Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "In My Feelings" - Drake (=) -- One Usher record tied this week. The other Usher record set to be tied next week. This week, Drake ties Usher's record for most total weeks at No. 1 among solo males across an entire career with 47 weeks. Among all acts, Mariah Carey has the record with 79 weeks followed by Rihanna with 60, The Beatles with 59 and Boyz II Men with 50. Notably, though, Mariah Carey spent all 79 of her weeks as the lead act, whereas both Drake and Rihanna piggybacked off of others for a good chunk of theirs. I'd also still claim that The Beatles getting 59 weeks at No. 1 is more impressive than all of these acts because they did so in the 60's when most No. 1 hits only lasted a few weeks at top. We didn't have any song hit 10 weeks at top in the history of the Hot 100 until Debby Boone did it in the 70's. Even knocking Mariah and Boyz II Men a bit, they're the first acts to really take advantage of the Nielsen SoundScan, which became a thing in the early 90's and caused all songs to stay in the top 10 for a lot longer. So take Drake's accomplishment with a grain of salt. The other record he might set next week is a bit more impressive as Usher's record of 28 weeks at No. 1 in a single year is in jeopardy. Drake has now spent 27 weeks at No. 1 in 2018, which is over half the year. But actually it's not a guarantee that Drake makes it as we could have a non-Drake No. 1 next week. Let's talk about that in the next entry.
2- "Girls Like You" - Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B (=) -- I've noted over the last several weeks that "In My Feelings" has been tanking in all categories. It's been high enough that said tanking hasn't made a huge dent in it's lead, but now it's catching up to Drake. According to Billboard's weekly article, "In My Feelings," fell 14 percent in overall chart points while "Girls Like You" was a lot more consistent by only falling 3 percent. If we crunch the numbers, Drake has 50.5 million U.S. streams, down 15 percent, 26,000 sales, down 14 percent, and even tanked on radio, falling 12 percent to 93 million in total audience. Comparatively, Maroon 5 has 29.7 million U.S. streams, down 5 percent, 28,000 sales, down 6 percent, and 127.6 million in total radio audience, down 1 percent. So Drake has streaming while Maroon 5 has radio. But as Drake continues to plummet harder, especially in streaming, Maroon 5's consistency and super strong radio could win them the crown. If not next week, then possibly within the next few weeks. Unless, of course, Eminem has something to say about it. I have no idea what his exact streaming numbers are, but he's been killing it this past week with his surprise album drop in "Kamikaze," which is set to impact the charts next week.
3- "I Like It" - Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin (=) -- All that talk leaves Cardi B in the dust as she's consistently behind both Drake and Maroon 5 in all categories. But who cares. All these songs have long overstayed their welcome, so the faster they drop, the better. And even if one or two of them remain consistent, if one of them starts actually tanking, I'll take that as a win. This song has gotten stuck in my head quite a bit, but that's because the original that Cardi is puking all over with her version is quite excellent.
4- "Better Now" - Post Malone (+1) -- It might seem strange, but seeing Post Malone rise up to No. 4 made me happy this week. But that's mostly because it kicked "FeFe" down one spot. At this point, I'll also take "Better Now" over any of our top three songs. So yeah, I'm cheering on Post Malone. Take note of that in your journals because it might not happen ever again. I haven't necessarily had a change of heart regarding the song itself. It just happens to be the song in the top five that doesn't drive me crazy.
5- "FeFe" - 6ix9ine featuring Nicki Minaj (-1) -- Here's a frustrating stat. "FeFe" is on the verge of knocking out Drake on the streaming charts. "In My Feelings" is No. 1 with 50.5 million U.S. streams. "FeFe" is second with 48.6 million U.S. streams. As far as why people are still streaming this awful song, I'm about as lost as ever. It's one of those instances that makes me want to advocate removing streaming from Billboard's formula because the streaming charts are absolute garbage.
6- "Lucid Dreams" - JUICE WRLD (=) -- If we're going to be streaming rap songs, why don't we spend more time streaming this one than "In My Feelings" and "FeFe"? Let's at least get "FeFe" out of the top five and let "Lucid Dreams" back in.
7- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (+2) -- This went UP this week? I was enjoying its gradual descent while hoping it would descend quicker. But the fact that it seems to have now gained traction with it's continually monstrous streaming numbers makes me sick to my stomach. At least I can laugh at the fact that Drake gets nothing added to his already bloated career with this song. It's almost more him in the song than Travis Scott, but Travis decided to not list him as a featured credit. Good on you, Travis.
8- "Taste" - Tyga featuring Offset (+2) -- I knew this would happen. Ariana's songs were both going to fall and Tyga was going to rise. I was only wrong in the sense that I thought this would also pass up Travis, but unfortunately for me, BOTH songs still exist in the top 10. Let's work on fixing that, please?
9- "Love Lies" - Khalid & Normani (+2) -- And this is where I take a huge sigh of relief. Finally we have another good song entering the region. This gives me a little ray of hope that, amidst the treacherously awful 2018 when it comes to the top 10, good things can still happen. Khalid and Normani gel so well in this song and I'm happy for both of them. After learning on Tuesday that this song finally cracked the top 10, I've been singing it in celebration all week, not minding at all that I've now had it stuck in my head pretty good. I was nervous that this would be another casualty of a song peaking at No. 11, but not being able to make it over the edge and into the top 10. Due to the fairly average streaming and sales numbers, I don't know how high this song can get, but the radio is what got it here as it's No. 5 on the radio charts with 88.2 million U.S. streams. This is Khalid's second top 10 hit and first as a lead act. It's also Normani's first entry as a solo artist after spending time in the top 10 as a part of Fifth Harmony. Speaking of Fifth Harmony, she's the second from that group to get a solo top 10 hit after Camila. And the group continues to prove that they should officially disband as their music is much better when the individual members are off on their own.
10- "God is a Woman" - Ariana Grande (-2) -- I found it slightly surprising that "God is a Woman" lasted another week in the top 10. I thought both of Ariana's songs were doomed on the week following the album bomb. If you were to tell me that one of the songs were to survive, I would've predicted that "No Tears Left to Cry" would've been the one granted an extra. But we'll see where this goes from here. It's the lesser of the two major hits, but I wouldn't be too disappointed if it managed to stick around.
Rising on the Hot 100:
19- "Back to You" - Selena Gomez (+4) -- I'm happy to see this song finally get to the top 20. I would hope that it gets much higher because this is an excellent song from Selena, who has recently proven to be an excellent artist with her last few singles. I don't know why this hasn't gained more traction, but because it hasn't, I'm not super confident in it's potential to get over the hump, but I really hope I'm wrong.
20- "Big Bank" - YG featuring 2 Chainz, Big Sean & Nicki Minaj (+4) -- What's the appeal of this song? I don't understand. I'm glad that it has a lot less momentum at the moment than it did several weeks ago, but it still don't like it being around.
24- "Natural" - Imagine Dragons (+5) -- With college football season in full speed ahead, I hear this song like 100 times a day when I turn on ESPN. So far I'm not sick of it quite yet, but get back to me when we're in November and we'll see where I'm at.
35- "Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset" - Luke Bryan (+5) -- I haven't glanced at the Country charts this week, but I'm guessing this song is now heading for the top spot on that chart. I'm neutral as far as that goes. It's not a song that makes me upset, but in a year from now I don't think anyone is going to remember this.
36- "Life Changes" - Thomas Rhett (+7) -- If Thomas Rhett is the one that gets to the top of the country charts, I might be happier. But at the same time, is this really country? Let's let real country songs top the country charts. But hey, as more of a pop song, this is one of the few Thomas Rhett songs that I think really works, so I'm good for this.
39- "I'm a Mess" - Bebe Rexha (+6) -- As a solo artist, I think this is the highest Bebe has ever gotten. She's piggybacked off of various others to make a name for herself and now she's proving that she can do it on her own. Overall I'm happy about that. But let's come back with a better song next time, please.
44- "Beautiful" - Bazzi featuring is Camilla Cabello (+6) -- Bazzi is an incompetent song writer. His voice is fine, but his lyrics and song construction are awful, so if we could not make him a thing, that would be great. This is better than "Mine," but there's a lot of wasted potential here and I'm still confused as to what the heck Camila is doing with her career at the moment.
46- "Drew Barrymore" - Bryce Vine (+11) -- I want to have the luxury of forgetting this song existed, so if we could stop making it a thing and let me forget, I would love that.
52- "W O R K I N M E" - Quavo (+44) -- I was really happy when this song plummeted into the 90's last week. But now it jumped all the way up to the 50's and could become a hit? Let's hope not. I would rather have this fall back down.
54- "Trip" - Ella Mai (+13) -- I want to be happier that Ella Mai is getting a second hit, but I'm really not. I'm not a fan of this song. I find it rather annoying.
66- "Side Effects" - The Chainsmokers featuring Emily Warren (+15) -- I probably would've forgotten this song existed had it not gained any traction. As is, it's not a frustrating song from The Chainsmokers like most of their attempted singles recently have been. But they're still not quite back to what they used to be. I suppose that makes this a step in the right direction.
67- "Ring" - Cardi B featuring Kehlani (+18) -- When I covered Cardi's album bomb back in April, I labelled this as the best song on the album. Thus it's almost surprising that she picked at as her next single, if that's what this is. I'm used to her and other rappers taking the opposite route by picking the trash as their singles. So yeah, I'm fine with this doing well. Maybe I'll have more to say if it continues upwards.
76- "High Hopes" - Panice! At the Disco (+14) -- Can we PLEASE make this into a hit? This is one of my favorite songs of the year so far. When I did my mid-year top 10, I put this at No. 6. Then I've had to watch it mostly sputter out after being released, but seeing it come back and now gain a bit of momentum gives me some hope.
80- "Lie" - NF (+17) -- I don't mind NF as a rapper. If you're asking me who my current favorite rappers are right now, I might consider throwing his name out there simply because he's one of the few guys that don't annoy me. But this isn't one of his better efforts, so I'm not sure what to think of this. We'll see if he can actually turn this into a hit, though, because he's kinda struggled finding a follow-up hit.
New Arrivals:
11- "IDOL" - BTS featuring Nicki Minaj -- I've moved past the point of being shy or hesitant about this, so I'm going to be blunt. BTS might have the most annoying fan base in the history of music fandom. And it's made it so that I borderline hate the band because of it. Especially because there's like 900 of them in the group and they never have anything interesting to say. So even without the annoying fandom, I don't think I would be impressed. Get rid of 90 percent of the band and their music is the exact same boringly mediocre K-Pop stuff. And now they're collaborating with Nicki? Yuck. Although surprisingly, their typical BTS dance beat is a better fit for Nicki than anything Nicki has done on her own, so if I ignore the lyrics, this is a better song than I was expecting. But based on the English portions of the song that I can understand, BTS doesn't seem to be talking about anything and Nicki's verse at the end is her usual crap. So this song has a decent beat, but it's nothing that is worth millions of Koreans drooling all over themselves for. If we're going to make K-Pop a thing, let's bring back BLACKPINK or some other group.
69- "I am Who They Say I Am" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again featuring Kevin Gates & Quando Rondo -- An untalented thug rapper who needs to disappear from the spotlight and have his musical career die? OK, fine, I don't know if that's what "they" are saying, but that's what I'm saying. According to the song, "they" are saying that he's a thug from the trenches, never had a heart, drug dealer, contract killer, loyal from the start, and fake among other things. OK, that's not much different from my version. But still not interesting. And he's owning up to it. OK. Why should I care? Truth is I don't, so YoungBoy can go away and leave me alone.
72- "Unica" - Ozuna -- OK, I got this out way late due to Labor Day throwing me off my groove (charts get released a day later than usual when there's a Monday holiday) and my work week from Wednesday to Friday being pretty intense, so I'm being lazy with this one and not translating the lyrics right now. As far as the beat, it's a typical Latino dance beat. Ozuna has a smooth voice and is pleasing to listen to, so as an American who doesn't know Spanish, I'm fine with this being around.
82- "Mo Bamba" - Sheck Wes -- I don't know who Sheck Wes is, but his first word on this was a curse word. Then all his bars ended with him elongating the last note in annoying fashion with lots of annoying sound effects. And I think there was more curse words than non-curse words in the songs. And when we didn't have curse words, we have lazy rap lyrics about everything you could probably guess. So yeah, I didn't last long with this song. I think I only got 45 seconds in before I had enough.
83- "Smile (Living My Best Life)" - Lil' Duval featuring Snoop Dogg & Ball Greezy -- I got super distracted when I searched this song on my Apple Music. The cover art is a Mr. Rodgers parody thing. I don't even know what to think about that. It left me speechless in the literal sense of that. So then I had to start the song over. I don't know when the last time we had a Snoop Dogg song on the charts, but he's typically good at being relaxing and chill and that's what this song is. I'm not familiar with Lil' Duval or Ball Greezy, but the three of them combine for a song that's relaxingly carefree and chill, encouraging people to smile and live your best life. I don't have a huge problem with it outside I think it curses too much. I know there's a clean version on Apple Music and that's the one I listened to, but that version has a lot of censoring that's distracting. Take all the language out and I might thing this is a really good song worthy of listening to.
86- "Drunk Girl" - Chris Janson -- This song I'm conflicted about. At first look, it's another bland country singer with a song called "Drunk Girl." Bland country artists singing about drinking is the lamest thing when it comes to country music. It feels derivative and lazy. But then I pressed play and this song is a piano ballad that has Janson matching the good piano with great vocals. And it almost made me want to say this song was surprisingly good. But the content of this ballad is him still talking about a drunk girl. But it's not exactly what I was thinking of as it's him telling us that if you see a drunk girl, you should reach out and take her in order to help fix her life up. In other words, do some service. Help someone out who is struggling. And that's nice. But I don't know. There's still a bit of disconnect here and I can't put my finger on it. More substance perhaps? Because this is still a bit thin. Different phrasing? I'll have to think about this and get back to you if it does well because I'm conflicted at this moment.
87- "The Way I Am" - Charlie Puth -- So we have YoungBoy saying that he is the way everyone says he is and now we have Charlie Puth with a similarly titled song? Interesting coincidence there. The big problem I have with Charlie Puth, that I've always had, is that his songs are always bland and full of nothing. Some have said he's gotten better. I haven't seen it. Shawn Mendes has improved a bit, but Charlie Puth has still been boring to me. But I'll give him a bit of credit here because this has a few interesting things in it, namely a guitar riff throughout that has a good groove and his voice flies parallel to that guitar part to give this song a unique groove compared to his other bland pop songs. There's still not a whole lot of substance here because I think Charlie loves because as basic and vague as a he can, but there are moments where he tricks me into thinking he's getting personal as he talks about being the way he is without worrying too much about what anyone else. I left the song wishing he would've elaborated a little more than that, but as is I'm not going to stubbornly play a hate game forever. This song has more of a groove to it than I think Charlie has ever had in his songs, so if the radio picks up on this, I won't be upset.
90- "Happy Now" - Zedd & Elley Duhe -- Being happy is a theme recently with some of these new songs. Bastille and Marshmello released "Happier" last week. Snoop Dogg and friends released "Smile" this week. And now we have Zedd and new girl with "Happy Now." OK, I can get behind this. Looking at all the new songs, this is the one that intrigued me the most because I love Zedd. Most of the time. Even when he's not on his game, he's usually fairly tolerable. And in this situation I think he again delivers, with a lot of help from Elley Duhe. I'll look into her more later, but she provides some excellent vocals in this bit of a sad, happy song. Much like Marhsmello and Bastille last week actually. Elley is singing about a boy who seemingly broke her heart and she's upset about it, asking him sarcastically or bitterly if he's happy now. Zedd provides enough of a light beat to lift the song to appropriate heights for the more melancholy tone. I will say that I have high expectations for Zedd every time he releases a new song because he's delivered to such great heights in the past, with "Clarity" being a classic example. "Happy Now" isn't quite a grand slam, but it's a fairly decent home run that I'm happy about. It certainly shines above everything from this week.
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