The Live Music Business Is Booming. Now Rap Is Getting a Piece, Too.
This summer Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Tyler, the Creator, GloRilla, Lil Baby, Lil Wayne and Wu-Tang Clan have packed arenas, amphitheaters and stadiums in the United States and abroad. An array of veterans and newcomers filled smaller venues this year too, including Clipse, EST Gee, Nettspend, Xaviersobased and Billy Woods.
In September, the 25-year-old star YoungBoy Never Broke Again, who received a pardon from President Trump in May after serving time on weapons charges, will embark on a highly anticipated arena tour that's already selling well, especially for an artist who built a following with little radio success and live performance history. In fact, this will be the Louisiana rapper's first headlining tour in his decade as a recording artist.
'There's no shortage of artists wanting to go out and play,' said Mike Guirguis, who represents Lil Wayne and Young Thug.
According to Billboard Boxscore, live rap had its biggest year ever in 2024, with 5.7 percent of the Top 100 tour grosses — still a relatively small piece of a very big pie. Though it's too soon to tabulate 2025, there has already been one record-breaker: Kendrick Lamar and SZA's Grand National Tour is the highest-grossing co-headline tour in history, in any genre, with $256.4 million in North America. It places Lamar on a short list of rappers who have headlined stadium dates, alongside Eminem and Travis Scott.
Though the streaming era helped rap grow to become the dominant genre in terms of consumption, the live-performance side of the business has lagged. Scott, a giant on streaming, had the biggest gross of any hip-hop artist in 2024, with $168.1 million across 69 shows. By comparison, Coldplay, the highest-grossing rock band of that year, more than doubled Scott's take, with $400.9 million in 51 shows.
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