In honor of the incomparable artists that have helped bring urban music to the masses over the last three decades — and also to toast the success of our recently launched music column
Tevin Campbell
Text by Gary Trust, Keith Caulfield and Rauly Ramirez
*Prior to the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart implementation in December 1992 of monitored radio airplay by Nielsen BDS and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums incorporation of point-of-purchase sales data from Nielsen SoundScan, titles on those lists had shorter reigns at No. 1 and shorter chart lives. To ensure equitable representation from all 25 years, earlier time frames were each weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those years and the turnover rates that have occurred since the advent of Nielsen Music data.