Billboard's been around for 125 years. The industry bible just ranked their 125 biggest artists of all time.
The top ten are The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Mariah Carey, Madonna, Barbara Streisand, Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift, Stevie Wonder, and Chicago, in that order.
Here are the Hip Hop figures in the to 125.
16. Drake
18. Rihanna
22. Eminem
23. Usher
37. Beyonce
50. JAY-Z
71. The Black Eyed Peas
72. Nelly
80. R. Kelly
89. Kanye West
94. Chris Brown
104. Lil Wayne
117. 50 Cent
122. Ludacris
Here's the formula they used.
Using a formula blending all titles tallied on both the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart (since its inception on Aug. 4, 1958) and the Billboard 200 albums chart (since it became a combined stereo/mono survey on Aug. 17, 1963), we assembled a list of music's all-time top artists. (Due to changes in chart methodology and title turnover rates, certain periods for each chart recap were weighted differently to ensure as equal a representation as possible among all eras.)
What do you think?