For several years, one of the key indicators that Hip-Hop was no longer the only music that mattered to any self-respecting 17-year-old was that it was no longer selling without Top 40 airplay—and not so much with it, either. That represented a sea-change for Hip-Hop, and R&B before it, which had been able to unleash one stealth hit after another since the beginning of the rock era, regardless of whether Top 40 PDs were tuned in enough to take advantage of it.

In the wrap-up of “Songs That Made A Difference In 2011,” I flagged DJ Khaled’s “I’m On One” and Jay-Z & Kanye West’s “Ni**as In Paris” as two examples of not particularly melodic/radio-friendly rap that was nevertheless selling, the way that Hip-Hop used to do. So now turn your attention please to Wednesday (25)’s top 10 selling iTunes Music Store singles.

Five of the top 10 are rap records of some sort, although that also includes LMFAO’s poppier “Sexy And I Know It.” Add one more to the tally if you’re willing to count Nicki Minaj’s brief but prominently billed rap on David Guetta’s “Turn Me On.” And three of those are songs that are selling disproportionate to their Mainstream Top 40 airplay at this writing: Tyga’s “Rack City” (No. 3 sales, No. 59 CHR); Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa’s “Young, Wild & Free” (No. 6 sales, No. 26 CHR); and the Kanye/Jay-Z song (still hanging in at No 10 sales, No. 18 CHR).

The end of Hip-Hop’s hegemony sent Rhythmic Top 40 scrambling to reimage as “Hits and Hip-Hop,” and has reinforced the notion that Mainstream Urban radio might have a product issue, not just a PPM measurement issue. The success of three singles doesn’t necessarily solve anything, but it does reopen all those topics for discussion. And while the decline of mom-and-pop Urban bricks-and-mortar retail has undoubtedly figured into R&B/Hip-Hop’s travails, we now have some proof that the digital singles audience is a Hip-Hop audience when the right songs are out there.

The Highs Of Bruno Mars

Last fall, I seemingly jinxed Adele’s “Someone Like You” by declaring it the song that broke CHR’s ballad blockade by going to No. 1 at Mainstream Top 40. (It peaked at No. 2, but after being No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, it hardly mattered.) So when “It Will Rain” began camping out at No. 2 last month, I held my fire. Now, “It Will Rain” is the first ballad in several years to reach No. 1, overcoming programmers’ recent indoctrination that PPM loves tempo and hates ballads.

In fact, in his annual look at the year’s Top 100 selling songs, FutureHit.DNA author Jay Frank points out that 54% of the top selling songs were 100 BPM or less. By comparison, two years ago, there was only one ballad among the top 50 selling songs.

“It Will Rain” was part of another rare breed as well, legitimate hit songs from movies. Which makes this year’s two-nominee “Best Song” Oscar field look that much sadder. Even the Golden Globes field had big names, but nothing that got any closer to radio than Mary J. Blige’s “The Living Proof,” which added some extra pathos to the Madonna/Elton John battle.

First Summer Hit Of 2012?

It may seem like we’ve barely stopped milking the “Summer Song of 2011” theme, but label A&R and marketing staffs are gearing up for the 2012 contenders—most of which will come out just 12 to 15 weeks from now. Then there’s this left-fielder, which is top 10 in Montreal (always a stronghold of unusual hits) and spreading across Francophone Canada. (It's from Australia where, of course, it already qualifies as a summer hit.) If that’s not inducement enough to check it out, certain readers will be more interested after hearing that this is the kind of video that used to routinely go top 10 on The Box in the ’90s, even if it never got anywhere near the radio.