Reviews by Carl Chery, Kemet High, and Adrian Covert
In February, we launched Spotify CLASSICS-our first-ever program to celebrate catalog music. Our inaugural list acknowledged the Classic Hip-Hop and R&B Albums of the Streaming Era and featured timeless releases like Kendrick Lamar's DAMN., Future's DS2, Jay-Z's 4:44, and Travis Scott's ASTROWORLD, to name a few.
In April, we kicked off the second chapter of CLASSICS by unveiling the 100 Greatest R&B Songs of the Streaming Era. And today we unveil the latest chapter of our CLASSICS program: The 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of the Streaming Era. Spotify defines the streaming era as a time frame that spans from 2015 until present day.
Hip-hop has been the most influential genre in pop culture for decades, but it became the No.1 music genre in the U.S. in 2017, according to Nielsen. Hip-hop's commercial ascendance coincided with existential shifts for the genre. Rap transitioned to a more melodic format, occasionally making it hard to distinguish between hip-hop and R&B. Trap became the most popular sound in music, and its practitioners started releasing music at a relentless pace. But hip-hop remains as creatively inspired as ever, marked by the emergence of an exciting new generation who have already made their presence felt when it comes to the best hip-hop songs.
Spotify's U.S. hip-hop editorial team-spearheaded by Carl Chery, Creative Director, Head of Urban Music-has taken on the ambitious task of reviewing thousands of songs, and in the end, this list offers a snapshot of hip-hop during the streaming era. Spotify CLASSICS is 100% qualitative. The criteria for the list are based on quality, impact, replay value, influence, and cultural significance. The program is driven by our editors' music and cultural expertise-not by data-meaning that big streaming numbers were not a requirement to make the list.
Note: All songs were released on Spotify after January 1, 2015. The Spotify streams are current as of May 20, 2024.
100. Coi Leray Players Uptown Records, 2022 Produced by: Johnny Goldstein
Spotify Streams: 459,472,370
Fun Fact: There's a version of Players that features Coi Leray singing rather than rapping, but she hated it and overhauled the entire song to make it what it is today.
99. Fivio Foreign Big Drip RichFish LLC/Columbia Records, 2019 Produced by: AXL BEATS
Spotify Streams: 77,303,121
Fun Fact: Big Drip was created the day that Fivio Foreign's close affiliate, Sosa Geek, was locked up. Elsewhere, it was AXL BEATS's idea to use Fivie's ad-libs as a primary-as opposed to secondary-sound.
98. Doechii Yucky Blucky Fruitcake Five 5 Records, 2020 Produced by: Unicorn Waves
Spotify Streams: 46,210,978
Fun Fact: Yucky Blucky Fruitcake was Doechii's first song to appear in our RapCaviar playlist.
97. YG ft. Nipsey Hussle FDT Def Jam Recordings, 2016 Produced by: DJ Swish
Spotify Streams: 38,857,798
Fun Fact: When YG and Nipsey Hussle were filming the accompanying video for FDT, they shot their solo parts separately to avoid mixing their respective groups.
96. Sexyy Red SkeeYee Open Shift/gamma., 2023 Produced by: DJ Meech, Banbwoi, Tay Keith
Spotify Streams: 90,942,958
Fun Fact: In an interview with Montreality, Sexyy Red explained the meaning behind SkeeYee, saying, If you see a cute girl or somebody with a big booty or you trying to holler at somebody, they call that the geek call. A geek is a crackhead, dope fiend. Like when you serving geeks where I'm from, that's a geek call.
95. Freddie Gibbs, Madlib Crime Pays Keep Cool/RCA Records, 2019 Produced by: Madlib
Spotify Streams: 43,770,445
Fun Fact: There's an unreleased, alternate version of Crime Pays that features Norah Jones on the chorus.
94. Moneybagg Yo Time Today CMG/N-Less/Interscope Records, 2021 Produced by: Real Red, YC
Spotify Streams: 187,755,749
Fun Fact: Moneybagg Yo told Genius he initially wanted to push Hard For The Next as a single, but CMG label head Yo Gotti insisted he go with Time Today instead, which proved to be a solid choice.
93. Lil Durk ft. Gunna What Happened to Virgil Alamo Records/Sony Music Entertainment, 2022 Produced by: Chop Squad DJ
Spotify Streams: 143,392,151
Fun Fact: Chop Squad DJ made the beat for What Happened to Virgil in just 25 minutes during an Instagram Live session where fewer than 100 people were in attendance.
92. Flo Milli Never Lose Me RCA, 2023 Produced by: Gerreaux
Spotify Streams: 249,249,152
Fun Fact: The beat for Never Lose Me first appeared as Babyface Ray's Ron Artest. Flo Milli's version began as a freestyle but ultimately became a bona fide hit.
91. Denzel Curry Ultimate PH Recordings/Loma Vista Records, 2015 Produced by: RONNY J
Spotify Streams: 217,371,123
Fun Fact: Denzel Curry shot the video for Ultimate in LA's Arts District just a few blocks from the Spotify offices.
90. A$AP Rocky Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2 (LPFJ2) A$AP Rocky Recordings LLC/RCA, 2015 Produced by: Nez & Rio
Spotify Streams: 330,047,035
Fun Fact: LPFJ2 first appeared in 2014 at the end of A$AP Rocky's Multiply video in a clip featuring DMV rapper Yung Gleesh dancing to it.
89. Yo Gotti Down In the DM Epic Records/Sony Music Entertainment, 2016 Produced by: Ben Billions, Schife Karbeen
Spotify Streams: 177,922,823
Fun Fact: Down In The DM was intentionally made to capture the essence of Snapchat and Instagram on the same night Yo Gotti's cuts from The Art of Hustle, General (featuring Future) and Bible (featuring Lil Wayne) were made.
88. Doja Cat ft. Rico Nasty Tia Tamera Kemosabe Records/RCA, 2019 Produced by: Doja Cat, Kurtis McKenzie
Spotify Streams: 328,481,933
Fun Fact: In an Instagram post, Tamera Mowry ranked Tia Tamera
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
A poisoned spy, a secret war, and a small English city contaminated by a deadly chemical weapon. Available on Sky Documentaries from 4 AugustWednesday 22 July 2...
22/07/2026
Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement wi...
22/07/2026
Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership and Combine the Integration Platform and Managed Services
Flexible integration solutions for cloud, hybrid...
22/07/2026
RT REPORTS NET SURPLUS OF 22.5 MILLION IN 2025...
22/07/2026
In the Opinion of the Censor airs Monday 27 July at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Player
In the Opinion of the Censor looks at how films for theatrical release wer...
22/07/2026
Before a healthcare robot can be useful in the real world, it has to learn how the physical world pushes back. Anatomy varies. Instruments bend, press, slip and...
21/07/2026
New research involving a cross-section of Mongolias independent media landscape finds enthusiasm for AI as a tool to improve efficiency, sustainability and resi...
21/07/2026
With winners Spain having already paraded the World Cup trophy through Madrid in front of millions of fans and the dust now settling on an epic tournament of th...
Reviews by Carl Chery, Kemet High, and Adrian Covert 
