Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "In My Feelings" - Drake (=) -- Last week Drake tied Usher for the record of the most career weeks at No. 1 for a male solo artist. This week Drake takes that record, even though there's still a long way to go to grab the overall title among all artists, group or solo. And in a not so good week for Usher, Drake also ties him for the most ever weeks spent at No. 1 in a single year. One more week at top and Drake will take that as well, which is completely absurd. At this point, who is still enjoying seeing Drake at No. 1 when he's bet at No. 1 for over half of the year already? Last week I thought it was possible that we would have a close race for the No. 1 spot as Maroon 5 was closing in on Drake in terms of chart points, but Drake's numbers actually eased up and the bleeding slowed down, meaning he only fell 4 percent in overall chart points while Maroon 5 increased by 1 percent. So the margin is closer between the two, but not close enough for a take over this week.
2- "Girls Like You" - Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B (=) -- If Maroon 5 does take over for Drake at the top, I'm not sure what I will feel. Yes, I'm sick of having Drake at top as 28 weeks at No. 1 this year is WAY too long, but "In My Feelings" is still a better song than "Girls Like You" and it would be an absolute travesty if this country let a group as boring and average as Maroon 5 take No. 1 on the most prestigious music chart.
3- "I Like It" - Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin (=) -- In fact, the top three being stuck like this is really painful. I've never been a huge fan of any of these three songs and I don't know what our country's fascination with them is. Can we please rotate these songs out and bring something new in?
4- "FeFe" - 6ix9ine featuring Nicki Minaj & Murda Beatz (+1) -- As much as I hate the top three songs, let's bite the bullet and keep them there so that we don't let this piece of trash get any higher. Why we've even let 6ix9ine be such a big thing is beyond me. The dude needs to be rotting in prison, not being knighted as a super star. At least his new song this week didn't debut in the top 10 to replace this, but the fact that he got yet another song to chart is an insult to music.
5- "Better Now" - Post Malone (-1) -- Oh sure, the second I officially admit I'm pulling for Post Malone, he gives way to 6ix9ine yet again. To be clear, I'm not the biggest fan of this song. But it's the most tolerable song in the top five at this moment, which is a pretty pathetic statement to the top five as a whole. For the top of the charts to be cemented with these five songs is really embarrassing.
6- "Lucky You" - Eminem featuring Joyner Lucas (new) -- Two new Eminem songs in the top 10 this week as his surprise album "Kamikaze" gets all of its songs to chart on the Hot 100. I'll have plenty to say about this down below, but the short version is that I really like this song and I wish it would've debuted higher. Given that this is an album bomb week for Eminem, I don't expect this to stay around next week.
7- "Lucid Dreams" - Juice WRLD (-1) -- Juice WRLD gets pushed down by Eminem, which is totally acceptable. Although if Eminem falls down after the debut, it would make sense that Juice WRLD climbs back up to his No. 6 spot that he's been in for a while. And I'm fine with that. I still think this is a good song and I would rather it be in the top five over everything in the top five at the moment.
8- "The Ringer" - Eminem (new) -- Again, lots of thoughts down below on Eminem's new album, but I also like this song. In fact, "Lucky You" and "The Ringer" are the two best songs from the album, in my opinion, so I'm glad the best songs charted the highest. And I only hope they can gain traction and stick around, but I have doubts that they will since most songs fall off after an album.
9- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (-2) -- Speaking of songs falling off after an album bomb, I'm really upset that this HASN'T disappeared yet. This is one of the worst songs of Travis Scott's recent album that wasn't very good to begin with. At least I can gloat that Drake gets no official credit for this sticking around after being the sole reason for this song being here in the first place.
10- "Taste" - Tyga featuring Offset (-2) -- It won't go away. This song is awful and shouldn't be here, but it annoyingly has managed to stick around. And it will probably yo-yo back up a couple of spots when Eminem falls off next week. The most annoying thing is both this and "SICKO MODE" survived Eminem while "Love Lies" by Khalid and Normani got shoved back down to No. 11 this week.
Rising on the Hot 100:
13- "Youngblood" - 5 Seconds of Summer (+2) -- Not a lot of songs rising on the charts with Eminem's album bomb, but four of them managed to sneak up given that it was only 11 new Eminem songs as opposed to the 20 mark that Drake and his wannabe followers have gotten this year in their album bombs. Surprisingly I wouldn't mind at all if 5SOS managed to claim their first top 10 entry with this song, but just ask Taylor Swift and Khalid how hard it can sometimes be to get over the hill and make it into the region, so there's no guarantee that this song does so.
20- "Natural" - Imagine Dragons (+4) -- It makes sense for Imagine Dragons to slowly continue to climb since ESPN plays the song every other commercial during football games and in the days leading up to it. If Eminem falls off next week, I imagine that this will get quite the healthy boost.
32- "Trip" - Ella Mai (+22) -- I'm not so happy about Ella Mai get a 22 spot jump this week. I suppose I'm not super surprised since she's managed to sneak into the mainstream thanks to her monster hit "Boo'd Up." But "Trip" is a lot more annoying and not a very well constructed song, so I'm kinda cheering for this to get stuck in some quicksand here soon and sink back down.
46- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (+13) -- I honestly what sure what this song was going to do following its debut. I kinda expected it to not last very long. But even though this is nothing compared to what Bastille did on their first album, I think this is an acceptable song to be around and if it gets Bastille more mainstream recognition leading up to their next album, I think that's a win for everyone.
New Arrivals:
6- "Lucky You" - Eminem featuring Joyner Lucas -- Eminem released a new surprise album and all the songs from it charted this week. Being that I'm actually a fan of Eminem, I went through this album in order. This here is the third track, following "The Ringer" and "Greatest," so feel free to go read my thoughts on those two songs first. Or don't. It's up to you. But in "The Ringer," Eminem referenced a select few rappers who have his personal stamp of approval and one of them is Joyner Lucas. Personally I don't know much about Joyner, but I was impressed in this track that he was about to keep up with Eminem. He takes the first half of the song, telling his story about always wanting the recognition but never getting it, which Eminem counters by telling how he's always had the recognition. I think the two opposite perspectives do a good job of balancing some interesting themes. But then Eminem points out how none of this means anything to kids these days as they go on listening to their mumble rap with rappers who don't have the physical ability to stay focused on a single topic rather than listening to actual talent. And if you want to compare talent, go take a listen to anything out there today on the Hot 100, then listen to this. Eminem's speed, flow and focus is intense and incredible. And it's also incredible that Joyner is just as impressive.
8- "The Ringer" - Eminem -- Today on this Billboard Analysis, we're talking about Eminem's new surprise album "Kamikaze" and I'm going through these songs in order that they appear on the album rather than the order they appeared this week on the Hot 100. This is how the album begins and I find it extremely amusing. On my personal Facebook page, I said that this album is Eminem acting like a crybaby because people hated his album "Revival" from last year and I commented that I wasn't sure what this would actually accomplish when it comes to the people who hated the album. I don't think he's going to convert anyone to his music or make them appreciate the album more by writing a new surprise album where he purposely and harshly insults everyone who criticized him. But given that I didn't hate "Revival," I find this track rather amusing because he expresses my exact thoughts when it comes to the modern music industry. Rap has completely infested the Hot 100 due to its sheer dominance in streaming. It's like no other genre gets streamed. Yet it's almost all crap. Rappers with choppy bars who mumble about how rich and famous they are as well as bragging about stealing your girl. I hate it. And so does Eminem apparently. And he's frustrated that his album got panned while all of these other music critics praise the heck out of these other rappers who have no idea how to rap. So hearing him blast the industry with how awful modern day rap is made me super happy. Now the catch is, while I didn't hate "Revival," I also didn't love it. I think Eminem was a bit scattered and the album was overly long. But I would still take everything on "Revival" over well over 90 percent of other rap music today, so I'm still mostly with Eminem on this.
12- "The Fall" - Eminem -- The eighth song (and tenth track) from Eminem's album, coming right after "Kamikaze," which charted just after. And this is a song where Eminem got a bit of heat from Twitter with his use of a homophobic slur during the song, albeit censored out in both the clean and the explicit versions. I feel this is a very Eminem thing to do. He feels he can say whatever he wants, regardless of how insensitive it is, just because he's Eminem. And he shouldn't be able to get away with something like that. Granted, this whole album is chalk full of insults, but there's certain insults that probably should be avoided in 2018. That said, I do like the shade he throws at these rappers today, specifically saying they're all just copying Migos and Drake, who aren't very good to begin with. I also like the contrast Justin Vernon, who provides uncredited vocals, brings to the table. Eminem is violent and aggressive while Vernon's parts are smooth and relaxing. It's provides an excellent balance. The second verse is him attacking Budden and Tyler the Creator, who I don't know too well, so I don't have a huge emotional investment in that one. And finally in verse three Eminem finishes by lashing out at the Grammys. And yeah, is there anyone that really cares about the Grammys? Can you even remember who won the major awards last year? Exactly.
16- "Kamikaze" - Eminem -- The seventh song (and ninth track) from Eminem's album, directly following "Not Alike." This here is the title track of the album, thus not surprisingly it's the one where he focuses most on this whole project, which is all about how "Revival" wasn't well received and his reaction to that. This song actually doesn't dive super deep into this hate and rage that Eminem is feeling over his poorly received album, but it might be the most fun song on the album with a chorus that is bouncy and carefree as Eminem says he's planning on Kamikaze into everything, using one of his worst songs "Fack" to purposely shove everything into people's faces. He does go into detail in the verses about why got into rap and his frustrations with rap today, but the chorus dominates the song and I think it has a lot of off-the-wall energy to it that might get this stuck in my head. He got a bit too raunchy for my taste towards the end, which is why I'm docking it a bit in my book, but otherwise I think this is a pretty fun song.
23- "Greatest" - Eminem -- This is the second track on "Kamikaze." I will initially admit that upon first listen that I got extremely distracted with a line towards the beginning when Eminem raps that "you better bring more men than the Latter-day Saints," which I took as Eminem referencing the large amount of missionaries in the Church, which as of April conference was reported to be just over 67,000. And yeah, they have to bring "more men," a play on words of "Mormon." So I got a kick out of that reference. Oh, but the rest of the song. Eminem here is talking about how he's the greatest in the world. And normally I don't fully appreciate people pridefully bragging about how awesome they are, but in this case Eminem brings a lot of fire to the table as he continues to slam the modern rap industry, which an especially harsh slam on Drake. While it's true that Drake has had a whole ton of sales, Eminem points out that it's because he doesn't stop putting out music. Eminem points out that Drake has 10 million albums sold because Drake puts out 10 million albums. Which is another frustrating thing to me as well. Most of these rappers don't care about quality. It's all about quantity. I mean, why should I care about their music when they don't care about their music? They just put out a bunch of empty, cliche crap just so that they can get more sales and money. And if you don't think that's true, just listen to the actual lyrics of these songs because 90 percent of rappers' lyrics today are all about how rich they are. So money is all they care about. It's all the references like this on the song that make me enjoy this.
24- "Not Alike" - Eminem featuring Royce da 5'9 -- This is the sixth song from Eminem's album, following "Stepping Stones." As I explain on "Normal," it's the eighth track on the album due to a two track skit in the middle. This is also the second of three featured artists from the album and I know less about Royce da 5'9 than I did of Joyner Lucas, so this is even more unfamiliar to me as far as he goes. And I'm not sure I'm into his verse towards the beginning, even though it's not bad by any means. I think by the time Eminem gets going, I was so amused by what he was doing that I forgot about the first half of the song because this whole thing is Eminem ripping into Machine Gun Kelly for being a fake, wannabe rapper. Eminem essentially claims that the only thing the two of them has in common is that they're both white rappers, but MGK is complete trash while Eminem is one of the few who actually knows how to rap. And I love it because no one cared about MGK. At least they shouldn't because he's a worthless piece of trash. I also loved how Eminem is completely making fun of the Migos style of rap in repeating random words that have no correlation because I have no idea how that style of rap got so popular or why people even enjoy listening to it.
30- "BEBE" - 6ix9ine featuring Anuel AA -- In case you needed an example of why Eminem is so mad right now, he got completely rejected last year with "Revival" while the country is currently praising 6ix9ine by knighting him as a new superstar. And none of that makes any sense. Even if I wasn't head over heels in love with "Revival," anything from that album is a masterpiece compared to everything that 6ix9ine has put together. And why he can't come up with real song titles is beyond me. I'm annoyed with his gibberish names for his songs. But at least in this song I have the pleasure of not being able to understand what he's saying. And not because of him mumbling. That would be awful. But I mean he's singing in Spanish. Yeah, that surprised me when I pressed play on this. I don't know who Anuel AA is, but apparently he's some sort of Latino artist. And hey, if I'm comparing this to all of 6ix9ine's other music, he's not yelling at me and he's not lazily phoning it in like on "FeFe." But I know enough Spanish to be able to understand the line "Yo soy tu criminal," so apparently this is just the same nonsense he's always done. Just in a different language. He's talking about a girl being a daughter of Lucifer because her boyfriend loves her, but she is cheating on her boyfriend. With him, 6ix9ine. And he's going to go kill the boyfriend so they can be together. Because that's what 6ix9ine does. Sing about murder. And we're giving this guy a career?
39- "Normal" - Eminem -- All the way down here at No. 39 is the fourth song from "Kamikaze," following "The Ringer," "Greatest" and "Lucky You." Actually it will be track five on the album, but that's because in between "Lucky You" and "Normal" is a bit called "Paul" where Eminem's manager Paul Rosenberg calls him and leaves a message saying that this idea of the "Kamikaze" album isn't a good one. After "Normal," we have a track called "Em Calls Paul" where Eminem responds. Neither of those charted, thankfully (they aren't songs), so I'm just going to stick with calling this the fourth song. And, well, I'm not sure what the specific purpose of this song is. Eminem usually spends some time singing about relationships and that's what he's done here. He's saying that he just wishes he were in a normal relationship rather than the poisonous one he's in right now. And I gather this is actually a fictional story that he's recounting here, not a reflection of an actual relationship? Anyways, the song is fine, but I'm more interested in Eminem throwing shade on the rap industry rather than him doing this random song.
42- "Stepping Stones" - Eminem -- Here's the fifth song from Eminem's album "Kamikaze," track seven as it follows the two skit tracks that surround "Normal." With this track I learned that Eminem was once a part of a rap group called D12 before he became as famous as he has been for the past decade or two. I think this song is constructed rather nicely. Sometimes I get bored of rap that is all rap with no verses. Some of my favorite Eminem songs are his songs where he collaborated with a pop singer who balances the rap out with a chorus in between his verses. While there's no featured artist here, this song has three verses separated by a chorus and I think it flows quite nicely. The subject matter itself is Eminem apologizing to this group for using them as stepping stones and leaving them in the dust. I guess he felt that he never made amends and so he's attempted to do that now so that his conscience will be clear. At the same time, the final verse is him talking about how the group is officially over and done, as if some of the members had contacted him to see if he wanted to get back together with the group. If that's true, Eminem's perspective of closing that door is probably a good one as it would be them feeding off of Eminem's fame to get them on the map, which Eminem doesn't feel is the right move, especially since he's barely doing well himself. Like "Normal," I don't know what purpose this serves in the context of the the album as a whole or if the song will be remembered in the future due to the very specific nature of it, but on its own, it's a decent Eminem track.
49- "Venom (Music from the Motion Picture)" - Eminem -- The 11th and final song (and 13th track) from Eminem's album. This is the track that I don't necessarily think should be on this album because it has nothing to do with anything. Granted, I don't think "Normal," "Nice Guy" and "Good Guy" have anything to do with the album, either, but this was a track written for the "Venom" movie that comes out next month that I feel Eminem just attached here on the end just for the heck out it. I think he should've just kept it on the "Venom" soundtrack that I'm sure will come out eventually. I'll have plenty to say about the movie "Venom" on my main blog next month. Right now I'm not super excited as I think it could be a disaster, but I feel the enjoyment of this song in particular will depend on the context of it in the movie, thus I can't judge right now, but I envision it will be acceptable as background music during the movie. Eminem usually does a fine job in fitting in when he does movie soundtracks. Better him than most others in the business right now. But this song on it's own doesn't stand out very well. It just kind of exists. Lots of references to Venom, the Symbiote and all that fun stuff, but no overarching theme that hits things home or message that stands out.
54- "Feels Like Summer" - Childish Gambino -- I'm surprised to see this song chart this week. Not that I'm upset. Just surprised. Earlier in the summer Childish Gambino released a double single of summer songs, "Summertime Magic" and "Feels Like Summer." The former charted and did alright. But this one didn't chart. But now it did. I feel it's a bit late now for a summertime groove since summer is over, but my thoughts on this song are similar to my thoughts on the other song. It's a relaxing, fun summer groove. Gambino doesn't go super deep like he does with "This is America," but rather he decided to chill and relax. On that note, he does have subtle references to wanting the world to change, but I don't know if this was intended to be a social commentary and I don't think it needed to be. I don't know if this will stick around, but if it did gain traction, I totally wouldn't be upset. The world could use more Gambino at the moment.
65- "Nice Guy" - Eminem & Jessie Reyez -- Coming in towards the end of the album, we have the ninth song (and 11th track) from "Kamikaze." And, well, we have Eminem's angry rants against modern rap for most of the album. Then we have this. I'm not even sure what to call this. This calls back to "Normal" where Eminem takes a break from the themes of Kamikaze and complains about his relationships not being normal. But in this case we have Jessie Reyez being extremely annoying and loud, perhaps on perhaps, which is countered by Eminem acting all mopey about how much his life sucks. Maybe this was supposed to be sarcastic or something. I don't know. But whatever this was, it doesn't fit at all with the themes or style of the album. It's the awkward black sheep of the album and I don't like it.
67- "Good Guy" - Eminem featuring Jessie Reyez -- Part II to "Nice Guy"? This is the 10th song from the album (and 12th track) and I will say this is much better "Nice Guy," partially because Jessie Reyez comes in only briefly at the end rather than being featured throughout the song. Also, this isn't a strange, exaggerated song. It's a normal song. Although it still plays into the themes of Eminem not liking his relationship status and as I've said a few times now, when Eminem is complaining about his relationships on this album, that's something that I don't really care for too much. I'm entertained and amused by his take down of the rap industry, but I don't really care for this. And given that this is essentially how he closes off the album, as the song from the "Venom" soundtrack is all that remains, it's disappointing that he couldn't come up with one final conclusion to this whole idea of him being upset at the industry right now for praising all of this crappy rap while destroying his recent album.
94- "Thunderclouds" - Labrinth, Sia & Diplo Present... LSD -- OK, let's talk about this group name real quick. LSD? Really? I do not approve of this. It's just strange. But hey, but if we're going to have Labrinth make a comeback, Sia is a better partner to team up with as opposed to Nicki Minaj, who he joined up with three weeks ago. And Diplo acting as a writer and producer to help the two out makes for a trio I can get behind. It's just a strange name. But the song is pretty good. I always love Sia and her and Labrinth blend well together to talk about the uncertainties of a relationship, yet how they shouldn't be afraid of these thunderclouds. Despite what fairy tales my make things out to be, life isn't always rainbows and butterflies when you're in a relationship with your partner. Life is going to be rough and that's normal. You just gotta remember that and work together when the hard times hit. I will say that I think this song is a bit more surface level in terms of those themes. Both of these artists have dove deep into the emotion with songs like this in the past, so I know they're capable of hitting an absolute home run, thus it's mildly disappointing seeing them stick to the basics, both in terms of lyrics and vocals. But it's a nice song, nonetheless. And if we're going to get more from this newly formed trio, I'm excited to see what else they have in the works.
97- "Hangin' On" - Chris Young -- We couldn't escape the week without introducing one new country song to the world, I suppose. I'm not super versed into Chris Young, but he sounds like every other boring country singer with "Hangin' On." He meets a girl while he's drinking in the bar and he praises her to the high heavens with how amazing she is. We have tacked on the heavy guitars and drums, with twangy vocals from Chris Young, to make me extremely bored. It's not sweet and romantic. The instrumentals don't fit the tone of the lyrics. There's absolutely no depth to this love story. Sure, it's nothing offensive. But it's also nothing special. It just feels like a basic, formulaic, run of the mill country song that I'm going to immediately forget the second it leaves the charts.
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