The chart debuted on January 30, 1965, as the '''Hot R&B LP's'
. On August 23, 1969, Billboard
renamed both singles and albums contingents of the R&B charts as Soul charts; the albums chart was first called 'Best Selling Soul LP's
and then from July 14, 1973, simply Soul LP's'''. On June 26, 1982, the singles and album charts were renamed again as Black Singles and
Black LPs respectively. The change followed internal debate within
Billboard about how to better reflect the growing stylistic range of music made and consumed by Black audiences.
Nelson George called the change "long overdue", noting that Black artists had been making pop music beyond soul since the early 1970s. It was also part of a longer evolution in
Billboard’s terminology for
Black music, which had previously included terms like "
Race Records", which was first used in the 1920s by
OKeh Records to market
Mamie Smith's "
Crazy Blues". With
Billboards overhaul of its charts on October 20, 1984, the chart became Top Black Albums'. On October 27, 1990, the charts returned to the R&B designation (
Top R&B Albums, Hot R&B Singles). On December 11, 1999,
Billboard renamed them again as
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks, in an effort to recognize the growing sales of
hip hop music and the genre's influential relationship to
contemporary R&B. The phrase "hip-hop" was chosen over "rap" because the former was considered more inclusive and better reflected the genre's broader cultural influence.
Billboard highlighted
Lauryn Hill as a defining example of this shift, stating that she was "as accomplished a singer as she is a rapper" and "a prime example of an act who would more appropriately be described as a hip-hop artist than a rapper". The change also acknowledged that many of the top-charting rap tracks at the time had origins in R&B traditions, further blurring the genre lines. ==Achievements==