Joe Rogan Claims Rap Has ‘Fallen Off the Charts’ Because the ‘USAID Got Defunded’
Podcast titan Joe Rogan believes that hip-hop’s relative lack of commercial success in 2026 can be attributed to the Trump administration’s defunding of the USAID.
Rogan made the claims about hip-hop during the Aug.
13 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience with comedian Shane Gillis, Mark Normand and Ari Shaffir.
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1 From 'ICEMAN' “The weird thing is how rap’s fallen off the charts.
It’s because USAID got defunded,” Rogan claimed.
“USAID, the agency for international development, is well-known to have been funding a bunch of radical, anti-government rappers overseas.
Funding a ton of them.
It was basically all about regime change.” According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the U.S.
Agency for International Development “has been a pillar of U.S. soft power and a source of foreign assistance for struggling countries, playing a leading role in coordinating the response to international emergencies such as the global food security crisis.” Per Reuters , the Trump administration announced in March 2025 that it had cut more than 80 percent of USAID-funded programs.
“The 5,200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” U.S.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X at the time.
There appears to be no evidence linking USAID and funding of the rap music industry, but it’s been a conspiracy theory that’s gained a lot of steam thanks to country’s recent Hot 100 takeover , including Ella Langley’s 18 weeks atop the flagship songs chart with “Choosin’ Texas.” Paired together, R&B/hip-hop remains the No.
1 consumed category of music, according to Luminate’s midyear report in 2026.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on www.billboard.com — the content belongs to Billboard.
