The Top Producers of the 21st Century on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart

After wrapping the last century on a high note that only Mariah Carey’s vocal cords could challenge, R&B and hip-hop’s contributions to the musical canon swelled in the first 25 years of the 21st century.

Producers, as much as artists and songwriters, played a prominent role in the expansion, crafting innovative compositions that added new depth and dimension. R&B spun off new sub-genres to its mix, with electro-R&B, trap soul and alt-R&B among the freshest sounds, while hip-hop flourished on several fronts. Pockets of crunk, trap, rage and drill, to name a few, represented new branches of the genre’s sounds, while fusions with country, rock, Latin and other historically separate genres widened its impact and appeal.

Add to that growing geographic scenes, where enriched regional scenes in Atlanta, Chicago, Memphis, Detroit, Texas and Florida joined historic players New York and Los Angeles — and see how few spaces or sounds that hip-hop didn’t touch.

Reflecting the biggest sonic architects in R&B and hip-hop from Y2K to today, check out the top 25 creators on The Top Producers of the 21st Century on the Hot R&B/Hip-Songs Chart below.

The ranking follows the reveals of Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the 21st Century, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums of the 21st Century and Top Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs of the 21st Century charts — as well as The Top Producers of the 21st Century on the Hot 100, encompassing all genres — with all coverage of Billboard’s 21st Century Charts here.

Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artists, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs of the 21st Century recaps reflect performance on weekly charts dated Jan. 1, 2000, through Dec. 28, 2024. The Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artists category ranks the best-performing acts in that span based on activity on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. (Titles released prior to mid-1999 are excluded, although such entries that appeared on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums or Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs in that span contribute to the calculation of the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artists chart.) The Top Producers of the 21st Century on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart reflects producers with the most No. 1s on weekly Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts dated Jan. 1, 2000, through Dec. 28, 2024, with ties broken by most top 10s and most overall chart entries.