Lil Baby’s ‘My Turn’ Is No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums of the 21st Century Chart

Juice WRLD’s debut studio album elevated the Chicago native — who combined hip-hop with pop, rock and alt influences — into one of his generation’s leading voices. The album sparked his first mainstream hits “All Girls Are the Same” and “Lucid Dreams”; the latter topped the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for two weeks. The LP opened at No. 10 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums in June 2018 and climbed to its No. 3 high that August. Since then, the set by the rapper, who passed in 2019, has consistently revisited the weekly top 10, with its latest look in December 2024.

Named after one of J. Cole’s childhood addresses, 2014 Forest Hills Drive jolted the rap game to close 2014, with its arrival that December. While the album can’t claim any top 10 hit on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, as a complete package it stands alone in its architect’s catalog. Its 395 weeks on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart through December 2024 are more than J. Cole’s eight other charting projects combined, and, hey, it did find an enduring hit — “No Role Modelz” has become a reliable go-to on DSPs.

In an era of greatest-hits albums growing increasingly sporadic, with artists’ catalogs readily available for streaming, The Weeknd bucked the trend and capped his 2021 Super Bowl LV halftime show with The Highlights, a collection spanning material since 2011. You know the songs — “The Hills,” “Can’t Feel My Face,” “Blinding Lights” and the like — so no surprise that their combined streaming prowess has ensured the album’s regular attendance in the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart’s top ranks. The Highlights spent four weeks at No. 1 in 2021-22 and became the superstar’s seventh of nine leaders through July 2025.

With his fourth LP, critical darling Kendrick Lamar cemented his commercial prowess. DAMN.’s lead single, “Humble.,” topped the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, while follow-ups “DNA.,” the Rihanna-assisted “Loyalty.” and the Zacari-supported “Love.” sustained the momentum. DAMN. spent 10 weeks at No. 1, fueling itsrun to a year-end 2017 win on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Of course, critics loved it, too — DAMN. was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018, becoming the first recipient outside of the classical or jazz genres.

Equal parts tragedy and triumph, the album’s massive commercial reception celebrated the exciting possibilities of Brooklyn-based rising drill star Pop Smoke, marred by the reality that its creator never lived to see it, having been murdered four months before its release. The loss still fresh, fans rallied to the set upon its July 2020 release — on what would have been the rapper’s 21st birthday — prompting a No. 1 debut on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Thanks to cuts including “What You Know Bout Love,” “For the Night” and “The Woo,” the album racked up 21 weeks in the chart’s top spot — the most of any rap album in the 2000-24 window.

Post Malone’s third album extended his winning streak atop the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart as his third No. 1. Driven by an extensive, nearly yearlong campaign of singles, big wins included teaming with hip-hop acts such as Young Thug (“Goodbyes”), DaBaby (“Enemies”) and Swae Lee on “Sunflower,” a Hollywood’s Bleeding inclusion that also features on the soundtrack to the hit film Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse. The seven weeks at No. 1 in 2019 represents a personal best for Post Malone and Hollywood’s Bleeding surpassed his own beerbongs & bentleys, from 2018, for the then-record as the album with the most weeks in the chart’s top 10.

The long, long wait for SZA’s sophomore album — five years after her 2017 debut, Ctrl — more than surpassed expectations. Sailing into the No. 1 spot with ease, SOS became near-unsinkable, leading the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for 16 straight weeks upon its December 2022 arrival and adding another 11 frames by the end of 2024. Combined, its 27 weeks atop the chart are the most for any album in the quarter-century period. Its singles, too, enjoyed historic feats: The album’s “Kill Bill” spent 21 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, a then-record, while “Snooze” crept to an unprecedented 37 frames atop R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay in 2023-24.

Countering his Thank Me Later debut LP, Drake structured his sophomore album around a darker, morose aesthetic and, while not the first to cross-pollinate, blurred the lines between hip-hop and R&B, where rappers became more comfortable and more frequent vocalists. 2011’s Take Care easily found a No. 1 debut on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and soared to 12 weeks on top — the longest rule among Drake’s 16 champs to date. Its longevity at the summit previewed an extensive life on the ranking at large: Take Care has spent 475 weeks on the chart (through the Aug. 30 list), the most among all albums in the survey’s archives. Shout out to the set’s run of hit singles, including a pair of Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs No. 1s in “Make Me Proud,” featuring Nicki Minaj, and “The Motto,” featuring Lil Wayne.

Kendrick Lamar graduated from status as a regional phenom to national prominence through good kid, m.A.A.d city, his 2012 major-label debut album. Creatively inspired from his adolescent years in Compton, Calif., its West Coast-brand of hip-hop sparked the rapper’s first three top 10s on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart — “Swimming Pools (Drank),” the Drake-assisted “Poetic Justice” and “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” — while the LP debuted at No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. The collection heralded great things for its creator, with all five of his subsequent albums ruling the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for multiple weeks.

“I called it My Turn ’cause I feel like everybody else had a lil’ turn,” Lil Baby explained in an Instagram Live video previewing his then-forthcoming album. “It’s my turn now.” Indeed, the rapper’s declaration rang true. Released in February 2020, My Turn gave Lil Baby his first No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, with his fifth charted effort. Supporting singles “Woah,” “The Bigger Picture” and “Sum 2 Prove,” all top 10 hits on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and a deluxe edition in May helped My Turn rack up six weeks at No. 1 and to the chart’s 2020 year-end No. 1 rank.

Meanwhile, the accolades didn’t end that year. Steady streaming sums provided a cushion for the album, which persisted for weeks, then months, in the top 10. By March 2022, My Turn broke the record as the album with the most weeks in the chart’s top 10, with its 85th frame in the tier. That October, it became the first album to register 100 weeks in the top 10 since the list started in 1965. It may be a long wait before another album gets its turn in such a spotlight.

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