Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "rockstar" - Post Malone featuring 21 Savage (=) -- Four weeks for "rockstar" at No. 1. That's the most weeks a RAP song (because this is NOT a rock song and you are NOT a rock star, Post Malone...) has spent at No. 1 this year, pulling ahead of "Bodak Yellow" and "Bad and Boujee," who both spent three weeks at No. 1. This is also the fifth rap song to be No. 1 this year, a record that's tied with 2003, 2004 and 2006. In other words, we're turning into the mid-2000's, an era that I thought we left behind us. The good thing here is that "rockstar" took a big hit on streaming this week, which is the only thing keeping it at this spot. Sales also took another hit, but those aren't super high, and radio rose, but I don't think the ceiling for the radio is that high for a song like this. And we have new competition for "rockstar" that is surging really fast.
2- "Havana" - Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug (+5) -- This floored me this week. I thought last week was when Camila got a huge boost from her new video, thus I thought this song was going to peak and camp out around the bottom half of the top 10. Turns out that this week is the first full week of tracking for her music video, which is why it surged again this week. But I'm beginning to think that this surge is not only because of the music video as "Havana" is surging in all categories, with radio and sales get big boosts as well. I'm not 100 percent convinced that this is going No. 1 next week with the lead that "rockstar" still has on streaming, but it appears that within a few weeks, "Havana" will be our next No. 1 and that makes me really happy. This is also the highest Camila has been on the charts looking at both her solo career as well as her work with Fifth Harmony as the highest she got either way is No. 4.
3- "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)" - Cardi B (-1) -- The surge of "Havana" has pushed "Bodak Yellow" down to No. 3 after spending eight weeks in the top two. I'm certainly not complaining. Cardi has been slowly losing points on the charts, so I've been waiting for it to just tank and let some of these other songs ahead of it.
4- "1-800-273-8255" - Logic featuring Alessia Cara & Khalid (-1) -- Radio is still super strong for Logic, keeping this song around for a while. I want it to switch spots with "Bodak Yellow," but that'll be determined by which song has more staying power.
5- "Thunder" - Imagine Dragons (=) -- This makes me angry. "Thunder" leap frogs over "Feel it Still" while get leap-frogged itself by "Havana," thus it stays put. But come on. Can't we keep the GOOD rock song in the top five and not this one?
6- "Feel it Still" - Portugal. The Man (-2) -- BRING BACK "FEEL IT STILL" TO THE TOP FIVE!!!! I'm really upset that this got passed by the useless, boring Imagine Dragons group.
7- "Gucci Gang" - Lil Pump (+7) -- But speaking of mad, nothing makes me more furious this week than seeing this song surge into the top 10. This is one of those moments this week that just made me want to completely give up on the Billboard charts because it's all going to crap. Instead of doing that, though, I will channel all my anger towards all the teenage boys in the world because I fully believe it's all of them that are pushing this song so high. Because, you know, they are feeling so cool and hip while they listen to that rap music. Listening to the disgusting, awful trash makes them feel all grown up and rebellious. If you have a teenage boy who listens to this, ground him right now. If you're an ADULT and you consider this music? Then I don't know. That utterly baffles me as to how any grown human being living on the planet earth can put on THIS song and deem it music worth playing in their ears. This is SO disgusting. I hate it so much.
8- "Sorry Not Sorry" - Demi Lovato (-2) -- After hitting a career high peak at No. 6, Demi tumbles two spots thanks to "Havana" and "Gucci Gang." I was hoping she'd get her first ever top five entry, but sadly she fails this week. I'm not too upset, though.
9- "Mi Gente" - J Balvin & Willy William featuring Beyonce (-1) -- Hanging on for dear life is "Mi Gente," which I expect to be gone next week. We'll see if it can stubbornly hang onto this spot, though.
10- "Too Good at Goodbyes" - Sam Smith (-1) -- I'm really sad to see that this is failing to gain traction right now. Sam Smith's album just dropped, so I do expect a bit of a positive bump because of that and I can only hope that sparks more traction, otherwise it looks like this will prematurely exit. It's a shame when you see good music like this failing to catch on while horrendous music such as "Gucci Gang" is the new hip thing.
Rising on the Hot 100:
13- "Rake it Up" - Yo Gotti featuring Nicki Minaj (+6) -- Three weeks in the top 10 for this song was three weeks too many. I was happy to see it falling down the charts, so let's please not bring it back up.
15- "I Get the Bag" - Gucci Mane featuring Migos (+3) -- And while we're at it, let's do everything in our power to STOP this from getting any higher. If this fell just short of a top 10 entry, I would be a really happy person.
19- "...Ready for It?" - Taylor Swift (+27) -- Taylor is having a really rough time on the charts right now. "Look What You Made Me Do" took another major tumble while "Gorgeous" took a super harsh nosedive of it's debut last week. "...Ready for It?" was impacted this week by its official video, which I still think is super strange. But as far as the song goes, I'm happy to see it back in the top 20. Yet given Taylor's recent track record, I'm not super confident that this will stick around. With the album coming soon, we'll see what effect that has on this.
24- "No Limit" - G-Eazy featuring A$AP Rocky & Cardi B (+6) -- I'm getting increasingly nervous over this the higher it gets. No one needs these three around. But this hasn't hit top 20 just yet and if/when it does, I hope that it gets stuck in the teens.
26- "New Rules" - Dua Lipa (+8) -- With all the awful rap song plaguing our charts, I could really use another pop song in the mix, so I'm rooting for Dua Lipa to keep going higher.
35- "Wolves" - Selena Gomez & Marshmello (+53) -- I'm guessing this jumps super high after its first full week of traction? I was kind of surprised to see this jump so high, but it's definitely a happy surprise as I love this song from Selena. I think her and Marshmello fit very well together, so if this were to completely dominate pop radio, I would be a very happy man.
46- "How Long" - Charlie Puth (+6) -- I would not be a happy man of Charlie Puth gets another major hit. I mean, come on. What do people see in this boring, generic punk?
47- "Love So Soft" - Kelly Clarkson (+10) -- I'm guessing this song got a boost because of Kelly's album? Which, by the way, if you didn't hear my opinions on that, I was very unimpressed. Granted, most of the songs are better than whatever the heck this is, but Kelly put so much time and effort into making the soul thing work for her, that she forgot to write lyrics, so the whole album feels generic and boring as heck, despite her great vocals. There's a few good songs on the album, but as a whole I take a pass. Come back next time with better music, Kelly.
61- "Let You Down" - NF (+14) -- Let's keep this going! With so much horrendous rap music, it's nice to see a rap song that actually has a lot of heart and passion behind it, with someone who is actually a talented rapper propelling it. If this also opens the gate for more Christian rap, then I am all for that. It's a fun combination of genres that I think works much better than most rap.
66- "Sky Walker" - Miguel featuring Travis Scott (+14) -- I think it's funny that this song is rising around the time that the new Star Wars movie is about to come out. But not that funny. Because it's a terrible song that certainly doesn't do any justice to Star Wars. So this can go away and take Miguel and Travis Scott with it.
79- "Questions" - Chris Brown (+14) -- I think it's hilarious that Chris Brown released a 40 track album just recently and he couldn't get a single song from that album to chart. The only thing he accomplishes is getting this song a boost and getting another song to re-enter. Take that Chris Brown! Next time come back with a normal-length album that leaves room for potential quality. Actually, I have a better idea. Just don't come back at all. Go get a job flipping burgers at McDonald's and leave the rest of us alone.
New Arrivals:
14- "MotorSport" - Migos, Nicki Minaj & Cardi B -- I read the lyrics before listening to this song, saw how many echoes and sound effects Migos had, and skipped directly to Cardi B and Nicki's parts. If these two awful ladies (in terms of singing abilities) are friends now, who's going to outdo the other on this song? The answer is Cardi B. She puts more fire and energy into her verse while Nicki is just bored as she tries to sound like Migos on Migos' song. But don't get nervous because I'm not giving Cardi too much credit. Her lyrics are disgusting and awful. And speaking of lyrics, do Migos have a random word generator that they all use when determining lyrics for their songs? There's no rhyme or reason to anything they say here. The cover art for the single is kinda cool, though. That's the best compliment I have for this song.
57- "Ghostface Killers" - 21 Savage, Offset & Metro Boomin featuring Travis Scott -- I warned you about this album last week. 21 Savage, Offset & Metro Boomin released a collaboration album titled "Without Warning" that has what I think is a picture of an angry Doberman Pinscher as the cover art. Given how much I don't like these guys, I'm glad that they only charted four of these songs and that the highest one was No. 57. Next week I don't know what's coming. There's not any major new albums that are dominating streaming. Sam Smith is the biggest we got, but none of his songs are individually dominating streaming, so I don't think any of them are charting. Back to this song, though, with a scary cover art and a song titled "Ghostface Killers," you would think that there's a chance that this could be a dark and ominous song, but no. I'd say around 70 percent of it is Offset rambling on nonsensically about something. 21 Savage comes in and mumbles his way through a verse while Travis Scott gets shoehorned in at the end while doing his best Migos impression. I liked the instrumental stuff in the first 20 seconds, before Offset started rapping. Perhaps that's Metro Boomin's work? If so, he's the only one on this track that did anything.
71- "Ric Flair Drip" - Offset & Metro Boomin -- Just Offset on this one. Because Metro Boomin doesn't do any of the vocals on this album. But if he's doing the production or the instrumental parts like I'm guessing, then he again does a decent job here. But the problem is that I have zero interest in in a song with only Offset. Granted, I usually have zero interest in any song that Offset is on, but it's even worse when he has no talented friends to help him out, so this song is exactly what you'd expect. If you like Offset, then be my guest. And if you're curious, Ric Flair is a Hall of Fame WWE wrestler. Although reading the lyrics, I'm actually not sure if that means much because, again, it seems like any lyrics that any of these Migos guys write comes from a random word generator.
74- "Rap Saved Me" - 21 Savage, Offset & Metro Boomin featuring Quavo -- You would think that a song called "Rap Saved Me" just might have some emotion in it about how a rap career gave these guys hope and purpose. But we just have 21 Savage mumbling about something unrelated while Offset and Quavo wander off into their random word generated verses. I think one of them says the phrase "rap saved me" at one point, but I found no connection to the actual song as pertaining to any sort of appreciation about how this genre of music saved their lives.
94- "My Choppa Hate N------" - 21 Savage & Metro Boomin -- The benefit of this final song is that there are no sound effects from Offset or Quavo. The disadvantage is that we are then left with 21 Savage's mumbling for the whole song. And I really don't understand why black rappers are allowed to be racist in their songs. As the title suggests, 21 Savage drops the N-word constantly throughout the song and I don't like that. He also has a lot of KKK references in this song that are used in a way that I don't think is very appropriate. But since he's a black rapper, no one bats an eye. If this was a white guy rapping these lyrics, I can guarantee you the reaction would be different. I don't like the double standard.
98- "All on Me" - Devin Dawson -- After five songs with some sort of Migos, Nicki, 21 Savage and Travis Scott mix, I get to catch a break, right? One good song from our debuts? And, well, yes. Maybe it's because I suffered through five awful songs from artists that I really hate, but listening to this song felt like a breath of fresh air. But first, who the heck is Devin Dawson? To answer that, we have to go back to a viral YouTube video published by Louisa Wendorff in December 2014. That's when she posted a collaboration with her friend Devin Dawson that's a mash-up of Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" and "Style." And yeah, it's a dang good mash-up that has 34 million views for a reason. I don't know why we aren't giving Louisa a successful music career following that, but after one thing led to another, the song got Devin Dawson a recording contract, a Billboard Hot 100 hit and an upcoming debut album next year. According to an article on Billboard, Devin was initially planning on pursuing songwriting when he moved to Nashville, but that YouTube collaboration changed everything.
Back to "All on Me," this is a simple love song where Devin is informing this girl that she can lean on him, talk to him, cry on his shoulder or whatever she needs if she is struggling. I feel that Devin has a lot of charm and charisma to make this feel like a genuine offer that would make girls going through a tough time feel a lot better. Speaking of Taylor Swift, which Devin covered in the aforementioned collaboration, he does a great job of finding that country-pop balance that made Taylor so likable in her early days. I'm intrigued by this guy's forthcoming album "Dark Horse."
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