For the first time in his career, Kendrick Lamar reigns as Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the year, storming to the 2025 crown. The superstar rapper claims the throne in his 13th time on the annual recap — a run of every year since 2012, apart from 2020 — and outdoes his previous best finish, a No. 2 result in 2017.

Lamar triumphs on the 2025 Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artists list, which is based on activity from the weekly Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts dated Oct. 26, 2024, through Oct. 18, 2025, from the domination of his GNX album and its biggest hit, the SZA collaboration “Luther,” along with Billboard Boxscore (touring) data.

To supplement his year-end win, Lamar is also the Top Rap Artist, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artist – Male, and Top Rap Artist – Male.

Explore All of Billboard’s 2025 Year-End Charts

A Nearly Perfect 10 for ‘GNX’: GNX, a surprise release that dropped on Nov. 22, 2024, via pgLang/Interscope/Interscope Capitol, debuted at No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart dated Dec. 7. It spent seven weeks at No. 1 during the 2025 chart year and nearly remained in the top 10 for the entire period, with one exception — the penultimate week (Oct. 11, 2025). While it of course generated massive attention from A) being a Kendrick Lamar album and B) being the first Kendrick Lamar album since his pop-culture-defining feud with Drake, GNX achieved a second wind after Lamar headlined the halftime show of Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9.

Thanks to its strong longevity, GNX is the No. 2 title on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for 2025. It loses out to SZA’s SOS, which tops the annual recap for a second time, after its 2023 victory, thanks in part to its SOS Deluxe: LANA edition, which was combined with the original SOS on the charts.

Billboard’s year-end music charts represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts from Oct. 26, 2024, through Oct. 18, 2025. Rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the entries appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology detail, and the October-October time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.

‘Luther’ Leads Songs Recap: While Lamar and SZA compete on the albums’ leaderboard, the pair join forces to capture the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs’ top prize with their collaboration “Luther.” The track, from GNX, sailed to its chart-topping honor with a record-shattering 31 weeks atop the weekly Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, by far the longest run in the chart’s 67-year history. To secure its record-breaking achievement, “Luther” took the crown from Lamar’s own “Not Like Us,” at 22 weeks in charge, which itself overcame SZA’s “Kill Bill,” and its 21 frames on top.

Beyond “Luther,” Lamar and SZA team up for another high finish on the year-end list with “30 for 30.” The single, from the LANA deluxe edition of SZA’s SOS, lands at No. 4. In addition to those two tracks, Lamar three more tracks in the year’s top 10: “TV Off,” featuring Lefty Gunplay (No. 2), the 2024 year-end champ “Not Like Us” (No. 5) and “Squabble Up” (No. 7).

Leon Thomas Roars in Rookie Season: Thanks to his breakthrough R&B smash hit “Mutt,” Leon Thomas is the Top New R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of 2025. The acclaimed singer-songwriter, whose prior work includes co-writing and co-producing credits on SZA’s “Snooze,” stepped into his own spotlight with his breakout track. “Mutt,” released in August 2024, was a sleeper hit, finally entering the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in late January of 2025. As gradual improvements in streaming and radio lifted its fortunes, the song reached the weekly top 10 in April, before bearing another long journey until it finally crowned the list in August. Once “Mutt” arrived, however, it refused to budge, wrapping the last nine weeks of the chart tracking year in the top spot. From that combination of endurance and success, “Mutt” secured the No. 6 rank on the year-end Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs list.

As “Mutt” became a hit, its parent album of the same name climbed to a No. 8 best on the weekly Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums in June, sparked by a deluxe Heel edition. Although its title track was the main success driver, the album found additional Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs hits in the chart year via “Not Fair” and “Yes It Is,” which both peaked at No. 43.

Big Glo, Breezy & The Weeknd Win, Too: While Lamar, SZA and Thomas are the main winners of the 2025 cycle for R&B/hip-hop, here’s a review of other key highlights across the year-end chart results.

• GloRilla ranks at No. 1 on Top Rap Artists – Female, spurred by several hit singles from her debut album, Glorious. Viral fanfare and stellar radio support for “TGIF” and the Sexyy Red collaboration “Whatchu Kno About Me,” for example, were major contributors.

• Chris Brown’s “Residuals” claims the year’s radio triumphs, leading the plays-based Adult R&B Airplay and Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay recaps, as well as the overall audience-based R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list.

• The Weeknd bags multiple R&B triumphs, including No. 1 on Top R&B Artists – Male. His song “Timeless,” featuring Playboi Carti, tops the Hot R&B Songs survey and is No. 1 on R&B Streaming Songs recap.

Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore are the latest songwriters to be inducted posthumously into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, following Cindy Walker in May 2024, Prince in July 2024 and Bert Berns in September 2025.

Often referred to by just their first names, Hugo & Luigi, the songwriters and producers (who were cousins) had long and hit-studded careers. They were among the first producers to have their names prominently displayed on album jackets.

They cowrote (with George David Weiss) the romantic ballad “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” which Elvis Presley took to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962 and UB40 took to No. 1 on that chart for seven weeks in 1993. The three writers also cowrote the subsequent Presley film title song “Wild in the Country.”

Hugo & Luigi wrote the English lyrics to The Tokens’ “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” a No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 1961 and a No. 3 on that chart in 1972 for Robert John.

Their No. 1 Hot 100 hits as producers include Little Peggy March’s “I Will Follow Him” (1963) and Van McCoy & the Soul City Symphony’s shimmering disco classic “The Hustle” (1975).

They produced a long string of hits by Sam Cooke, including “Twistin’ the Night Away,” “Another Saturday Night” and “A Change Is Gonna Come.”

SHOF chairman Nile Rodgers referenced the latter hit in a statement about Hugo & Luigi’s induction that was issued Tuesday (Dec. 9). “We are thrilled to be posthumously inducting Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore into the Songwriters Hall of Fame,” he said. “They were important pioneers in both writing and production, and among their many notable production credits is Sam Cooke’s seminal anthem for the Civil Rights movement, ‘A Change Is Gonna Come.’”

Early in their career, Hugo & Luigi had some success as artists. They cracked a pre-Hot 100 Billboard chart in 1955 with “Young Abe Lincoln,” and had two hits on the Hot 100 (which was introduced in 1958), including “Just Come Home,” which made the top 40. As artists, they cracked the top 20 on the Billboard 200 in 1963 with The Cascading Voices of the Hugo & Luigi Chorus.

In 1957, they bought into Roulette Records, where they produced major hits for Jimmie Rodgers (the pop-folk singer, not the country music legend of the same name), including “Honeycomb” and “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine.”

Two years later, Creatore and Peretti signed a deal with RCA Victor where they produced pop crooner and NBC television star Perry Como, and worked with such other label stalwarts as Della Reese, Cooke, Presley, The Tokens and March. One of their most notable successes for RCA, The Isley Brothers’ classic “Shout,” was only a moderate Hot 100 success at the time (No. 47 in 1959). The song has since been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and has ranked high in numerous lists of all-time greatest singles.

Creatore and Peretti left RCA Victor in 1964 to join Weiss in writing a musical about the American Civil War. Titled Maggie Flynn, it ran for two months on Broadway in 1968-69. The musical starred Shirley Jones and her then-husband Jack Cassidy (who received a Tony nomination for his performance) and featured a pre-fame Irene Cara. The cast album cracked the Billboard 200 in early 1969.

Hugo & Luigi formed Avco Records in the 1970s, where they teamed with Weiss to write seven Hot 100 hits for The Stylistics, including “Let’s Put It All Together,” a top 20 hit in 1974.

They won a Grammy in 1977 as producers of the original cast album to the hit Broadway show Bubbling Brown Sugar, which won as best cast show album.

Hugo & Luigi then launched a new label, H&L Records, which they ran until they retired at the end of the 1970s.

Both cousins were born in New York City. They shared an office in New York’s legendary Brill Building. Peretti died in May 1986 at age 69. Creatore, who was the son of famed Italian bandmaster Giuseppe Creatore, died in December 2015 at age 93.

This is the fourth posthumous induction into the SHOF in less than two years, following Cindy Walker in May 2024, Prince in July 2024 and Bert Berns in September 2025. SHOF chairman Linda Moran likes to keep the mood at the main June induction ceremony celebratory, and these separate posthumous induction events help achieve that goal.

Kehlani is looking forward to Bad Bunny’s 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show performance in San Francisco Bay Area in February, but she’s hoping he doesn’t cater an ounce to the strictly English-speaking audience for the big game.

The “Folded” singer joined the Billboard 2025 No. 1s Livestream on Tuesday (Dec. 9), where Kehlani revealed that they’re “manifesting” a Spanish Super Bowl from Benito, as they don’t think he should perform “a single word” in English.

“He’s about to do the Super Bowl and probably not in English at all, in a time where that’s basically criminalized,” she said. “And that’s incredible. I don’t think he should say a single word in English at all.”

Host Druski — who is the cover star of the latest issue of Billboard –was caught off guard and thought that what Kehlani was hoping to see from Bad Bunny was facts regarding the Puerto Rican star’s Super Bowl performance, but the singer explained that it’s just something they’re “manifesting” at the moment.

“How we gon’ understand?” Druski asked.

Kehlani fired back: “We don’t have to!” The singer admitted she doesn’t understand all of Bad Bunny’s lyrics, but still vibes to plenty of his discography.

Kehlani also gave Benito his flowers for continuing to put on for his Puerto Rican culture and doing a residency back home to stimulate the U.S. territory’s economy.

“I think his commitment to uplifting his culture has been so serious,” she said. “Refusing to tour here, only touring in Puerto Rico to change the economy back home, was something super exemplary and I love that about him.”

Bad Bunny touches the Super Bowl LX stage at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8.

Watch the full Billboard 2025 No. 1s Livestream below.

Laura Segura has been appointed the next executive director of She Is The Music (SITM), a global nonprofit co-founded by Alicia Keys, Jody Gerson, Ann Mincieli and Sam Kirby Yoh that champions gender equality and works to increase the number of women across the music industry.

She will succeed Michelle Yablans, who is stepping down at the end of the month after a successful six-year run, and will lead SITM’s strategic vision, global programs, partnerships and expansion. Segura will oversee initiatives such as all-women songwriting camps, a global creator database, mentorship cohorts, research and advocacy, and partnerships with labels, publishers, DSPs and educational institutions. Her responsibilities include strengthening industry relationships, guiding international growth, managing operations, and driving fundraising efforts.

“I’m so proud to welcome Laura into this role,” said Keys. “She has spent her career lifting people up, building support systems that work, and making sure no one is left behind — and that spirit is at the heart of She Is The Music. Laura understands the challenges women face in this industry and brings the strength, clarity, and compassion needed to create real, lasting change. I know she will help us push our mission even further, opening more doors, elevating more voices, and building a future where women are fully seen, heard, and supported.”

Segura joins She Is The Music after an impactful tenure as executive director of MusiCares, where she spearheaded record-breaking relief efforts, including $35.7 million in pandemic aid and an additional $16 million during the Los Angeles-area fires. Under her leadership, MusiCares expanded its operating budget, modernized systems and introduced programs such as Humans of Hip Hop and the Wellness in Music initiative.

Appointed ED of MusiCares in 2020, Segura previously served as vice president of membership and industry relations at the Recording Academy, where she advanced diversity initiatives and reformed membership structures. Her contributions have earned her repeated recognition on Billboard’s Women in Music list and other industry honors. Segura also serves on the Entertainment Community Fund’s Housing Board, continuing her commitment to advocacy and community support.

Keys’ fellow co-founders Gerson, Mincieli and Kirby Yoh added their enthusiasm for Segura’s appointment, calling it a pivotal moment for the organization. “Her commitment to driving meaningful change reflects the mission we set out to champion from day one,” they said. “Laura brings a rare blend of vision, experience, and genuine care for the people who make this industry thrive, and under her leadership, SITM will continue creating opportunities for women across every corner of the music ecosystem.”

Christmas came early on Tuesday (Dec. 9) when Christina Aguilera dropped by the Jennifer Hudson Show, where the host wasted no time spreading good cheer to the “What a Girl Wants” singer. “Whitney Houston said she loved your voice, one of the greatest voices that she knows,” Hudson told Aguilera of the high praise she received from the late R&B/pop superstar who died in 2012 at age 48.

Hudson said she had to second that emotion, and the holiday cheer kept a-rollin’ as Xtina bounced the compliment right back to the Oscar- and Grammy-winning host, who wondered what Aguilera remembered about meeting Houston.

“She was always just always so kind and just down to earth and it’s so wonderful when you get to meet an icon of yours,” Aguilera said of Houston, who she studied and was fascinated with growing up. Aguilera recalled bumping into Houston once backstage at a European MTV awards show where the “I Will Always Love You” singer came right up to her and said, “‘how you doin’ girl?’ She was always just chill and just real and good energy.”

When Aguilera casually mentioned that time she sang Whitney’s “Run to You” at a 2001 BET Awards tribute to Houston — a moment Hudson said she remembered with crystal clarity — she praised her mentor’s generosity and kindness. “She made my life with her complimentary moment of her receiving her award… just positive energy [and] extending her hand to younger generations of singers who she knows we all idolized [her],” Aguilera said.

Hudson wasn’t there to just talk old times, though. She also pressed Aguilera — who hasn’t released an album of new material since her second Spanish language LP, 2022’s Aguilera — on whether she has any unreleased music in the vault. “Yes, there’s some… there are things along the way, but probably will always remain in a vault,” Aguilera said.

The good news is that Aguilera said there “is new music” in the works, though admittedly she does “take a minute” to make sure she’s being thoughtful about what she releases. “I’m not like someone that’s just like, ‘Oh let me just keep pumping it out,’” said the singer who dropped 2018’s Liberation LP after an six-year gap following 2012’s Lotus.

“Integrity matters to me. I’m a message girl and I really like to absorb what’s happening in the world, things that are really moving me and affecting people to really put thought into it,” Aguilera said, promising that her untitled next album will be a “really personal project” that will tie-in with an equally personal documentary she’s been filming for the past few years.

In the meantime, fans can check out her new Christina Aguilera: Christmas in Paris holiday special, which will screen in theaters in the U.S. on Dec. 14 and 21.

Watch Aguilera talk Whitney Houston and unreleased music below.