Billboard Lists
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It was a blockbuster year for hip-hop in 2022, as we witnessed a handful of returns — led by pgLang commando Kendrick Lamar. After a five-year drought, Lamar reawakened with spirited raps and elite storytelling on his newest release, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. Meanwhile, Future’s reign remained supreme after notching the highest opening week of his career with the success of his ninth studio album, I NEVER LIKED YOU. We also received a fistful of collaborative albums, with Drake and 21 Savage’s unexpected collision Her Loss leading the pack, while women MCs strengthened their grip on the genre with the rise of GloRilla and Latto.
Despite his late-minute push, Metro Boomin squeaked his way into rap contention with his third Billboard 200 chart-topper HEROES & VILLAINS this December, just before the buzzer sounded. With his starry hip-hop alliance including Future, Travis Scott, 21 Savage, Young Thug, and plenty more marquee names ready for combat, the Atlanta savant maximized his efforts to bring us a cinematic thriller. Meanwhile, Nas and Hit-Boy continued to prove why they are hip-hop’s fiercest one-two punch, with the release of their Billboard 200 top-ten debut King Disease’s III. The trifecta extends Nas’ lyrical streak while elevating Hit-Boy’s status to legendary territory on the production side.
Now, the biggest question looking forward is whether 2023 will have enough juice to contend after this year’s stellar campaign. Only time will tell, but, until then, let’s remember the year that was and take a look at Billboard’s 20 best hip-hop albums of 2022 below.
It’s perhaps hard for all of us entrenched in the dance universe to bear in mind what a small world it ultimately is, statistically speaking. In the United States, dance and electronic music made up just 3.3% of total recorded music volume in 2021, which means that all of our efforts — all of our emails, all of our late nights and all of our sweat expelled on the dancefloor — are contributing to a scene that’s perhaps easy for other sectors to write off as humble, hard to see, “not the commercial juggernaut it once was.”
But inside it doesn’t feel that way, does it? Inside, it seems that new genres are developing, new markets are opening and new stars are breaking through while veterans are finding success in reinvention. Meanwhile, dance clubs and festivals are doing “amazingly well,” after an existentially fraught two years from which other realms of live events are still struggling to return. And when two of the biggest musical icons in pop history looked for reinvention this year, they came to clubland.
Indeed, while the commercial viability of dance music isn’t making waves like it did during the EDM heyday, the scene has in ways never felt healthier. The genre made an imprint in most realms of recorded music in 2022 — via fusion with sounds from pop to hip-hop to Latin, with creativity and quality at a high and with the sorely-needed diversification of the scene finally starting to happen — though with much work still to be done here and in relation to how we better protect the people and places in the scene that are its founders and foundation.
Driving it all, of course, was the music. It’s cliché at this point to say that dance/electronic is really just a blanket term for dozens and dozens of other genres — many of them wildly different and fairly laughable to compare — but that fact remains true, with this dizzying sonic taxonomy synthesizing a world that feels not just massive, but culturally significant and ultimately unstoppable.
These are our 50 favorite dance tracks of 2022.
Every year at the end of November, Americans gather around tables short and long with family and friends to enjoy a meal with those for which they are most thankful. We take note of our blessings and privileges — and make more happy memories to be grateful for in the future.
Of course, that spirit of thankfulness shouldn’t come only once a year. We should always take stock of all we have to appreciate every morning and every night, and if you need some musical motivation to get you in the grateful mood, we have some suggestions.
There are so many people you can be thankful for. You can be grateful to a romantic partner who saw the best in you even when you didn’t believe in yourself; a long-time friend who’s always had your back; a family member who deserves a bit of praise and a reminder that they made you who you are; or even an ex-lover or enemy whose tough words helped you become all the stronger for having survived them.
Whoever you have in mind, there’s something on this list to dedicate to the people who shaped you that’s worth singing out loud in the shower, in the car and all over town.
From Ariana Grande to Alanis Morissette, Celine Dion to Ozuna, FKA Twigs, Backstreet Boys and DJ Khaled, these 20 songs will have you singing “thank you, thank you, thank you.” (And yes, that last bit is a hint about a certain song by Natalie Merchant.)