billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 20, 2021

So for the past few weeks I’ve been saying that I’m not a fan of normalizing anything going on right now, mostly because the world and the charts specifically feel a little askew of what I was expecting. And maybe it’s a factor of me not liking the music as much that is charting, but following a pretty strong year of pop in 2020, I’d argue this year is not starting strong at all, and thus when we get a more conventional week, I find myself wishing I liked a lot more of it… and I’m not sure I’m there.

Now you wouldn’t think that with the top ten: yes, ‘drivers license’ by Olivia Rodrigo is on top for a fifth week thanks to consistent strength in all channels and especially radio, but now it’s facing a serious challenge: our big new arrival from Cardi B, ‘Up’ at #2. Dominant on sales, streaming, and YouTube, ‘WAP’ might have been the start of the album rollout but this is the second shot: it tells me the Cardi B album is coming sooner rather than later, and we’ll get into what I think about the song later on. That means ‘Blinding Lights’ by The Weeknd at #3 making its slow exit and ‘Save Your Tears’ by The Weeknd up to #4 off the Super Bowl performance making its ascent kind of got stymied from getting any higher. But what it did do was knock back ‘Mood’ by 24kGoldn and iann dior to #5, where it looks like its radio exit is starting… but it still held over ‘34+35’ by Ariana Grande and her remix with Megan Thee Stallion and Doja Cat at #6 - this will likely get a boost thanks to the video soon, but that doesn’t cover up how the streaming and especially the sales have never really been there. This pushes back ‘Go Crazy’ by Chris Brown and Young Thug to #7 - although the radio collapse is doing that for them - and surprisingly ‘Levitating’ by Dua Lipa and DaBaby to #8, mostly because its radio collapse is even worse! Then we have ‘positions’ by Ariana Grande at #9 - basically repeat the same problems I had with her on ‘34+35’ but worse - but now creeping into the top 10 at #10 is ‘What You Know About Love’ by the late Pop Smoke, which seems to have a radio push and just enough streaming to run the margins here… although I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets edged out in the near future.

Then we come to our losers and dropouts, and there are a few notable ones in the latter category, specifically songs that got caught between years and will lose as a result: ‘Holiday’ by Lil Nas X, ‘Mr. Right Now’ by 21 Savage, Metro Boomin and Drake, and unfortunately ‘Diamonds’ by Sam Smith. We also saw the exit of ‘WHATS POPPIN’ by Jack Harlow and crew, but the real fallout looks to have hit Morgan Wallen, as both ‘More Than My Hometown’ and ‘7 Summers’ were pushed off, and he’s all over our losers too: ‘Wasted On You’ at 36, ‘Warning’ at 93, and ‘Still Goin Down’ at 94. Then we saw the continued collapse for ‘Skin’ by Sabrina Carpenter at 99, ‘Bad Boy’ by the late Juice WRLD and Young Thug at 83, and Lil Durk’s mini-album boost fading with ‘Still Trappin’ with King Von at 80 and ‘Finesse Out The Gang Way’ with Lil Baby at 77. The only losers that kind of surprise me are ‘Happy Does’ by Kenny Chesney at 70 and ‘Afterglow’ by Ed Sheeran at 57… I guess it’s not getting much of a single push so it’s fading naturally, but it leaves me wondering where the hell Ed Sheeran is actually going to go next.

But remember when I said that the charts weren’t looking all that good thus far in 2021? Yeah, that comes with our return and gains, the only one in the former category being ‘Masterpiece’ by DaBaby back at 97. Our gains, on the other hand… are all pretty damn bad! You know things aren’t good when I can say ‘Back In Blood’ by Pooh Shiesty and Lil Durk riding his minor album boost to 17 is probably the best of them! From there… ‘Cry Baby’ by Megan Thee Stallion and DaBaby continuing up to 28, ‘Just The Way’ by Parmalee and Blanco Brown at 42, ‘Heat Waves’ by Glass Animals up big to 69, ‘Girl Like Me’ by the Black Eyed Peas and Shakira at 71, and ‘Momma’s House’ by Dustin Lynch at 72. In other words fucking yikes.

So okay, I’m a bit desperate here, let’s look at our considerable list of debuts, maybe there’s something here, starting with…

100. ‘Quicksand’ by Morray - this is one of those songs I had heard about from friends that was on the rise for at least a couple of weeks now, a North Carolina rapper who was leaning into more elements of soul in his trap approach. And hey, I liked when Rod Wave did it, so I had some expectations here… and it turns out that was fair, because if you’re looking for Rod Wave’s more grounded guitar-backed production where the trap beat isn’t as well-blended as it should be with a slightly more tight and soulful Roddy Ricch flow, Morray fits the bill! And while the content goes into his come-up story with a fair amount of detail surrounding what he’s had to overcome and the bloody mess that continues to drag him down, what I found impressive about this was just how well-constructed it was - there’s not a slapdash moment here, which shows more refinement than I was expecting, and considering he doesn’t seem to have a real major label push behind him, he’s a real find indeed! I dunno how much traction will come off of just this, but yeah, I like this a lot - hope it picks up!

95. ‘Lifestyle’ by Jason Derulo ft. Adam Levine - so here’s an obvious question: who was asking for this? I know I liked ‘Savage Love’ more than most people and Maroon 5 may have finally killed their relevance a decade late, but who thought this team-up would work, or would be the smash everyone is looking for, especially with an interpolation of Rihanna’s ‘Diamonds’, a song that I never thought was that good to begin with? Well, apparently I might owe that person an apology, because I actually like this a decent bit! And it’s kind of tough to pin down why: after a decade from his debut Jason Derulo is still saying his name at the start of songs, I don’t like either of their falsettos, the lyrics are beyond stupid with all the repeated syllables both men as they try to woo this girl with a flex - or with Adam Levine trying to play coy with it and it doesn’t make a lick of sense - and the production is overcompressed and just sounds cheap. Is it just the good bassline and actually having some horn-backed swagger and a better vocal arrangement on the hook that almost allows me to overlook the autotuned ad-libs? I dunno, it reminds me of the batshit pop that Jason Derulo used to make in the mid-2000s that was dumb as hell but in certain bite-sized chunks kind of worked - it has the same vibe as that collab he did with Meghan Trainor in 2015 that was way better than it had any right to be! So yeah, I’m not gonna say this is that good or that it deserves to be a hit long-term… but I didn’t hate this. At least right now, I’ll take it.

87. ‘Bandido’ by Myke Towers & Juhn - you know, when I heard the spare twinkle that was opening up the song, it had some atmosphere and I could swear it was a sample or melodic interpolation that I knew and I was willing to get behind this… and then the flat clank of the melody came to support the oversold but stock reggaeton beat and I couldn’t help but groan. Yeah, I don’t mind Myke Towers’ more sensitive expressiveness, but I don’t think Juhn adds much and it’s not like you’re going to sell me on content where they try to comfort their girl from some ‘bandit’ who abandoned them, but between the relative lack of detail in their storytelling and their own quasi-murderous promises, I’m not sure they’ve got legs to stand on here, especially when translated Myke Towers has the line ‘coloured condoms, I break the Crayola’. Truth be told, you’ve heard this reggaeton song before, and this doesn’t stand out much.

84. ‘No More Parties’ by Coi Leray - see, this was an artist I knew I recognized from somewhere - Coi Leray is a Boston MC who actually got her first bit of traction in 2017, put out a debut album a year later, and now she’s got a single that got on a TikTok dance that doesn’t seem tied to anything but the expected Lil Durk remix! But okay, now that she’s here, how’s the song? Well, if you wanted a woman whose rap flow and especially her ad-libs are reminiscent of Young Thug where she bounces off beat with as much trap crooning blended in, set against an honestly pretty sweet R&B piano instrumental with some spurts of guitar and percussion that weirdly sounds a bit better blended than you’d expect, that’s what you’re getting. The funny thing is that as I’ve come around Thugger, I actually don’t mind this delivery as much as I used to… but like with Thugger, I wish there was more to the content. The first verse is actually promising - she’s actually the daughter of Benzino, a rapper best known nowadays for having Eminem obliterate his career - but she talks about falling out with him and beefing with her brother and how she’s got to keep the hustle going, but the follow-through on the second verse doesn’t quite stick. Still, not a bad song - this is one I can see growing on me, even, not bad.

82. ‘My Head And My Heart’ by Ava Max - okay look, I know I stick up for Ava Max probably more than I should… and you’d think we’d all be rewarded for that by picking better singles! ‘Born To The Night’, ‘Call Me Tonight’, ‘Take Me To Hell,’ they’re all right there, why are you going to this? It was like making ‘So Am I’ a single that somehow moved units, you have better songs than this! Granted, given this song like ‘Kings & Queens’ is rooted in a pretty obvious sample, this time of the A Touch Of Class song ‘Around The World’ from 2000, so they’re probably thinking they have to use this as a single to justify sample clearance budgets, but why are the vocals so clumsily blended where they peak so often in the mix, and why do the synth grooves and faux strings have no muscle, and why not do something more with the sample, this isn’t helping you build a unique personality! Because the pretty basic ‘caught between head and heart’ metaphor she’s working just doesn’t have enough colour to do more, so the entire song winds up feeling beholden to her influences… again. Look, I’m not saying Ava Max is ever going to be a great pop star, but there are ways that her relevance could be prolonged if her management knew what they were doing, because this might be okay at best, but she could have released something more.

81. ‘Box Of Churches’ by Pooh Shiesty ft. 21 Savage - so okay, Pooh Shiesty didn’t really get an ‘album bomb’, but he did see success with two tracks this week, and given the run 21 Savage has been on, I had a hope this would turn out alright. And… here’s the thing, this had potential with the spare haunted vibe and sharper trap whir which is a natural fit for 21, who does a solid murderous verse here… which might be nicer than saying ‘completely stole the song’. The problem is that Pooh Shiesty’s voice might have some presence and catchy elements, but he’s such a clunky rapper in staying on the beat that it only drags down his mediocre brand name porn even further. It actively hurts the vibe of the song and I’m left wondering why on earth suddenly the labels started pushing this in earnest in comparison with so many better rappers even in this lane! This isn’t a song I dislike because again, the production and 21 Savage work… just nothing else.

64. ‘Provide’ by G-Eazy ft. Chris Brown & Mark Morrison - but circling back to the topic of really obvious samples, in this case we have a flagrant interpolation of Mark Morrison’s ‘Return Of The Mack’, and I’m going to repeat the same thing I said for Ava Max: you show that you’re beholden to your influences if you can’t do anything that recontextualizes things, especially when the song is a goddamn classic and we’re stuck with Chris Brown and G-Eazy trying to make something interesting! I don’t care if they gave Morrison a credit to try and skirt past my incandescent rage, you’re stuck with G-Eazy sounding bored as hell trying to win over a girl with one of the most misplaced Radiohead references I’ve heard in recent memory and the line ‘you throw it back, I spent three stacks, I feel like Andre’, and then Chris Brown trying to frame it all as ‘just vibe with me’. For comparison - and I’ll bring this up whenever I talk about Chris Brown ruining R&B - that DJ Khaled song ‘Do You Mind’ that liberally interpolates ‘Lovers and Friends' actually gave the song a lot more colour and flair with so many other voices on it, and both songs wind up working. This is just offensively lazy and adds nothing… which might as well be a fine indictment of Chris Brown and G-Eazy’s careers the past decade. Next!

63. ‘Glad You Exist’ by Dan + Shay - so I get what Dan + Shay may have been trying to do with this: the miracle of love, finding that special person is one-in-a-million, I get trying to amplify the stakes… but man, there are ways to do it and then there’s a song where you say you’re glad someone exists, where the lowest common denominator is somewhere around the Earth’s core and it almost comes across sarcastic as hell! But that’s not what this song is - it’s sweet and acoustic and earnest with boy band harmonies and they somehow thought it was a good idea to throw what sounds like a leftover tropical house bit of percussion onto the second hook and include the line on the bridge ‘don’t you ever go changing’! It just feels so damn adolescent and it doesn’t match what they’ve done previously that had a little more maturity and thought than this! So while I absolutely get why this might work, between this and ‘I Should Probably Go To Bed’, this duo has zeroed in on a preteen market that might find this more embarrassing than I do - in other words, not good.

55. ‘GNF (OKOKOK)’ by Polo G - so here’s the thing: I didn’t get into Polo G from his drill side, but the more soulful, conscious crossover rap that I’d actually argue he does better than many of his peers, so hearing this as a return to the Chicago drill sound that started his ascent is odd. I’m not saying he’s bad at it - the spare piano, the choppy percussion, how righteously pissed he sounds, there’s heat here, especially building off the contrast of what he previously did. But I do have three observations, the first being that Polo G going back towards drill now that it’s picking up more mainstream traction feels like an odd pivot, the second being that the song kind of feels undercooked to go back to this territory in both pretty standard content and its sub two minute runtime, and thirdly, I really want to know who in Polo G’s camp keeps telling him to not consistently work a single! He’s got star power, talent, and good instincts, but it feels like his singles run out of gas early… and honestly, he could work something better than this.

51. ‘Neighbors’ by Pooh Shiesty ft. BIG30 - granted, if our alternative is Pooh Shiesty I’ll take Polo G any day of the week, because the fact that this is his biggest debut this week mystifies me. Putting aside Pooh Shiesty’s problems of barely being able to ride a beat and utterly generic content, the piano sounds like it comes stock from a Casio - as does the trap beat - and with so little commitment to atmosphere the song just fizzles near instantly. And BIG30 isn’t redeeming it - he sounds like a louder, slightly more composed Pooh Shiesty and I’m not hearing the star potential… really from either of them. Yeah, the hook is kind of catchy - and I did find Pooh Shiesty bragging about fucking the convenience store clerk about as funny as when BIG30 bragged about getting a gun before losing his virginity and people being jealous - but again, this isn’t good.

37. ‘Time Today’ by Moneybagg Yo - I swear, the number of mediocre MCs that the mainstream keeps giving attention is just baffling to me; I stopped caring about Moneybagg Yo at some point nearly a year ago, ‘Said Sum’ was junk and really just salvaged by the remix, and this… is ‘Said Sum’ part two with some hazy ominous keys and your bog-standard trap beat that redeem the fact that Moneybagg Yo has so little charisma and also can’t stay consistently on beat to save his life, especially by the second verse where he tries to switch up his cadence and mostly fails. The thing that baffles me is that his flex is all based upon not getting his eight figure lifestyle where the girl sucked him off through his underwear, but there’s no unique flair to the wordplay that you’d get from a 2 Chainz or Rick Ross, so he’s both imperious and impressively boring. I do appreciate the honesty of admitting that if the money wasn’t there the girls wouldn’t be either, but I’d just tack ‘everyone wouldn’t be there’ and we can move on.

2. ‘Up’ by Cardi B - honest to god, there’ll be guys who’ll prop up boring trap like most of what I’ve listed and then come down on Cardi B, but I’ll say this: she’s trying a hell of a lot harder than the majority of folks I covered this week! The fact this dropped at all leads me to think that her album rollout is kicking into full gear, and given that I still like Invasion of Privacy for what it is, I did have some hopes for this. And my thoughts… it’s alright, but it’s middle of the road for Cardi B singles and it feels like it’s chasing the same memetic appeal that ‘WAP’ had, from the annoying bedframe squeak to the oversexed content to the multiple refrains and hooks to all of the sound effects. It’ll probably work and go viral off the fact that Cardi still has a lot of personality and she can make forceful sex jams and have a blast doing so… but this feels weirdly calculated in a lot of ways. The blocky Ice Cube interpolation in her flow, piling on the name references even before the glorified Balenciaga commercial that was the prechorus, and for as much as the production is trying to evoke her rougher mixtape origin, it doesn’t have the texture or punch and it reminds me production has been an issue Cardi’s entire career thus far. Yes, there are some funny lines and Cardi B is such a personality that the song can be carried on that, but by the time we got to her trying to reclaim being toxic and then the horse sex on the second verse, it wasn’t clicking as much as her best songs had. I dunno, it’s fine enough, but I can see myself getting sick of this fast just like I did with ‘Money’ a few years ago - Cardi can do better, I guess I’m just going to have to wait for the album to hear it.

So that was our week… kind of all over the place in quality, but the worst locked themselves down fast with ‘Provide’ by G-Eazy and Chris Brown taking that in record time, followed by ‘Glad You Exist’ by Dan + Shay; if only on disappointment, it’s worse than Pooh Shiesty for me. And the best… well, ‘Quicksand’ by Morray is easily getting that, what a find… but Honourable Mention is going to ‘Lifestyle’ by Jason Derulo and Adam Levine, and trust me, I know exactly how embarrassing it is to be defending this. Next week… I’m just going to give up trying to predict anything in the mainstream, we’ll see what happens.