Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Charts Billboard’s history presenting R&B and hip-hop charts dates to the 1942 Harlem Hit Parade, one of the earliest chronicles of R&B’s top-selling titles. After various charts measuring the genre surfaced in the next decade, Billboard established the singular Hot R&B Sides chart in October 1958 and Hot R&B LP’s in 1965. Name changes over the years followed marketplace shifts, as soul, funk, gospel and reggae shaped eras. With hip-hop’s seismic arrival and growth, the consistent relationship between R&B and hip-hop acts led to the rebranding of chart names to Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs around the turn of the 21st century. Additionally, Billboard offers streaming, radio airplay and sales charts for the combined R&B/hip-hop grouping, as well as individual tallies for R&B and rap, with data for all charts provided to Billboard by Luminate. Over the genre’s lengthy history, its charts have welcomed legends such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Usher, Beyoncé, Drake, Kendrick Lamar and SZA to their honor roll.

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