (5/6/2000)
Eminem, “The Real Slim Shady”
Alternative Airplay: No. 19 (7/8/2000)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 7 (6/3/2000)
Afroman, “Because I Got High”
Alternative Airplay: No. 17 (9/8/2001)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 19 (9/29/2001)
Eminem, “Without Me”
Alternative Airplay: No. 15 (7/3/2002)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 5 (7/6/2002)
Eminem, “Lose Yourself”
Alternative Airplay: No. 14 (12/7/2002)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 2 (12/7/2002)
M.I.A., “Paper Planes”
Alternative Airplay: No. 12 (9/27/2008)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 6 (10/18/2008)
Asher Roth, “I Love College”
Alternative Airplay: No. 34 (3/28/2009)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 18 (4/11/2009)
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, “Thrift Shop”
Alternative Airplay: No. 14 (2/9/2013)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 1 (1/19/2013)
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, “Same Love”
Alternative Airplay: No. 21 (6/15/2013)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 2 (7/13/2013)
Yelawolf, “Till It’s Gone”
Alternative Airplay: No. 25 (2/7/2015)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 25 (10/4/2014)
Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa & Imagine Dragons w/ Logic & Ty Dolla $ign feat. X Ambassadors, “Sucker For Pain”
Hot Rock & Alternative Songs: No. 3 (8/27/2016)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 1 (8/27/2016)
Powfu feat. beabadoobee, “Death Bed”
Alternative Airplay: No. 2 (6/27/2020)
Hot Rock & Alternative Songs: No. 1 (6/13/2020)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 9 (6/20/2020)
24kGoldn feat. iann dior, “Mood”
Alternative Airplay: No. 11 (10/24/2020)
Hot Rock & Alternative Songs: No. 1 (9/5/2020)
Hot Rap Songs: No. 1 (10/24/2020)
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