Kendrick Lamar Breaks Jay-Z Record At Grammy Awards, Defends Hip-Hop Culture

Kendrick Lamar made his point clear at the 2026 Grammy Awards. Hip-Hop isn’t going anywhere.

The Compton rapper took home four awards Sunday night, including Best Rap Album for GNX. His acceptance speech came at the perfect time. All year, people questioned whether Hip-Hop was losing its grip on mainstream music.

“It’s an honor to be here,” Kendrick Lamar said after Queen Latifah and Doechii presented him with the award. “Hip-Hop is always going to be right here. We’re gonna be having the culture with us.”

Those words hit differently after the 2025 chart drama. For the first time since 1990, no rap songs appeared in Billboard’s Top 40 during one week in October.

Music analysts called it Hip-Hop’s decline. Some said the genre was dead. Kendrick proved them wrong with numbers that don’t lie.

His surprise album GNX dominated 2025 streaming. The project earned 2.98 billion streams on Spotify alone, making it the year’s most-streamed rap album. That’s nearly a billion more streams than the second-place album.

The Grammy wins pushed Lamar past Jay-Z as the most-awarded rapper in Grammy history. He now has 26 career wins compared to Hov’s 25.

Sunday’s four victories included Best Rap Song for “tv off,” Best Melodic Rap Performance, and Best Rap Performance.

But the real story was timing. Hip-Hop faced serious questions about its popularity throughout 2025. Streaming data showed rap’s market share dropped from 30 percent in 2020 to about 24 percent last year.

New rap releases saw a nine percent decline in streaming compared to other genres.

Critics pointed to chart performance as proof. When Kendrick and SZA’s “luther” was removed from the Hot 100 under new Billboard rules, it left no rap songs in the Top 40.

That hadn’t happened since Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend” era. The decline wasn’t just about charts. Pop fans finally embraced streaming platforms the same way Hip-Hop fans did years earlier.

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles began releasing multiple songs into the Top 10 simultaneously, a strategy pioneered by rap artists. This leveled the playing field and made Hip-Hop’s streaming dominance less obvious.

Kendrick’s GNX success told a different story. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 319,000 first-week units. It returned to the top spot after his Super Bowl halftime show performance.

The project also became the first rap album of 2025 to surpass two million units sold.

His Grammy speech wasn’t just about personal success. It was a statement about Hip-Hop’s staying power. While critics debated the genre’s relevance, Kendrick quietly built the year’s biggest rap moment.

Sunday’s Grammy ceremony proved Hip-Hop still commands respect.

Three rap albums competed for Album of the Year: Kendrick’s GNX, Tyler’s CHROMAKOPIA, and Clipse’s “Let God Sort Em Out.” That marked only the third time in Grammy history when rap dominated the top category.

His acceptance speech lasted less than a minute, but the impact will last much longer. In a year when Hip-Hop faced its biggest questions in decades, Kendrick provided the clearest answer.

The culture isn’t going anywhere. It’s right here, winning Grammys and breaking records.

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