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The Top Rap Song of Every Year Since 1989

Here are the No. 1 rap songs of every year since 1989. Billboard review's the chart's No. 1 year-end titles for every year of the chart's existence.

and LL Cool J, the first rap-dedicated chart arrived partly, as the list’s first manager, Terri Rossi wrote, to, “give proper credit to the performers, writers and producers who make this music so successful.” Call it prophetic: The increasing consumption of rap music and growing appetite for hip-hop culture set the stage for the genre’s explosive impact in the coming decades. Beginning as just a sales list, Hot Rap Songs switched to an airplay-only ranking in June 2002 amid the declining number of physical single releases.

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