{"id":242232,"date":"2026-01-20T08:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T08:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/242232\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T08:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T08:54:15","slug":"greatest-pop-stars-of-2025-no-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/242232\/","title":{"rendered":"Greatest Pop Stars of 2025, No. 10"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor\u00a0this\u00a0year\u2019s\u00a0update\u00a0of our ongoing\u00a0Greatest Pop Star by Year<\/a>\u00a0project,\u00a0Billboard\u00a0will be counting down our editorial staff picks for the 10\u00a0Greatest Pop Stars of 2025<\/a> all the next two weeks. Last week, we revealed our\u00a0Honorable Mentions <\/a>artists for 2025 as well as our Rookie of the Year<\/a> and Comeback of the Year artists<\/a>. Now, we kick off our top 10 with an artist who kept the pedal to the floor for 2025, trying new sounds and new mediums and ending up more ubiquitous than ever: Tyler, The Creator. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tExplore\t\t<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n

\n\tListen to our Greatest Pop Stars podcast discussion about Tyler\u2019s first year making our 10 Greatest Pop Stars list\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAbout 15 years ago, in February 2011, a menacing group of young adults set the internet ablaze with its anarchic musical performance on\u00a0Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The rabble-rousers of Odd Future took their off-color, Tumblr-coded rap music to network television \u2013 and their appearance\u00a0marked their introduction to\u00a0the mainstream.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut at the time,\u00a0and for\u00a0years after, Odd Future\u2019s ringleader and breakout talent, Tyler, The Creator<\/a>,\u00a0seemed\u00a0an unlikely candidate to ever transcend cult status. Odd Future\u2019s left-field aesthetic and at-times nauseating lyrical content was a non-starter for many. Later that year, GLAAD denounced Odd Future\u2019s homophobic and misogynistic subject matter; as late as 2015, the U.K. banned Tyler from entry due to his lyrics.\u00a0All par for the course for an artist whose signature lyric up to that point was \u201cKILL PEOPLE BURN S\u2014T\u00a0F\u2014K\u00a0SCHOOL.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Tyler<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTheo Wargo\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tA decade later, however, Tyler is an integral part of the pop cultural fabric, both domestically and abroad. Today, his high-concept hip-hop has placed him in rarefied air with rap superstars like Kendrick Lamar and Drake, with Grammy wins, lucrative world\u00a0tours\u00a0and impressive chart success \u2014 a position he cemented with his massive 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTyler\u2019s transformation from\u00a0skate-rap\u00a0misfit\u00a0to hip-hop A-lister\u00a0started\u00a0in 2017, when he released\u00a0Flower Boy, a conceptually ambitious project dealing with loneliness and\u00a0sexuality that fused rap, jazz, and neo-soul \u2014 and kicked off a streak of four consecutive records nominated for the best rap album Grammy. With 2019\u2019s\u00a0Igor\u00a0and 2021\u2019s\u00a0Call Me If You Get Lost, Tyler continued to redefine himself as an artist, and while his material didn\u2019t exactly lose its edge,\u00a0it became\u00a0less confrontational\u00a0and drew in legions of new fans \u2014 including at the Grammys, where both sets won best rap album.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTyler\u2019s 2025\u00a0effectively began\u00a0in October 2024, with the release of that fourth-consecutive best rap album Grammy nominee,\u00a0Chromakopia.\u00a0The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200,\u00a0and all\u00a014\u00a0Chromakopia\u00a0songs charted on the Billboard Hot\u00a0100<\/a>;\u00a0that month, three of its songs \u2013 \u201cSt. Chroma,\u201d \u201cNoid\u201d and \u201cSticky\u201d \u2014 became Tyler\u2019s first three top 10 entries on the Hot 100.\u00a0And unlike many high-profile rap releases today, the album \u2013 which\u00a0featured\u00a0Doechii,\u00a0Sexyy\u00a0Red, Lil Wayne,\u00a0Daniel\u00a0Caesar\u00a0and Lola Young, among others \u2013 stuck around on the charts: When the calendar had turned, and the glut of holiday singles had receded, three\u00a0Chromakopia\u00a0songs remained on the Hot 100.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTyler carried that momentum into the\u00a0Chromakopia\u00a0world\u00a0tour, a nearly-100-date trek that kicked off in February \u2013 when he played six sold-out shows at L.A.\u2019s Crypto.com Arena \u2013\u00a0and took him to arenas from\u00a0North America to Europe to Asia, securing him a No. 11 rank on Billboard\u2019s Top Tours chart<\/a> for 2025, with $174.5 million grossed.\u00a0Along the way, he headlined major festivals, including\u00a0Governors Ball, Lollapalooza\u00a0and Outside Lands.\u00a0For years, Tyler\u2019s concerts had been spectacles, and the pyro-laden\u00a0Chromakopia\u00a0was no different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut by July, the creatively restless rapper threw fans a curveball: the surprise-released\u00a0Don\u2019t Tap\u00a0the\u00a0Glass, a 28-minute project that eschewed\u00a0Chromakopia\u2018s\u00a0grandiosity for a tight set of funky electronic bangers. Before the\u00a0Chromakopia\u00a0tour had even wrapped for 2025 (a brief Latin American leg is on tap for this March), Tyler was debuting Don\u2019t Tap\u00a0the\u00a0Glass material at sweaty, club-inspired pop-up shows. Like\u00a0Chromakopia and its two predecessors,\u00a0Don\u2019t Tap\u00a0the\u00a0Glass\u00a0debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200<\/a>; all 10 of its songs hit the Hot 100. The set\u2019s \u201cSugar\u00a0on\u00a0My Tongue\u201d became a breakout hit, spending 25 weeks (and counting) on the chart to become Tyler\u2019s second-longest-running Hot 100 entry.\u00a0Don\u2019t\u00a0Tap\u00a0the\u00a0Glass\u00a0also scored\u00a0a 2026 Grammy nomination for best alternative music album, meaning Tyler could take home not one, but\u00a0two album\u00a0Grammys in genre categories this February.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the same time, Tyler notched another accomplishment as one of the select few\u00a0guests\u00a0to appear on\u00a0Clipse\u2019s\u00a0comeback album<\/a>,\u00a0Let God Sort Em Out, produced by his longtime musical lodestar, Pharrell Williams. The song he appeared on, \u201cP.O.V.,\u201d landed on the Hot 100 and\u00a0represented\u00a0a full-circle moment: One of the first established rap artists to champion Tyler was Clipse\u2019s Pusha T, who featured the then-20-year-old on his 2011 single \u201cTrouble\u00a0on\u00a0My Mind.\u201d\u00a0Clipse also played a small role in the\u00a0Don\u2019t\u00a0Tap the Glass\u00a0launch,\u00a0making\u00a0cameos \u2013 alongside LeBron James and his business associate Maverick Carter \u2013 in the music video for that album\u2019s \u201cStop Playing\u00a0With\u00a0Me.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Next month, Tyler will face off against\u00a0Clipse when\u00a0Chromakopia\u00a0and\u00a0Let God Sort Em Out\u00a0both vie for the album of the year and best rap album Grammys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA mammoth 2025, to be sure. But before the year wrapped, Tyler had another zeitgeist-seizing moment up his sleeve \u2013 on the silver screen,\u00a0as\u00a0Tyler\u00a0Okonma. On Christmas Day, the Josh Safdie-directed, A24-distributed, Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet-starring ping-pong period drama\u00a0Marty Supreme\u00a0hit theaters, and featured Tyler in a prominent supporting role. As Wally, a taxi-driving\u00a0buddy\u00a0of Chalamet\u2019s unstoppable Marty Mauser, Tyler stole each of his scenes, matching Chalamet\u2019s energy and proving his charisma extends well beyond recording studios and festival stages. Since the start of his career, Tyler has directed many of his own music videos and played a key role in the creative direction of his concerts;\u00a0Marty Supreme\u00a0may be the first Oscar contender\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0had a hand in, but\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0likely\u00a0not\u00a0his last.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Tyler,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0all\u00a0somewhat poetic: The artist who once scared parents and grandparents\u00a0who\u2019d\u00a0stayed up late to catch\u00a0Fallon\u00a0now appearing in a bona fide Christmas blockbuster, after a year where his music found more ears than it ever had before. As head-spinning as it might be for his Odd\u00a0Future day\u00a0ones, given his last decade, there\u2019s little reason to think Tyler\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0become even more\u00a0ubiquitous\u00a0\u2014 mainstream, even \u2014\u00a0in the years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tListen to our Tyler, The Creator Greatest Pop Stars of 2025 discussion here<\/a>, check back for our No. 9 artist tomorrow, and stay tuned the next two weeks as we roll out our top 10 \u2014 leading to the announcement of our top two Greatest Pop Stars of 2025 on Friday, Jan. 30!<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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