Megan Thee Stallion Breaks Billboard Rap Drought With “LOVER GIRL”

Key Takeaways:

• “LOVER GIRL” debuted at No. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking Megan Thee Stallion’s return to the chart’s Top 40.
• A recent Billboard rule change removed long-charting hits, contributing to the rap drought.
• The song’s success highlights the growing impact of female rappers in mainstream music.

Is Megan Thee Stallion Hip Hop music’s savior? That’s probably too early to call, but the Houston Hottie is responsible for returning the genre to a Top 40 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart after a two-week hiatus.

Last Wednesday (Oct. 29), Billboard reported that a Hip Hop song was absent from the aforementioned chart for the first time since February 1990. But thanks to Megan, Hip Hop’s glaring, and arguably concerning, absence was short-lived.

Her new song, “LOVER GIRL,” debuted at No. 38 on Hot 100 chart dated Saturday (Nov. 8). The song was released on Friday (Oct. 24) and samples R&B group Total’s “Kissin’ You.” It’s the first rap song in the chart’s Top 40 since Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther,” which had a 44-week run on the chart before its departure on Oct. 18.

Hip Hop’s absence from the Hot 100 chart’s Top 40 sparked plenty of discussion about what it means for the genre and the culture. While some said it marked a drop in quality from the genre, others look at it as a potential signal to spark more creativity.

However, what many people glossed over was that the chart’s guidelines had changed. Per Billboard, descending songs on the chart were “deemed recurrent and removed from the chart if they had exceeded certain durations on the chart while also falling below certain updated chart thresholds.” While exactly what those thresholds are was not shared, it meant that K. Dot’s “Luther,” which was No. 38 on the chart in the prior week, was removed.

Luckily, along with Megan Thee Stallion and some high-profile releases due out this year — including Drake’s Iceman and new music from Lil Baby — don’t expect Hip Hop’s lack of representation on the charts to last very long.