Benny Johnson(@bennyjohnson):Rap music is dead. Scroll through the Top 100 and it’s nearly impossible to find a rap song. A massive stadium rap concert next month has only sold 160 tickets. That’s not a typo. Ludacris, T.I., Rick Ross, and BigXthePlug booked a Louisville stadium, and it looks abandoned. 20,000 tickets left unsold. Ever since USAID got defunded, rap’s popularity has completely vanished. It used to be most of the Hot 100 — Now it’s nonexistent. Meanwhile, country music is dominating the and selling out arenas across the country. Did the CIA really run the rap game?

2026.09.06 23:36

Rap music is dead. Scroll through the Top 100 and it’s nearly impossible to find a rap song. A massive stadium rap concert next month has only sold 160 tickets. That’s not a typo. Ludacris, T.I., Rick Ross, and BigXthePlug booked a Louisville stadium, and it looks abandoned. 20,000 tickets left unsold. Ever since USAID got defunded, rap’s popularity has completely vanished. It used to be most of the Hot 100 — Now it’s nonexistent. Meanwhile, country music is dominating the and selling out arenas across the country. Did the CIA really run the rap game?