Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "God's Plan" - Drake (=) -- With sales continuing to drop and radio having not quite caught up yet, you would think Drake would be vulnerable to be overthrown. But then you take a look at those streaming numbers and this song only fell 4 percent to 79.6 million U.S. streams, making this the first song ever to have three weeks of more than 75 million U.S. streams. As a reminder, in its second week it had 83.3 million and in its first week it had 82.4 million. In terms of all-time weekly streams, that's good enough for fourth, fifth and sixth place. Until those numbers drop significantly, like half of what it currently is, this song isn't going anywhere. It's currently celebrating its third week at the top. As a reminder, Drake's "One Dance" spent 10 weeks at No. 1. I think there's a very good chance that Drake equals that mark or even get higher, unless there's a song in the next month or two that can equal these streaming numbers.
2- "Perfect" - Ed Sheeran (=) -- While Drake reigns for his third straight week, the rest of the top five has also gotten stuck. Ed Sheeran's radio is starting to drop, but it's still at a solid 146 million in total audience, good enough for his sixth straight crown on the top of the radio charts. Since the radio is in love with Ed Sheeran, "Perfect" will still probably be around for a while as when it starts to fall, it'll be a slow fall. Dua Lipa is already on top of pop radio with "New Rules," so that's the song to look out for.
3- "Finesse" - Bruno Mars & Cardi B (=) -- If Ed Sheeran can keep Bruno down at No. 3, I'll be super happy. But nonetheless I am expecting the two songs to switch places before too long. Although I don't see Bruno going No. 1 unless Drake's streaming numbers fall and it doesn't look like that is going to happen any time soon.
4- "Havana" - Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug (=) -- In a perfect world, "Havana" would trade places with "Finesse" and we'd have Drake, Ed and Camila in our top three. But alas, I don't think that's going to happen. Camila looks like she's strong enough at this moment to stay ahead of "rockstar," but the moment anything starts threatening this stalemated top five, "Havana" will probably start to drop.
5- "rockstar" - Post Malone featuring 21 Savage (=) -- Can we please be done with "rockstar" in the top five? This got old a long time ago, but it's still here. I also learned this week that this has also been playing on pop radio. Like... why?
6- "New Rules" - Dua Lipa (+1) -- I would really be happy if Dua Lipa would switch Post Malone next week, sending "New Rules" into the top five. As I previously mentioned, this is already the top song on pop radio and is threatening Ed for the top spot on overall radio as it currently sits at No. 3 on that latter list behind Ed and Camila. I mean, that's pretty much all this song has going for it as sales and streaming are practically M.I.A. But hey, the radio is doing something right because I like Dua.
7- "Pray for Me" - The Weeknd & Kendrick Lamar (new) -- Our weekly debut from the "Black Panther" soundtrack debuts in the top 10 this week, which is impressive. And hey, it's easily the best of the three songs that have charted so far. I'll get into my opinion more in depth down below, but I would totally be fine if this stuck around for a while. With the full soundtrack having been recently released and the movie coming out this weekend, I imagine that this will at least get solid numbers for the next few weeks. Second week drops always happen for big debuts, but we'll see if the album and the movie will be enough to keep it around.
8- "Stir Fry" - Migos (+4) -- Last week was the really difficult week where I had to cover all of Migos' new songs that charted thanks to the album drop of "Culture II." Thankfully most of those songs took major hits on this week's charts, but with the help of a new music video that is in its first full week of tracking, "Stir Fry" survived the slaughter and snuck into the top 10. And I'm fine with this. This was the only decent track from the album. If we have to have rap songs holding a place in the top 10, I'm content with this being one of the placeholders. In fact, this combined with "God's Plan" and "Pray for Me" means that three of our four rap songs right now are decent ones. Now if we can just get rid of "rockstar," I will be happy with the current set of rap songs.
9- "Meant to Be" - Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line (+2) -- Queue the choirs of angels singing hallelujah! Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line have done it! I'm so happy to see this song finally crossing over to the top 10. Bebe and FGL work really well together in creating this highly entertaining country pop song. In fact, Bebe going country works very well for her as she mashes amazingly well with FGL for this. And thanks to the crossover appeal, this is being promoted to both pop radio and country radio, which is what's stemming it's surge into the top 10. And here's your funny stat of the day. With Bebe Rexha now celebrating her 11th week at No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart, she breaks a record for most weeks on top of that chart for a female singer... passing Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." The latter part is the funny part. Because that Taylor song is 100 percent NOT country.
10- "Bad at Love" - Halsey (-4) -- As you have just witnessed, while the top five of the Hot 100 got stuck this week, the bottom half of the region was rather busy and the big loser of it all was Halsey as she tumbles down to No. 10. With three new songs in the region, we also lost "Thunder" by Imagine Dragons and "MotorSport" by Migos, which I'm ecstatic about. The third song we lost was "Say Something," which dropped to No. 17 after it's debut at No. 9 last week. I'm wondering if that song will eventually rebound in the coming weeks as I learned on a brief road trip this past weekend that the radio really loves that song. But yeah, overall a solid week for our top 10 losers. Let's officially kick Halsey out next week and bring in either NF or more Kendrick.
Rising on the Hot 100:
12- "Let You Down" - NF (+2) -- It's been a really impressive run for this song already, but the big challenge during the last month or so has been getting over the hump after camping out in the teens. "New Rules" and now "Meant to Be" have both gotten over the hump after being in similar predicaments, so now it's time to for NF to do the same! I hope this can replace "Bad at Love" next week. That would make me happy.
13- "Love." - Kendrick Lamar featuring Zacari (+2) -- Yes, Kendrick is already in the top 10 right now with his new debut "Pray for Me" from the "Black Panther" soundtrack. But I kinda want him to double dip in the top 10 with this joining as well. Or if "Pray for Me" experiences a typical second week drop next week, maybe Kendrick can replace himself, because this current single of his really deserves to be in the top 10.
19- "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)" - Cardi B (+6) -- I have no idea what caused this to randomly jump up this week. Was there something I missed that gave Cardi a boost? Well, whatever caused this, I don't expect it to last.
25- "Wolves" - Selena Gomez & Marshmello (+5) -- Oh can we please send this song even higher? It's been consistently hanging out on the charts for four months now and got as high as No. 20. But this was one of my favorite EDM songs of 2017, so I would love for it to get a second wind and jump into the top 20 or even top 10. It's already No. 6 on the pop radio charts, so pop radio has the right idea. Selena Gomez has consistently proven that her voice lends itself quite well to these EDM songs, so I think we should continue to reward her for this.
27- "Never Be the Same" - Camila Cabello (+5) -- This song also played quite a bit on my recent mini road trip, so I'm seeing visions of it being Camila's next top 10 hit. Perhaps when "Havana" falls out, this follow-up single will be there to replace it. And I'm happy with that. I can't say I'm madly in love with this, but it's a solid pop song from Camila, who has proven herself very capable as a solo artist.
29- "Mine" - Bazzi (+12) -- This is just a dumb Valentine's Day meme, right? After the holiday goes away, this will also disappear, right? At least I certainly hope so. This is barely a song. Things like this don't deserve a place on the Hot 100.
30- "Lights Down Low" - MAX featuring gnash (+8) -- The radio keeps trying to make this song a hit and I'd be totally fine with that if gnash weren't a part of the song. The original is a really sweet love song and including gnash completely ruins the tone. I'm happy for MAX, but I remain conflicted as a whole.
31- "All the Stars" - Kendrick Lamar & SZA (+23) -- With "Black Panther" around the corner, it makes sense for this to get a huge boost this week. I imagine it will get a pretty big boost next week as well with both the album and the movie being around. It's not as good as "Pray for Me," but it's much better "King's Dead."
34- "Filthy" - Justin Timberlake (+17) -- JT's album release gave this song a nice boost on the charts this week. But don't expect that to last as the radio is dropping this song like a hot piece of coal while instead choosing to play "Say Something." While I will still defend "Filthy" as not being as bad as many claim, I would concede that the right decision is being made here. "Say Something" is definitely the better song. With the Super Bowl and the album release now in the past, I'm curious to see how JT holds on because it seems like people aren't too thrilled with his current stuff.
39- "Outside Today" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again (+6) -- I suppose I'm glad this only jumped six spots. That gives me hope that it'll get stuck here in the 20's or 30's. Because we certainly don't need any of this YoungBoy punk hanging around.
49- "El Farsante" - Ozuna & Romeo Santos (+43) -- Here's the big surprise of the week. I totally did not expect "El Farsante" to go from a No. 92 debut last week to top 50 this week. In fact, I was more expecting it to drop out or hang around for a few weeks, then drop out. And it took me a second to figure out WHY it jumped so high. But then it hit me. Romeo Santos wasn't on the song last week. So a new remix with the both of them is what sparked this huge surge. And I'm not going to lie, I don't understand this remix musically. The original was essentially Ozuna begging his girl to come back to him. If he were to add a female singer to be the voice of his girl, it would make sense as a duet. But instead with Romeo it's two guys begging their respective girls to come back to them. Thus Romeo was only brought in for more sales as opposed to musically making sense. And their two voices aren't distinct enough, so if you're not paying attention, you might miss the transition. But oh well. I'm not offended by this.
60- "New Freezer" - Rich the Kid featuring Kendrick Lamar (+15) -- This I am kind of offended that it jumped high. It's not top 50 yet, so I can't quite complain, but if a phoned in Kendrick Lamar verse added to this awful rap song from another untalented new rapper boosts this super high, I'm going to be mad. We have plenty of good Kendrick songs on the charts right now. Let's call those good and reject this one.
69- "King's Dead" - Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Future & James Blake (+30) -- Well, all three Kendrick songs from "Black Panther" did quite well this week, which no surprise. I'm not a fan of this specific one and I have no idea how it will fit into the movie itself as the context has nothing to do with the characters or the land of Wakanda. But at least I can rest easy knowing that this song is currently behind the other two, "Pray for Me" and "All the Stars." So at least the Hot 100 ordered these three songs properly.
78- "Beautiful Trauma" - P!nk (+10) -- Seeing P!nk rise on the charts makes me happy. If you missed my list of favorite albums of 2017 that I posted yesterday, I ranked P!nk's album "Beautiful Trauma" as my fourth favorite album of the year, so of course I'm stoked that this title track did well this week. I just hope it's more than just a one week boost because this deserves to be a hit.
84- "Most People Are Good" - Luke Bryan (+10) -- Our final rising song sees Luke Bryan jump from the 90's to the 80's. Although there's certainly worse country songs out there, I'm not madly in love with this either. But this is only up to No. 84, so no worries as of yet. But even if this does become a hit, a song called "Most People Are Good" doing well wouldn't really hurt my feelings. At least Luke had good intentions.
New Arrivals:
7- "Pray for Me" - The Weeknd & Kendrick Lamar -- Isn't kinda interesting that we now have two songs in the top 10 with religions titles? "God's Plan" and "Pray for Me." Neither song is super religious, but it's a fun trend. I've mentioned "Pray for Me" a few times on this post already, but to recap, this is the third song from the "Black Panther" soundtrack to debut on the charts following "All the Stars" and "King's Dead." And it's also the best of the three. While both The Weeknd and Kendrick are totally capable of releasing bad music, they're also two artists who are currently some of the best of their respective genres. The Weeknd's smooth, relaxing R&B fuses well with Kendrick's sharp poignant rap music, giving us a rather enjoyable blend of music in this song. This is also the first of the three "Black Panther" songs where I can read the lyrics and see exactly how this fits in with the movie as it's the voice of one who doesn't want to fight anymore, but is being put into a situation where he might not have a choice in the matter, so he's asking for someone to pray for him and be there for him while is going through this difficult time. The song stands well enough on its own to be enjoyable with the context of the movie, but I also predict that it will fit well into the movie. This time next week I'll have seen the movie, so I'll pay close attention to these songs to see how they fit or if they're even present in the movie at all.
73- "Man of the Woods" - Justin Timberlake -- I keep saying that I plan on listening to JT's new album and yet I keep having to admit each with that I haven't done so. My official excuse is that I've been focusing on leftover albums from 2017 for my favorite albums of the year list. Given that I have now posted that, it'll now be time to dive into the new albums of 2018. As for now, I will remind you that I thought "Filthy" was decent, I hated "Supplies" and I quite enjoyed "Say Something." This title track will slide comfortable into third place. The instrumentation here is rather thin to the point where the song almost sounds like an a cappella song with a drum and a few other random instruments. I feel JT was going for something creative and experimental here, but instead it sounds a bit too empty. Like it is the rough draft of a song and they simply haven't added the additional layers to it. Much the the music itself, the lyrics also feel a bit empty. JT says he brags about his girls to others, yet isn't worried at all about hurting her feelings because he hears that making up is fun. Thus he ends up sounding like a bit of a jerk who is too insensitive. I think I understand where where they were trying to go with this song, but it doesn't really work for me as it feels unfinished.
81- "Dura" - Daddy Yankee -- I will fully admit that I am not an expert on Daddy Yankee. The Puerto Rican rapper/singer has released six studio albums, a few other live albums and mixtapes, 35 singles and has charted over 50 songs on the U.S. Latin Songs chart in various roles. Yet all I know him from is "Shaky Shaky" and as a part of Luis Fonsi's "Despacito." I really enjoyed "Despacito," but he doesn't get all the credit for that and I really wasn't a huge fan of "Shaky Shaky," which was him on his own. That said, I find "Dura" to be a rather fun Latino song. It doesn't quite have the energy of "Despacito," but it is more creative with its instrumentation than your average Latino song, thus giving it the unique enough flavor to stand out at Latino dance parties. I could see myself having a lot of fun with this song in the future and I predict that people who love Latino music in general will gravitate towards this song. I didn't explore much of the lyrics. Google told me that the word dura translates into "hard," which I think might be better stated as strong or tough as he's telling this girl how amazing she is. So I don't think it's anything fantastic lyrically, but as an English speaker, I try not to analyze these Spanish songs too much. They're good enough for me to give a pass to and the beat is more than enough for me to have fun with. So I think the song does its job.
90- "Hardaway" - Derez De'Shon -- Here's a novel idea. A rapper using his ACTUAL name. Or, well, first and middle name. More rappers should do that instead of coming up with horrendous rap names that make them sound like they have an IQ of a 4-year-old. That's the extent of my compliments towards Derez, though. What certainly isn't a smart idea is to admit that you don't take any time writing lyrics or thinking about your songs. This guy just walks into the studio, they turn on a beat, and he raps whatever comes to his mind. And thus we get something as unintelligent as this as Derez rambles on in unfocused manner about doing drugs and spending money. The song really has nothing to do with its title subject matter of Penny Hardaway outside throwing in a bunch of Hardaway puns. "I took the HARDER WAY." "I gave this HARD AWAY." "That s--- took my HEART AWAY." He probably said those lines and thought, "Hey, that sounds like Hardaway!" So he randomly name dropped Penny Hardaway a bunch of times. I mean, Penny Hardaway is kind of an obscure basketball player to rap about, unless Derez was a fan of the Magic in the 90's. But I would've rather had that than this unfocused, unintelligent piece of rap that we got instead.
92- "At the Club" - Jacquees & DeJ Loaf -- For some reason I keep thinking I should know the name DeJ Loaf better. She charted for a week with the song "No Fear," which I apparently enjoyed, but since it was only around for a week at No. 100, I quickly forgot it existed. She also charted with the song "Try Me" in 2014 and "Back Up" in 2015. I'm not really familiar with either of those songs. Jacquees did the song "B.E.D." last year, which was not a good song. So how are these two going to work together? Well, I suppose with the context I just gave, it shouldn't surprise you that this is a mixed bag. Every time Jacquees is singing, I'm super bored because he literally has the same bar or two of music repeated on each line, but with different words. And lyrically he's just talking about being in a club with a girl. It's dull and feels like it was thrown together in 30 seconds. But then DeJ Loaf comes in and adds personality to the song, sounding like she actually tried to make this a song, even though the material in front of her wasn't any more interesting lyrically. So this is whatever. Not annoying or awful. Just boring with Jacquees and decent with DeJ Loaf.
93- "The Long Way" - Brett Eldredge -- Meanwhile in the world of Brett Eldredge, he fell in love with a girl. Happy Valentine's Day, I suppose. And he certainly takes the long way around getting through this song. There's not a whole lot of content here, but h i s l y r i c s a r e r e a l l y s t r e t c h e d o u t. It's like when you're singing at church with an older person as the chorister or there is no chorister and it feels like your walking through taffy trying to get through the song because it's supposed to be twice as fast. This could've been a decent love song for Brett, but I think he really needed to pick up the tempo quite a bit because it feels like he's lagging quite a bit in an attempt to fill up the three minutes with his 90 seconds worth of content. Thus I instead got bored with this pretty quickly, even though there's certainly worse country songs around.
94- "Singles You Up" - Jordan Davis -- With Jordan Davis' first ever trip to the Hot 100 after securing a recording contract in 2016, he shows decent potential, although I'm not sure he leaves the absolute best first impression. This "singles you up" phrase that he came up with is a rather curious way to say "breaks up with you." I suppose he was going for a bit of a unique flavor here instead of going super cliche, which I suppose works. Thematically someone compared this to "Jessie's Girl," which I suppose works. Both songs are about a guy being a little too in love with someone else girlfriend. I suppose this can be a relatable sentiment, being jealous when a girl you had a major crush on falling in love with someone else. But Jordan oversteps his boundaries here just a bit as he needs to give this couple more distant instead of chomping at the bit, waiting for them to break up so that he can snatch her up. Hence the "Jessie's Girl" comparison. I mean, back off Rick. Go find your own girl. The big difference is that "Jessie's Girl" has an awesome 80's groove to it that makes it a blast to dance to while "Singles You Up" is a bit too similar to most modern country.
98- "A Girl Like You" - Easton Corbin -- In the world of country this week, Brett fell in love. Jordan is jealous. And Easton feels lucky to have his girl. Except out of the three of them, this is the one that sounds most cliche as Easton uses his deep southern twang to sing about all the bars in town and how they have a lot of things, but they ain't got a girl like the one he has. No originality here. Nothing to separate it from the thousands of other boring country songs you've already heard. Just beer, bars and girls. Snooze.
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