Trending in Culture: Current Marketing Trends in Hip-Hop Culture (Q4 '25)

Photo: Atlantic Records/YouTube

On his classic track, Step Into a World (Rapture’s Delight), legendary emcee KRS-One raps, “Yo, I’m strictly ‘bout skills and dope lyrical coastin’, relying on talent, not marketing and promotion.” Not to take anything away from one of the greatest rappers to ever touch a microphone, but I strongly disagree with KRS’ assertion.

Even before Step Into a World was released in 1997, record labels have always relied on marketing and promotion strategies to generate album sales—regardless of how amazingly talented their artists may have been. 

The same could also be said for today’s brands in a sense. No matter how great your products are, in order to maximize a product’s sales capability, you’ll have to rely on marketing and promotion to play a pivotal role in accomplishing that objective. 

A significant part of marketing successfully towards Gen Z and Millennial consumers today consists of branding your business in a way that resonates with them culturally. And nothing resonates with youthful consumers today more so than hip-hop culture does. 

To help your brand keep abreast of all things hot in hip-hop, here’s our list of the hottest trends, brands, artists, podcasts, social media platforms, and television shows in hip-hop culture for Q4 2025.

Hottest artists 

This past June, while millions of viewers around the world tuned in to watch what has now become the most-watched annual event in the culture, the 25th annual BET Awards, a few things became very apparent to hip-hop fans watching that have followed the show since its first inaugural airing. 

One thing that stood out were the performances from the “old school” artists completely carried the show. What was also noticeable, was the lack of performances from hip-hop’s most relevant acts of today. 

The likely reason being that heading into the third quarter of this year, most of the genre’s heavy hitters had yet to release a project. Thankfully, Q4 is expected to yield much better results; as many of the most relevant artists in the culture are set to release albums in the coming months. 

These are the hottest artists in the culture at the moment:

Cardi B: Most hip-hop artists whose debut album went 7x platinum wouldn’t allow eight years to elapse before dropping their follow-up album. But as many of her fans have come to love about her, Cardi B isn’t your ordinary artist. 

After nearly a decade of anticipation, on September 19, 2025, the Bronx bombshell finally dropped her long-awaited sophomore album, Am I the Drama?

Apparently, Cardi is the drama. Not only did her second studio album accomplish something that her debut album, Invasion of Privacy, did not do by becoming certified platinum on its first day of release; the album’s rollout also helped Cardi break a Guinness world record for most drone deliveries within an hour (with some help from Walmart).

Chris Brown: Yes, you are absolutely correct. Chris Brown is most known for his body of work as an R&B artist. Nonetheless, the lines between hip-hop and R&B music have never been more blurred than they are today. Perhaps no artist of his generation has been more responsible for the blurring of those lines than Chris Brown has.

20 years after his self-titled debut album, the Tappahannock, Virginia, native still has the Billboard charts on smash. His latest hit single, It Depends, is one of the hottest songs in the U.S. at the moment. The song also influenced the viral #Itdependschallenge, which you’ve probably seen on TikTok ad nauseum.  

Doja Cat: Regardless of whether you consider her more pop than hip-hop, if you’re a fan of hip-hop music, you gotta admit that Doja Cat delivers both bops and bars on a consistent basis. 

In furtherance of her mission to drop non-stop bops, on September 26, 2025, to the delight of her fans, the Southern California native released her fifth studio album, Vie. The music video for the album’s latest single, Gorgeous, received over 2 million views on YouTube its first day of release. 

Ice Spice: From her unique voice, to her distinctive curly red hair, even down to the way she made ‘like’ a transitional word in the hip-hop lexicon; there’s no doubt about it, Ice Spice is absolutely 1 of 1. 

As the Bronx representative has done since bursting onto the scene in 2022, Ice has utilized singles to help keep her brand hot in the culture. And her latest single, Baddie Baddie, is doing just that. 

Kendrick Lamar: Most rappers could only dream of having the string of successes that Kendrick Lamar has had throughout the last twelve months or so. Which is just one of the reasons why despite not having released an album this calendar year, Kendrick still reigns supreme as the undisputed king of hip-hop.

And with reverberations from the success of his album GNX (released November 22, 2024), his Super Bowl LIX halftime performance, along with the record-breaking ticket sales his Grand National Tour has generated still being felt, it’s safe to say that Kendrick will remain hip-hop's top dog for the foreseeable future.

Youngboy Never Broke Again: Ask anyone that has attended an NBA Youngboy (aka Youngboy Never Broke Again) concert recently and they’ll tell you—no rapper is more beloved by the hood than he is at the moment.

Released July 25, 2025, MASA, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native’s eighth studio album, debuted at number six on the the US Billboard 200 chart. Billboard success notwithstanding, if you ever want to see how truly beloved NBA Youngboy is by the streets—just purchase a ticket to his Make America Slime Again Tour.

Young Thug: Since being released from Fulton County jail last year after doing a two year stint, Young Thug has captured headlines in hip-hop media for a variety of reasons. Nonetheless, throughout all of the controversial headlines he’s generated, what fans of the Atlanta-born rapper have coveted most since his release has been new music. 

On September, 26, 2025, Thugga delivered by dropping his long-awaited fourth studio album, Uy Scuti. Although early impressions of the album have received mixed reviews, Young Thug is back to being the topic of discussion for his music; which is something even he’d probably lament is a welcomed change. 

Hottest hip-hop platforms 

We’ve now reached the point where it wouldn’t be a preposterous statement to hear a die-hard fan of hip-hop music say that they listen to podcasts more often than they listen to music from some of their favorite artists. 

There’s no denying it, we’re currently in the content era. As more artists, influencers, and media personalities seek to expand their audience by hosting their own podcasts—the podcast space will continually become more lucrative for all involved. As the saying goes, a rising lifts all boats.

These are the hottest platforms in the culture at the moment:

• Club Shay Shay

• Drink Champs

• It Is What It Is

• Joe & Jada

• Kai Cenat Live

• The Art of Dialogue

• The Breakfast Club 

Hottest fashion brands 

Depending on one’s flair for fashion, updating your wardrobe every 90 days or so as the seasons change could either be an agonizing or exciting experience. For most within hip-hop culture, the latter is always the case. 

With hip-hop culture having such an incredible influence on what tends to become in vogue, brands embraced by the culture almost always go on to become hot in pop culture. And those deemed wack or washed—become an afterthought. 

These are the hottest fashion brands in the culture at the moment:

• Balenciaga 

• Balmain

• Celine

• Dior

• Gallery Dept.

• Givenchy

• Supreme

Hottest television shows

For reasons to be discussed later in this article, the way brands reach consumers within hip-hop culture through television advertising has changed drastically over the last ten years. That’s not to say that consumers within the culture cannot be reached through television advertising, but rather, the traditional devices used in ads must be adjusted.

With attention spans now at an all-time low, television programming, as well as the ads that sponsor them—must grab the attention of their audiences immediately—and hold it. 

These are the hottest television shows in the culture at the moment: 

• Beauty in Black

• Fatal Attraction

• For My Man

• Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta

• Nick Cannon Presents: Wild ‘N Out

Hottest social media platforms

Studies show that there are over 5 billion worldwide social media users. With the average person spending nearly 3 hours a day on social media platforms, most won’t admit it—but to some extent, just about all of us are somewhat addicted to social media in one way or another. 

These are the hottest social media platforms in the culture at the moment:

1. Instagram

2. TikTok

3. X

4. Facebook

5. Snapchat

What’s fading 

As far-fetched as it seems today, not too long ago, the vast majority of television viewers watched their favorite television shows at the same time. Sounds crazy, right? But it’s true. During that time, people would watch their favorite shows simultaneously with their family, coworkers, and friends.

Before the prevalent use of video recording devices like TiVo, folks didn’t have to worry about things like spoiler alerts; because they were actually watching the live airing of their favorite shows at the same time as their peers.

Yet for as great as technological advancements have been towards affording us the opportunity to watch television wherever we are on our smart devices, the only events that we seem to watch simultaneously today are sporting events and awards shows. 

Gone are the days when teens would rush home to watch shows like TRL and 106 & Park, knowing that their peers were at their homes watching as well. Instead, more people are now opting to record shows they’re interested in and get around to viewing them days or weeks after they’ve premiered. 

Albeit simultaneous viewership totally becoming thing of the past obviously doesn’t particularly pertain to the just the hip-hop community, you gotta admit that watching television shows like: BMF, Raising Kanan, and The Upshaws would be so dope if somehow, we were to all watch them collectively—which was done during the golden age of television.