Rap artists claimed Record of the Year for the second straight Grammy Awards ceremony, but the genre has not won Album of the Year in more than two decades as pop and country releases captured the top prize in 2025 and 2026, according to official results from the Recording Academy.
Kendrick Lamar, as per Variety, won Record of the Year at the 67th Grammys in February 2025 for "Not Like Us" and repeated the feat at the 68th Grammys in February 2026 for "Luther," his collaboration with SZA. He also took Song of the Year for "Not Like Us" in 2025 and led with five wins both years, including multiple rap category victories.
Yet Album of the Year went to Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" — a country-influenced project that also won Best Country Album — in 2025 and to Bad Bunny's Spanish-language "Debí Tirar Más Fotos" in 2026, the first such album to win the category.
The pattern reflects longer-term trends. Only two hip-hop albums have ever won Album of the Year: Lauryn Hill's "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" in 1999, classified as R&B, and OutKast's "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" in 2004.
No pure rap album has claimed the honor, even as the genre has produced some of the era's biggest commercial and cultural moments.
In the most recent ceremonies, pop and country acts filled other high-profile slots. Chappell Roan won Best New Artist in 2025. Billie Eilish and Finneas won Song of the Year in 2026 for "Wildflower." According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sabrina Carpenter won Best Pop Vocal Album in 2025 but was shut out despite six nominations in 2026. Country music's visibility rose with Beyoncé's historic crossover success.
Rap categories themselves remained dominated by rap artists. As per Billboard, Doechii won Best Rap Album in 2025. Kendrick Lamar won Best Rap Album for "GNX" in 2026, along with Best Rap Song for "tv off" and featured artist credits on the winning Best Rap Performance, Clipse's "Chains & Whips."
Some rap nominees, including Tyler, the Creator and Clipse, saw most of their multiple nominations result in wins only in non-televised premiere ceremony categories or limited televised recognition.
The Recording Academy has pointed to ongoing efforts to reflect a broader range of music. In rules updates ahead of the 2026 show, the organization expanded categories and renamed others, such as Best Melodic Rap Performance, to better capture hybrid styles that blend rap with R&B, country or electronic elements.
"The Academy's top priority is to represent the music people that we serve each year," Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. said in a statement on the changes. He added that the adjustments aim to honor "today's musical landscape" and ensure the Grammys recognize "as many deserving creators as possible."
Lamar dedicated his 2025 Record of the Year win to his hometown. "We gonna dedicate this one to the city," he said in his acceptance speech as quoted by Variety. "This is my neck of the woods, have held me down since a young pup. Since I was in the studio, scrapping to write the best raps and all that."
The outcomes come as the academy has expanded membership to include more diverse creators, with more than 3,800 new voting members invited in 2025 alone. Officials have described the moves as part of a push to make the awards more representative without altering the peer-voting process.
Industry observers noted the 2025 ceremony in particular as a corrective moment for past snubs. Beyoncé's Album of the Year win ended a string of nominations without victory in the category, while Lamar's sweep highlighted rap's commercial and cultural weight. Yet the absence of a rap Album of the Year winner underscored persistent questions about how the academy's voting body weighs genre-specific excellence against crossover appeal.
Viewership data from Nielsen showed the 2026 telecast drew 14.4 million viewers on CBS, down 6 percent from the prior year, continuing a gradual decline. The show has remained the most-watched awards broadcast in recent cycles despite the drop.
The Grammy Awards are clearly shifting. Rap music, for instance, is making waves in the performance categories, including Record and Song of the Year. This surge is thanks to viral sensations and cultural moments, like Lamar's track, which was inspired by a feud in 2024.
In contrast, pop artists have found success through strong streaming numbers and radio play. Country music, too, has been gaining traction, largely due to high-profile collaborations that have crossed over into other genres.
Whether the pattern shifts in future ceremonies will depend on the academy's continuing adjustments to categories and membership, as well as the voting preferences of its thousands of music professionals. For now, rap artists continue to collect major individual honors even as Album of the Year has gone to artists from pop, country and Latin urban fields.
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