Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "God's Plan" - Drake (=) -- Drake has now led for 11 weeks with "God's Plan," meaning the song breaks out of a tie with "One Dance" to become Drake's longest leader on the U.S. Hot 100. It is now down to just five weeks before it can tie "One Sweet Day" and "Despacito" for the 16-week all-time record. However, I have strong reservations on it making that far as the streaming that I point out each week is down to 52.1 million U.S. streams, which is a significant 15 percent fall from last week. Once it hits that 40 million range, it's vulnerable to being topped if a new song with huge streaming arrives, which we have quite a bit of right now. The Weeknd debuted at No. 4 this week with huge streaming. Drake himself has a new single called "Nice for What" that is set to debut high next week and Cardi B's new album just dropped and will also be affecting the charts next week. At this very moment, "God's Plan" is in 9th place on the Apple Music charts, behind "Nice for What" and eight Cardi B songs. That's only one of many streaming services in the equation, but it could mean the song is in for another big hit next week. If it does hold on, it will likely because it still has excellent radio numbers as it's still in fourth place with 109 million in total audience.
2- "Meant to Be" - Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line (=) -- Speaking of radio dominance, "Meant to Be" has now rose to the top of the radio charts with 131 million in total audience, making it the just the third time that a country act, Florida Georgia Line in this instance, has topped the radio charts since the charts inception in 1990, the other two being Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" in 2010 and Taylor Swift's " You Belong to Me" in 2009. In other words, an actual country song has never topped the radio charts as all three of these songs are more country pop, leaning heavy on the pop. But since all three acts are, or were in Taylor's case, considered country acts, I guess that's what we're counting here. But nevertheless, it's significant that it's the first time in nearly 10 years that a country-ish song has topped the radio charts. In other significant news, "Meant to Be" has now spent its 19th week on top of the Hot Country Charts, tying for third place all time with Leroy Van Dyke's "Walk on By" in 1961-62. FGL's "Cruise" (24 weeks) and Sam Smith's "Body Like a Back Road" (34 weeks) are the only two songs ahead of it in the rankings.
3- "Psycho" - Post Malone featuring Ty Dolla $ign (+1) -- As you'll quickly find out, the floor just completely disappeared out from under Bruno Mars this week as "Finesse" falls from No. 3 to No. 8, meaning "Psycho," by default, jumps up to the No. 3 spot, because something had to and The Weeknd wasn't quite strong enough. It's really unfortunate because I was hoping that this song would start to slowly slip down the charts rather than slowly climb up. I really don't think it's going to get much higher than No. 3, but that's no consolation prize because this boring piece of forgettable nothing never even deserved to be this high in the first place.
4- "Call Out My Name" - The Weeknd (new) -- If we're going to have a new hot-shot debut on the charts, I am 100 percent in on The Weeknd taking over as this debuts at No. 4 thanks to 40.5 million U.S. streams in its first week of tracking. Now if that streaming could translate into radio, maybe this song could climb even higher. It's at least more deserving than "Psycho," so if it could jump up a spot, we'd have a pretty strong top three right now. And yeah, The Weeknd's entire 6-track EP "My Dear Melancholy," debuted on the charts in the top 52, so we'll get to all of it here in a bit, including a more in depth look at my opinion of this song. My sneak peak of that is that I really enjoy this song, so I'm rooting for it to gain traction and become another monster hit for The Weeknd.
5- "Look Alive" - BlocBoy JB featuring Drake (+1) -- Also jumping up a spot thanks to the nose-dive of "Finesse," as well as the continued downward spiral of Ed Sheeran's "Perfect," is this piece of trash. It's unfortunate that this song has found its way back into the top five after falling out of the top 10 a few weeks ago. I was enjoying it being gone and the idea of it getting a second life at the top part of the charts is really frustrating because this is an empty piece of garbage.
6- "The Middle" - Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey (+1) -- I could say that "The Middle" also took advantage of Bruno and Ed falling, but this song continues to cruise higher on the radio charts, so it's certainly no surprise to see it returning to it's peak position. It's more surprising that it hasn't yet broke into the top five. I would greatly appreciate it if this can replace "Psycho" or "Look Alive" in the top five.
7- "Perfect" - Ed Sheeran (-2) -- Not much to say here outside it's been a good run for Ed Sheeran in the top 10 with this combined with last year's "Shape of You." Currently there's no sighting of another Ed Sheeran single anywhere close to the top 10, so he might be taking a break for a bit once this drops out. But does he have one more single from the album hiding up his sleeve? I've heard rumors of "Supermarket Flowers" or "Happier," but so far those are just rumors.
8- "Finesse" - Bruno Mars & Cardi B (-5) -- It honestly surprised me to see this song tumble so hard this week. I was thinking it was time for it to start heading down, but I thought it would be more gradual instead of being a sudden drop. But hey, I'm happy. I'm done with Bruno and I hope he goes away for a while. Come back with another album in a year or two that's actually worth something.
9- "Freaky Friday" - Lil Dicky featuring Chris Brown (-1) -- I suppose I can be slightly happy that this hasn't gained any additional momentum because it would be beyond awful if this managed to stick around in the top 10 for a long time. If we're getting Cardi and more Drake in the top 10 next week, I hope this is one of the songs that gets booted from the top 10.
10- "Walk It Talk It" - Migos featuring Drake (+5) -- Migos better be kneeling on the ground worshiping the ground Drake walks on because that's literally the only reason this song is here. Even for Migos' extremely low standards, this is an especially empty song with even less meaning than usual. But because Drake phoned it in for a part on the song, the song is now Migos' fourth top 10 hit as most of the country still drools all over themselves at the sight of Drake. Speaking of which, Drake has now celebrated his 24th top 10 entry with this song, meaning he breaks free from the four-way tie he was previously in with Whitney Houston, Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones, all of whom have 23 entries. This puts Drake by himself in 10th place.
Rising on the Hot 100:
13- "Plug Walk" - Rich the Kid (+5) -- Why? That's all I really have here. Why? Rich the Kid has zero ounces of talent in his body when it comes to rap, so why have we knighted him the next big thing in rap music? Let's get rid of this pointless thug and bring something better into the top 10.
25- "Friends" - Marshmello & Anne-Marie (+5) -- There's not very many songs rising in the top 50 this week thanks to The Weeknd's EP drop, which makes it all the more impressive that this is one of the only songs to rise in the 20's and 30's instead of momentarily stalling out. I don't know if I really need this in the top 10, but I hope this goes top 20 soon. Perhaps it can get there next week.
46- "Delicate" - Taylor Swift (+6) -- And Taylor Swift breaks top 50 as the world is slowly picking up on the fact that there is something good from "repuation." I think there's several good things from the album, but I seem to be in the minority when it comes to that. But I'm happy the rest of the world is at least gravitating towards "Delicate."
53- "Japan" - Famous Dex (+17) -- Believe it or not, if we were going to let a Japan song from last week rise big in its second week, I would've rather it been Shawn Mendes' Japan song, not this piece of trash from Famous Dex that has absolutely nothing to do with Japan. Or much of anything for that matter.
84- "No Roots" - Alice Merton (+16) -- Boom! Huge fist pump here! Granted, it's only a jump to the mid-80's, so I should hold my celebration until this makes a real move, but I hope that this song is this year's "Feel It Still" because this song has a lot of groove to it and the Hot 100 as a whole could use a lot more spice to it.
New Arrivals:
4- "Call Out My Name" - The Weeknd -- The best word to describe this song is melancholy, which should be no surprise since this EP is titled "My Dear Melancholy," with the comma at the end. Lyrically it might be nothing special. The Weeknd is just singing about a breakout, making people think this song is about Selena Gomez, whom he recently broke up with. Yet there's a lot of agony in his voice as he exclaims that he put everything he had into this relationship, only to get nothing from her. I feel the passion and the pain from The Weeknd. I also think the song has a perfect tempo with good backup instrumentation to really sell the mood here. So this song is simple, but effective, making it one of the better songs that The Weeknd has put out.
16- "Be Careful" - Cardi B -- Cardi dropped her new album recently and I'm positive that it's going to make a huge impact on next week's charts, which I'm not excited about. Granted, Cardi often has a lot more fire and passion in her rap than other rappers, but what I care most about when it comes to rap music is content and her content has never impressed me. With this song, she actually lacks the fire that she usually has, even though the content is more passable this time around, so this is kinda backwards. She's talking about her boy in a certain relationship, warning him to be careful with her and not cheat, otherwise she's going to drop him and move on. This led people to believe she's giving a public warning to Offset, her current fiance, but apparently she denied those claims, so who knows what she's really speaking of here. It wouldn't surprise me to see a rapper deliver empty content that actually means nothing. Regardless, though, the rap itself is something I find boring. Instead of having a lot of spark and energy, this might put me to sleep if it's played to much. I hope that's not indicative of the album as a whole. Even though I'm not crossing my fingers, I'm hoping to find something that I can at least find acceptable.
26- "Try Me" - The Weeknd -- I don't know if this is a coincidence or not, but the six songs from this "My Dear Melancholy," EP charted in the exact order that they appear on the EP. Which could mean people more and more people slowly gave up on it as they got further. But hey, it makes it convenient for me in discussing it because this is all in the right order. So following up on "Call Out My Name," The Weeknd continues this idea of reaching out to this girl, this time finding him on the high end of his register for a lot of the song. There's a lot more detail in the verse where he's talking to this girl, but slightly less passion and energy than the previous song, making this still a good song, but not quite as memorable. Also, if The Weeknd is trying to win this girl's heart back, I'm not so sure accusing her of being prideful is the right way to go, whether or not it's true. "Once you put aside your pride, you can notify me," he explains on the chorus. I'm no expert on relationships, but if you accuse a girl who just broke up with you of being prideful, that's probably just going to widen the gap between the two of you. But hey, that's just me thinking out loud here.
27- "Wasted Times" - The Weeknd -- The next phase of this breakup story that The Weeknd is detailing on this EP has The Weeknd diving into jealousy. He starts by saying that he's been wasting his time with someone else and that he really wants to get back to this girl. The chorus has him asking who is she with now, because whoever it is has nothing on him. If this is Selena, then who knows who she's moved onto since they broke up. The strange thing, though, is that later in the song The Weeknd pulls the card that he knew this girl first before everyone else did, which is why he claims she should come back to him. Which is curious word choice because if he is singing about this recent breakup with Selena, that was a 10-month relationship and he's definitely not been with her from the beginning. So is he actually singing about previous girlfriend Bella Hadid? But that also doesn't fit because he broke up with her before getting together with Selena. Not that I'm the expert on The Weeknd's romance life. But there is the internet that exists and researching that makes this lyrics confusing because it just seems like empty statements from The Weeknd to win this girl's love back. I also am not a fan of him getting a bit to graphic in the second verse. Even though his vocals and emotion are still there, that element turns me off from this song.
35- "I Was Never There" - The Weeknd featuring Gesaffelstein -- First step with the next two songs on this EP was to figure out who Gesaffelstein is. Turns out the answer is that he's a French DJ who helped on the production here. I don't know where he got the stage name Gesaffelstein, but his real name is Mike Lévy, which would've been a lot easier for me to type up, but oh well. His addition to the song makes it sound much more unique than the other songs as there are quite a bit of different sounds involved in this song, most of which are interesting as I especially liked the intro, but then it gets a bit distracting as we get further into the song, meaning I think it was overdone a bit. As far as the content, we're going to call this a downward spiral for The Weeknd as the jealousy in the previous song seems to have turned into depression because he opens up with suicidal thoughts as he poses the question of what makes a man want to take his life, while then answering the lack of happiness. He then reveals that he's dealing with it by poisoning himself with drugs and having mindless sex. He admits that he knows this is wrong, but then he blames it all on her. I appreciated the honesty in the song up until that last part when he throws the blame all on her. Yes, I get the sadness and depression, but at a certain point you gotta take responsibility here for your own actions and realize that your breakup may have not been all her fault.
43- "Hurt You" - The Weeknd featuring Gesaffelstein -- For this next song, The Weeknd brings back Gesaffelstein to help with the production and I'll say that it's a little more toned down this time around as to be less distracting and more natural, which I appreciate. The song also samples and/or interpolates previous songs by The Weeknd in "Starboy" and "I See It Coming," making the song around the content more interesting than some of the previous songs on the EP, but the problem here for me is that it almost seems like The Weeknd ran out of steam here as this is the most empty when it comes to the lyrical content. He seems to have toned down the darkness of the previous song, but it's a little repetitive as he covers ground that he already covered in previous songs talking about being jealous of her being with someone else and that he's better than who she's with currently. But most of the song is just him repeating the lyrics "I don't wanna hurt you." He could've added a bit more detail because as is this feels more like a partial thought as opposed to being fully realized.
45- "Medicine" - Queen Naija -- Before we get to our final song from The Weeknd, we take a quick brake to discuss this song from Queen Naija. But first, who is Queen Naija? Well, apparently she's a YouTuber. In fact, her and her husband Chris Sails had a YouTube channel called Chris and Queen where they did a bunch of vlogging. But then they broke up and have two different YouTube channels, so if you want to know more about them, search for Queen Naija or Chris Sails on YouTube and you have hours worth of videos that will tell you all about them. Queen Naija currently has 2.2 million subscribers on her channel, so it's possible that I'm the one behind here. Sorry about that. I don't keep up on the vlogging universe too much.
Anywho, this song is Queen purging all of her emotions about this relationship and how much he hurt her by cheating on her. What was most impressive to me personally is how beautiful of a song this is because apparently this is the first time she's really taken music seriously. Had I not known any different, I would've thought this came from someone who had been a professional singer all of her life. I prefer her voice, her energy and the emotion she brings a lot more than most R&B singers. In fact, this is similar to Cardi B's "Be Careful" that I discussed previously in terms of the subject matter, but Queen pulls it off way better than Cardi does. I watch Chris Sails' 12-minute reaction video to this song on his channel and he really confused me as he was nonsensically rambling on for most of the time. He also has a song that he previewed in that video and he does not have the talent that Queen does. All of this makes me want to subscribe to Queen and learn more about her. But now is not the time for that. I have a lot more songs to cover first. But I hope this continues to gain traction because it's cool to see a talented YouTuber do well on the mainstream charts.
52- "Privilege" - The Weeknd -- The final song on The Weeknd's EP sees him ending on a bitter note with him insulting this girl, telling her to enjoy her privileged life, inferring that he's going to get better, with the help of more drugs and sex, because she was essentially high maintenance anyways. If there was a question as to who this was in previous songs, it seems obvious that this one is all about Selena because The Weeknd wouldn't be the first to call her high maintenance and the whole privilege thing screams Selena, either because he's using the race card or referring to the fact that her net worth and celebrity status is through the roof. Depending on how you look at that, this could be slightly hypocritical because it's not like The Weeknd's celebrity status is that much lower. In fact, in terms of chart success, he's done way better than she has. So essentially this just feels like a bitter, heart-broken man throwing out lame, emotionally-charged excuses to make himself feel better. Excuses that don't hold up when you examine them. All in all, I still enjoy that first track and this is still a decent project that's better than others in The Weeknd's genre, but it's one that loses steam along the way, so I couldn't give it more than a high-C or low-B grade.
78- "Boo'd Up" - Ella Mai -- Our second new R&B singer on the charts this week. First we have YouTuber Queen Naija and now we have this girl, who I just learned auditioned on X-Factor season 11 as a part of a trio, but never made it past that audition phase. So the group broke up and Ella Mai later posted a four-track EP on SoundCloud, where she was discovered and signed by DJ Mustard. That wasn't super encouraging for me because not a lot of good comes out of songs produced by DJ Mustard, but this is pretty decent. Like Queen Naija, this girl has a good voice and has put together a solid R&B track, and I'm not usually a fan of that genre because I often find it a bit boring. Now "Boo'd Up" doesn't have as much emotion or energy as "Medicine," but it's a good week for new female singers on the charts. The problem with "Boo'd Up" is when we get to the chorus with all the "Boo'd Up" stuff. Calling someone your boo is something I've always found overly cheesy and weird. I don't like it. And that combined with her mimicking a heart beat sound means we have a chorus of "Listen to my heart go ba-dum, boo'd up; Bibby-da-bum, boo'd up." I just find that a bit silly, thus I have a hard time taking that chorus seriously. She also doesn't put quite as much energy into her romantic lyrics, so it comes off as a bit generic. But overall not bad at all.
89- "OKRA" - Tyler, The Creator -- Tyler, The Creator is a rapper I don't know a whole lot about, although it's a name that I find recognizable. He has four studio albums dating back to 2011, with the most recent one being last year's "Flower Boy." I've listened to none of these. But he did chart his first song on the Hot 100 last year and that was "Who Dat Boy," which I wasn't extremely fond of. So I wasn't super excited to hear a follow-up. And no, this is not worth anything, either. During his verses, it sounds like he turned up the bass too high and is just rapping in monotone about a whole bunch of nonsense. This doesn't make me offended or angry, it just bores me and I can imagine myself completely forgetting this song existed if it were to go away.
92- "Take Back Home Girl" - Chris Lane featuring Tori Kelly -- I was wondering when Tori Kelly was going to show up on the charts again. Last I saw her was back in 2015 with her debut album "Unbreakable Smile," which I really liked. Outside that, the only thing I've seen her in recently is those Nationwide commercials. Her version of the jingle is actually really good even though it's a silly commercial jingle. Although I wish her return to the charts was on more than just a Chris Lane song. While the song is not bad, without Tori Kelly's vocals backing him up, this would be a generic country song from Chris Lane. The lyrics mean mostly nothing outside Chris being really happy that she's his girl, calling her his "take back home girl." What elevates the song is Tori supporting him in these verses, even though she's relegated to backup singer for most of the song, getting one quick verse on her own. But just like Tori manages to make a Nationwide jingle somewhat enjoyable, she does good giving life to these generic lyrics. So I can't praise this, but I also can't hate it either. I just hope this is a sign that Tori has a second album coming soon because I want to hear that.
94- "Woman, Amen" - Dierks Bentley -- A second generic country singer. The difference here is that Dierks doesn't have a Tori Kelly backing him up. He's just telling us that he's on his knees praying to God, thanking him for this woman he has in his life because she gives him faith, grace, hope and strength after the world previously shook his faith by breaking his heart. So that's a nice idea and all, but it's nothing I haven't heard a thousand times from other generic country singers and he doesn't dive deep into this love story or bring enough passion to the table to make me care. The song has enough of an upbeat tone to it to make it tolerable if someone were to play it while I was in the room or driving in the car. But it's nothing I'm going to remember after it goes away.
96- "Proud" - 2 Chainz featuring YG & Offset -- Couldn't go a week without another song from one of these club rappers, could we? With a song called "Proud," what are these guys going to be saying they're proud of? Their fame? Their fortune? Their drugs? Their girls that they stole? OK, maybe I'm being mean and stereotypical, but can you blame me? Well, as it turns out, this song is about them wanting to make their mommas proud. Oh. Well that's nice of them. And actually, 2 Chainz gives a pretty good verse himself and is also on his game during the choruses, so I can appreciate that. However, his two friends that he brought on forgot the memo of what they were supposed to be singing about out. They're just rambling on about the thug lives they're living and somehow tying their moms into it. So I give a pass to 2 Chainz, but not the other two. And thus for the song as a whole, 33 percent is not a passing grade.
100- "Focus" - H.E.R. -- We have, not one, not two, but three new R&B female singers on the charts this week. That's fun! H.E.R. is the stage name of Gabi Wilson, who made it here after a more traditional route, or perhaps old-fashioned route, by releasing a few EP's and a compilation album after getting signed to a major record label, rather than getting here thanks to YouTube or SoundCloud, like the other two new ladies. I'm not calling that a positive or negative, necessarily. Rather it's more of an observation. In fact, when she was initially signed, her identity was a mystery because she wanted people to focus on her music rather than who she was, which I find respectable. This song here I think is rather mesmerizing or hypnotic and I credit that to the harp that is playing throughout the song with some haunting background sounds/vocals to go along with that. Gabi's vocals layer onto that rather perfectly as she gives a sound of desperation as she's begging this guy to focus on her because she feels alone in this relationship. The lyrics are actually pretty simple, but the hypnotic instrumentals combined with her soulful, desperate voice make this a rather fascinating song that I imagine myself enjoying more as the days and weeks go by.
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