Hot Rap Songs is a record chart published by the music industry magazine Billboard which ranks the most popular hip hop songs in the United States. With hip hop having greatly increased in mainstream popularity in the late 1980s, Billboard introduced the chart in their March 11, 1989 issue under the name Hot Rap Singles. Prior to the addition of the chart, hip hop music had been profiled in the magazine's "The Rhythm & the Blues" column and disco-related sections, while some rap records made appearances on the related Hot Black Singles chart. The inaugural number-one single on Hot Rap Singles was "Self Destruction" by the Stop the Violence Movement. From its 1989 inception until 2001, the chart was based solely on each single's weekly sales. To formulate chart rankings, Billboard assembled