Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "rockstar" - Post Malone featuring 21 Savage (=) -- I didn't think "Havana" would be No. 1 this week with how strong "rockstar" still is on streaming, but it's getting awfully close. "rockstar" scored 43.6 million U.S. streams (down 5 percent), 47,000 downloads sold (up 2 percent) and 74 million in radio audience (up 17 percent). The continual rise in radio is unsettling, but "Havana" has the song beat in both radio and sales with 57,000 downloads sold (up 22 percent) and 75 million in radio audience (up 23 percent) while only getting 32.9 million US streams (up 2 percent). "Havana" is up 10 percent in overall points while "rockstar" is down 1 percent in overall points. So it's only a matter of time before "Havana" is our new leader, which I will be grateful for.
2- "Havana" - Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug (=) -- If Post Malone's song will just drop a bit more in streaming, "Havana" going No. 1 will be a done deal. If the continual radio surge for "Havana" isn't enough to compensate for the lack of streaming, we might have to wait this out another week or two. But perhaps Camila's new remix of the song with Daddy Yankee that dropped this week can boost the song enough to put it over the top next week. Speaking of that remix, replacing Young Thug with Daddy Yankee is a genius move. Young Thug definitely holds the song back, but Daddy Yankee actually improves the song and is a more natural fit for Camila whereas Young Thug is only there as the obligatory rap feature needed for success in our current society.
3- "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)" - Cardi B (=) -- Cardi B stays at No. 3 again this week. With nothing there to challenge her, it seems like this will stay for a bit more, despite continually dropping in all metrics as the world is slowly moving on from this song.
4- "Too Good at Goodbyes" - Sam Smith (+6) -- Sam Smith's album drop is what gave this song a huge surge. The album itself is pretty decent, but Sam definitely released the best two songs from that album as singles as this and "Pray" are easily the standouts. I just wish this song was here in the top five to stay, but I feel like it's going to fall back down to earth next week, and possibly out of the top 10 altogether, which will be sad for me. But I hope I'm wrong because I want this to gain more traction.
5- "Thunder" - Imagine Dragons (=) -- Why "Thunder" is remaining consistent in the top five completely baffles me. Last week it leapfrogged "Feel It Still" and this week it leapfrogs "1-800-273-8255." But like last week, it is also leapfrogged by another song that surges into the top five, this week being Sam Smith's song, thus it remains at No. 5 yet again. This means I could see this going up to No. 4 next week or even No. 3 if "Bodak Yellow" falls enough. Not that I want that to happen, though. I would prefer it if this song went away for good.
6- "1-800-273-8255" - Logic featuring Alessia Cara (-2) -- It was a great run in the top five for Logic. A run that I'm really happy the song was able to enjoy. Now it seems as if this song will now slowly start to fade away.
7- "Feel It Still" - Portugal. The Man (-1) -- It also feels like "Feel It Still" is now slowly fading away. Considering this is not the type of song that even makes the charts, I'm really happy that 2017 did something right by making this song go viral and I hope it has staying power on the radio for months and years to come.
8- "Perfect" - Ed Sheeran (+3) -- After taking a brief absence from the top 10 last week, Ed is back this week. With the five songs above it all slowly on their way down, I think it's only a matter of time before Ed joins Camila up there in the top three. It will certainly be nice to have two goods songs in the top three because we've had a bit of a rough time of late with the songs at the very top of the charts.
9- "What Lovers Do" - Maroon 5 featuring SZA (+3) -- Did anyone know that Maroon 5's album also dropped and gave this song a bit of a boost this week? If you didn't, don't worry. Neither did anyone else. Because no one gives a crap about Maroon 5 and their bland nothingness that's only propelled by the radio and their continual love affair with the band. But hey, at least this is just an inoffensively boring song as opposed to last week's new top 10 entry "Gucci Gang," which was a complete abomination. I'm certainly glad the latter song is out this week (it fell to No. 12) and I hope we can keep it out. And hey, with songs 13 through 15 also being abominations ("No Limit," "I Get the Bag" and "Bank Account"), I'll take a bland Maroon 5 song. For now.
10- "Mi Gente" - J Balvin & Willy William featuring Beyonce (-1) -- Beyonce is a popular lady right now. Not only did J Balvin and Willy William invite her onto their song, but Eminem also brought her on. We'll talk about the Eminem song next week, but for now we have "Mi Gente" in what appears to be its last week in the top 10. With the Beyonce remix ruining the song, it'll be a situation where I will tell these three people to not let the door hit them on the way out.
Rising on the Hot 100:
13- "No Limit" - G-Eazy featuring A$AP Rocky & Cardi B (+11) -- I really don't like how this song continues to rise. But at least I can see why this is popular among people who enjoy rap and hip-hop when you focus only on the beat, whereas "Gucci Gang" is a complete mystery as to why that song is even a thing. But if "Gucci Gang" is the bar for everything, that's a pretty low bar. I don't know exactly what this will be replacing in the top 10 next week, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it's going to be there.
17- "What About Us" - P!nk (+5) -- I genuinely love how this P!nk song has been fairly consistent on the charts as it's remained between 15 and 30 for most of its run, even if it's been stuck in the range. I would really love it, though, if this can somehow manage to get over the hump and crack the top 10. The world, and especially the top 10, could use a little more P!nk.
20- "Bad at Love" - Halsey (+7) -- On the other hand, I wouldn't mind it at all if Halsey got stuck in the mud and got stuck in the teens instead of getting one of her solo songs into the top 10. I want more female representation on the charts, but I also want good female representation.
21- "New Rules" - Dua Lipa (+5) -- Dua Lipa is another example of the good female pop singers who I am hoping has success. In fact, if Dua and leapfrog Halsey and ride the wave into the top 10, that would be really nice. It's been a good breakout year for her and I hope that continues into 2018.
31- "The Way Life Goes" - Lil Uzi Vert featuring Oh Wonder (+24) -- I remember the week where I went on a marathon of listening to a bunch of Lil Uzi and XXXTENTACION songs, but I don't remember this song including the British indie-pop duo Oh Wonder on it. I guess I missed that when I covered the song back in September. Sorry. I had 17 songs from those two that week, so can you blame me? Or perhaps Lil Uzi decided to actually give them credit after that initial week. Either way, it's Oh Wonder's 2015 song "Landslide" that is being sampled here. And perhaps "sampled" isn't a strong enough word because Lil Uzi essentially takes the whole song and sings on top of it, which is the only reason "The Way Life Goes" is somewhat tolerable on a re-listen because "Landslide" is a really good song. So thanks to Lil Uzi, I will now be going and checking out Oh Wonder's 2015 self-titled album and their recent follow-up from earlier this year. And this is probably the only time I will ever be giving Lil Uzi positive credit for anything, so take notes Lil Uzi fans.
35- "Ghostface Killers" - 21 Savage, Offset & Metro Boomin featuring Travis Scott (+22) -- The story of the week on the bottom half of this rising songs section is that the four new songs from 21 Savage, Offset and Metro Boomin's new album "Without Warning" all had huge gains this week. We also have a few leftovers from album in the new arrivals section this week. How and why did this happen? Well, they dropped the album in the middle of the tracking week, so this week was its first full week on the charts. And I really hope that's the only reason, because I would hate it if all of these songs stuck around. Seeing this one at No. 35 is especially worrying.
50- "Ric Flair Drop" - Offset & Metro Boomin (+21) -- Offset rambling on in boring fashion all by himself is not something that deserves top 50.
64- "Rap Saved Me" - 21 Savage, Offset & Metro Boomin featuring Quavo (+10) -- On a positive note, this song, which is the worst of the four, only jumped 10 spots.
73- "My Choppa Hate N-----" - 21 Savage & Metro Boomin (+21) -- This song is only at No. 73, so no reason to complain just yet.
New Arrivals:
27- "Call It What You Want" - Taylor Swift -- Taylor's new album "Reputation" has finally debuted and it is M.I.A. from all streaming services, only available to listen to at the moment if you buy the digital copy from iTunes or the physical copy from wherever you buy physical copies of CD's these days (for the few who actually still do that). I've been nicer to these promotional singles than most people have, but I'm not desperate enough to buy the album to listen to it, so I have not heard it and I will not until it shows up on Apple Music. But if I were to fill in the blanks, the bitter, more angsty songs are towards the first half of the album and then you have this towards the end, which is a much softer, more mellow song with Taylor calmly settling into her current situation, which I believe is with actor Joe Alwyn. Thus I imagine the album will take you on a journey that starts with her being angry at the world and needing to get that all out before quietly settling down and essentially brushing everything off. I won't be able to confirm that until I hear the album, but I do think this is a softer, nicer Taylor song that more people will gravitate to. So if you hated bitter, angry Taylor, then give this one a listen. The album may not be streaming, but the four promotional singles are.
65- "Lemon" - N.E.R.D & Rihanna -- I learned all sorts of things when I researched this song. This showed up a few weeks ago and I had no idea who N.E.R.D was, so when the song finally debuted this week, I did some digging. N.E.R.D is the band Pharrell Williams created with his childhood friend Chad Hugo and high school friend Shay Haley. Pharrell and Chad initially formed the production duo The Neptunes in the 90's, working with quite a few big names of the years, putting together their own album in 2003. Before that album, though, the two of them, along with Shay, created the band N.E.R.D and released their debut album in 2002. They also released albums in 2004, 2008 and 2010. Pharrell himself has done two solo albums in 2006 and 2014 while continuing to work in all sorts of fronts with writing, producing, singing and even doing a little work with movie soundtracks. Yeah, Pharrell is quite the talented individual.
Even though I had never heard of N.E.R.D until now, I definitely know Pharrell. I have loads of respect for him in terms of his talent level while having a bit of a love/hate relationship with his actual music. Apparently he's now back with N.E.R.D for the time being as their fifth album "No_One Ever Really Dies," which is what N.E.R.D stands for, is set for a January 2018 release date. "Lemon" is the lead-off single. While Pharrell himself has showed up many times on the Hot 100 in various formats, this is the first time N.E.R.D has charted. Honestly I can see this being a huge 2018 hit as this has a lot of funk and groove. I'm not even sure what genre to classify this as it's kind of a combination of several genres, thus I can see it having crossover appeal with several audiences, including rap, R&B, funk and pop. The best part of the song is the high level of energy that Pharrell brings to the lyrics with the groovy beat that his friends shape around him. If this ends up being a major hit, I can see some of the repetitive lyrics getting on people's nerves. The worst part of the song is when Rihanna shows up. Rihanna is the type of person that thinks she's super hip and cool, but really is more annoying. But she's been worse. Overall, I would classify this as fun and energetic and has the potential to be 2018's "Uptown Funk" if it catches on.
79- "Rubbin off the Paint" - YBN Nahmir -- We go from soft and mellow with Taylor, to upbeat and fun with N.E.R.D, to whatever the heck this is from a 17-year-old viral rapper. Just a reminder that we still live in 2017 and that untalented punk kids can go viral on YouTube with a horrible rap song and be considered the next big thing in music. While slightly less offensive and less annoying that some of the things that have happened in the music world in 2017, this is nevertheless one big rap verse with YBN going off on a whole bunch of random tangents about drugs, girls and whatnot, making me think this punk needs to go back to school and get an education rather than doing more of this stuff that he's singing about in this song.
93- "Wait" - Maroon 5 -- Maroon 5's album "Red Pill Blues" only managed to get one additional song to chart this week following its release, which is actually one more song than I expected considering this isn't a streaming monster. "Wait" is another pop song from Adam Levine and co. where Adam has done something wrong to this girl. She's upset at him, but he's begging her to give him another chance because he wants to be with her. You know, typical boring Maroon 5 stuff. There's no context into this specific situation and no real diving into any detail about anything. Just empty words on a paper that probably mean nothing to anyone in the group. There's also nothing interesting going on musically as Adam doesn't challenge himself vocally and doesn't give his band anything to do. Based on this, "What Lovers Do" and "Cold," I have a feeling I know exactly what this album is like and thus I have zero desire to listen to any of it.
94- "Pull up N Wreck" - Big Sean & Metro Boomin featuring 21 Savage -- I saw the players on this song and assumed it was a leftover song from "Without Warning." Nope. This is separate from that. But it might as well be on that because it's just as bad. Big Sean sounds drunk as crazy as he lazily raps about him doing all sorts of awful things to these girls with his Migos impressions thrown in. Then 21 Savage coming in with his usual mumble rap and uninteresting lyrics that he also probably wrote when he was drunk, high or both. This song is a huge wreck (pun intended). I don't know how anyone can play this song and consider it music.
99- "Mad Stalkers" - 21 Savage, Offset & Metro Boomin -- Now we actually have our leftovers from "Without Warning" after the album's first full week of tracking. In addition to the four songs from last week getting huge boosts, two additional songs sneak onto the charts this week at the final two spots. And yes, no surprise. These final two songs are as bad as the other four songs. 21 Savage is mumbling about how he's a mad baller, how he's super rich and how he's turning these girls he's sleeping with into stalkers? Offset is rapping about something in between 21's mumbling, although he's pulled out his usual random word generator, so I don't have any idea what he's actually saying and I don't care to listen to it for very long with all his sound effects and echoes. I don't get how this is music and I hope this culture of rap music will go away.
100- "Nightmare" - Offset & Metro Boomin -- The final song I'll ever have to cover from this album, right? No more leftovers in future weeks? Please? If so, this final song is just Offset. Although this time he has two verses and a chorus. While I still don't understand what he's getting at during his verses, he's telling them that Freddy Kruegar is going to give them a nightmare and when they wake up, they'll be right there. Whatever that means. I'm not sure I want to think too hard about what he's trying to get at here
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