billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 10, 2021

…you know, I could say a great deal about the episode of Billboard BREAKDOWN that I made last week - in fact, I’m going to say a decent bit and if you don’t care for any of it, skip the next three paragraphs. Because where I expected the most backlash coming from my opinions on Walker Hayes or Tyler, The Creator, the latter of whom had a much bigger impact this week. I guess I should have been more prepared for the response to describing a questionable sales tactic skirting ISRC rules used by Columbia to inflate a certain act's sales numbers where my commentary was more denigrating Billboard for allowing a loophole in their system to persist in order to attract more clicks and traffic. A tactic that, for the record, was not really denied by in the thousands of responses I received, in between the fancams and attempted ratios and accusations of being in the pockets of competing labels which I did think was really funny given how no record label is safe on my show. But I should also note in the historical discussions of the Hot 100 to come, this will introduce an asterisk to the charting success, in the same way that stream trolling will have asterisks alongside Drake in the latter half of this decade, or how TIDAL inflated numbers in 2016 for Beyonce and Kanye West, or the inter-label fighting between 6ix9ine and Ariana Grande in 2020 in their fight for the #1, or how the Harlem Shake went to #1 on bad chart calculations in 2013 when Billboard brought in YouTube because of their last big screwup in 2012 seeing Maroon 5’s ‘One More Night’ rob ‘Gangnam Style’ of the top spot, or how in the mid-to-late 90s because of how labels timed the release of singles versus the radio the charts became completely unrepresentative until they changed the rules, or the dodgy payola of the 70s that in certain quarters absolutely still exists in some form today, be it on the radio or streaming platforms. This is the sort of music industry nonsense I go on about every week with the Hot 100, and again, no act, no label gets a pass - I’ve been doing this since 2014, my record speaks for itself - and what made it all a little sad to me was you’re doing this to chase a constructed #1 on Billboard, where if next week they tweak the weighting of radio or streaming, the #1 could change like that, which will eventually happen if other labels put pressure on Billboard, which I truly hope you understand by now.

And that’s what I found a little mystifying about all this: because if this act is really as big and culturally omnipresent as the fanbase told me at length last week, where I don’t even need to mention their name and you already know who they are, you shouldn’t have to do this, especially as they are aligned with a major label and Columbia could be working the English-language record at radio should they want to - they did it with their big single last year, after all. But I reckon their promotional team realized very quickly ‘why spend money to work a radio record or get playlist placement on streaming when we can sell multiple copies of the same song to our fanbase and make money doing it’. And of course you can spend your money however you want to - I own a vinyl of Machine Gun Kelly’s Tickets To My Downfall, which is just about as pointless as that next copy of this act’s current charting hit that’s functionally identical - but any illusion that this band is an underdog when their home country’s government changed the laws surrounding compulsory military service so the band can keep working is just that, an illusion that BigHit and Columbia have constructed to make you do their work for them - hell, I spoke to fans that know Columbia is not doing enough in their eyes to work the song on radio and they still feel they have to do it anyway to give the band the success they think they deserve. I mean, it must be so fucking hard for them, go ask any act on RCA not named Doja Cat what failure to promote really looks like! And while my subjective experience with art really doesn’t correlate with how popular it seems to be, I do know for a lot of folks the emotional experience is heightened, and that’s a fascinating conversation that speaks to how art and the artist is valued and framed and branded in a capitalist society and how we respond to said society…

But that’s not the conversation the fanbase wanted to have. I don’t think they wanted to have a conversation at all - it’s why I’m actually saying something here instead of just shutting up and moving on with the full knowledge that nothing will change, half because among fellow journalists and critics, there’s a growing consensus that they don’t even want to cover this act due to stan behavior, which seems counter-intuitive to any sense of positive cultural presence you’re looking to cultivate; your reputation precedes you, and it’s not one you want, especially long-term. But the other half is because, shit, even without mentioning anything positive or negative about the music itself, I got hit with… I think it’s the third most abuse I’ve received while on YouTube; sorry, you’re not beating Shawn Mendes fans in 2016 in the aftermath of Illuminate, or the time I actually got attacked at a black metal show in person, because some of us have to go outside and experience the consequences of our words directly; I daresay that some of y’all wouldn’t be able to take the heat the same way, especially if you gave up your shield of anonymity like I have, which sure, consequences of having a platform, but one that doesn’t skirt around what was done by individuals to target it. I will say that the Forbes article that initially quoted me but minus context and without any request for comment was new - that was a fun set of emails to write to their corrections department to bring all of that context to view, of which I’m pleased is now there - but it did spark an interesting response of ‘well, why didn’t you get a comment from the fanbase about your video and tweet thread’, as if said fanbase has a spokesperson or hierarchy or enough organization that they would deign to hold themselves collectively accountable for anything.

My answer to that is simple: even though I don’t write for a traditional masthead, I work to maintain some journalistic standards and integrity as a critic who observed the tactic, researched it, and reported on it, and in my discussions with these fans that I’ve had in actual good faith for years now given how often I’ve covered them, I know why it was done; the tactic might be new, but the rationale isn’t, and even if I think chasing the popular veneer most enriches a record label at the literal expense of the audience, I get it. So when the response to me reporting on it with pretty standard analysis and commentary, in the same way I’ve been doing since 2014 for with every act that crosses my docket, is abuse, multiple attempts to hack my social media and YouTube channels - which by the way, is a fine way to convince me any attempt at good faith is out the window, and the initial Forbes article did not help - with comments ranging from the co-option of social justice language to support a capitalistic paradigm that doesn’t just miss the mark in targeting the reporter, not the label perpetuating the bad paradigm, but also doesn’t seem consistent with how said fans have behaved with even other groups from their home country - don’t you want to uplift everyone, not just your favourite bands, or do you think I’m not paying attention to the social media infighting where whataboutism is not the excuse you think it is - to the ‘oh, he deserved by running his mouth, as if he thinks he’s allowed to have an opinion’, as if to absolve you for collective targeting under the misbegotten belief I somehow deserved this for reporting the facts. This wasn’t even backlash for a negative review, I’ve been getting that for damn near a decade; I know the difference that comes with method and degree, and those of us who have been on the wrong side of an abusive relationship know when lines are crossed between ‘constructive criticism’ and abuse. What was done to me the past week shouldn’t be acceptable and goes well beyond ‘ liberal good faith discourse’, and the knowledge that if I was a person of colour or a woman, or more openly queer the tidal wave would have twice as bad… but you can’t silence me, especially when you’ve given me so much more material and data to work with. And I think I got my comment, thanks for that.

But back to the regular affair, the top ten, where for another week ‘Butter’ by BTS is at #1, predominantly on sales although this was the week they shipped more physical copies; in other words, Columbia actually had to do something something so even as the radio stalls and the streaming tanks, this will remain on top… for now. It does hold back ‘good 4 u’ by Olivia Rodrigo at #2, which is dominant on streaming and surging on the radio, but given how it can quite match the sales margin, it’s not making any more ground. What did was ‘Kiss Me More’ by Doja Cat ft. SZA at #3, where it made one last radio push with the album bomb shoring up the streaming… but with even weaker sales, it wasn’t getting any higher. It knocked back ‘Levitating’ by Dua Lipa ft. DaBaby at #4, but with it peaking on the radio, static in sales, and stalling on streaming, it’s not going to get any higher. But then we have our big top 5 debut that some are already calling a disappointment: ‘Bad Habits’ by Ed Sheeran at #5. Now I’ll be getting more into this at the end of the show, but the industry is throwing a lot behind this: robust sales, strong streaming and YouTube, and a pretty sizable radio deal to boot, they clearly want to make this a huge hit… the question will be whether it lasts. It did land above ‘Leave The Door Open’ by Silk Sonic at #6, which did have a good sales week but radio is slipping hard, only surpassed by ‘Peaches’ by Justin Bieber, Daniel Caesar and Giveon falling to #7 as its radio just outright collapses. Then we have ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ by Lil Nas X holding at #8, mostly thanks to radio gains and strong enough streaming - I think there’s a gamble here that more songs will collapse above it, but will that be enough? It held over ‘Save Your Tears’ by The Weeknd and Ariana Grande at #9 but that song is imploding as it is, no surprises there. And stranded at #10, we have ‘deja vu’ by Olivia Rodrigo, and while for me it’s a bit of an afterthought in comparison with singles around it, it’s still going strong on the radio and the streaming is not bad - there’s a real audience still propping this up!

On the flipside, given we are dealing with two album bombs following a solid month of them, let’s get to our losers and dropouts and there were some big ones! Clinching their year-end list spots we have ‘What You Know About Love’ by the late Pop Smoke, ‘Time Today’ by Moneybagg Yo, ‘Up’ by Cardi B - what’s the odds this is eventually dropped from when they push her next album, I might put money on that - and ‘Beat Box’ by SpottemGottem, but we also have songs that are on the edge or just clinched their position, like ‘No More Parties’ by Coi Leray and Lil Durk, or ‘We’re Good’ by Dua Lipa, or ‘What’s Next’ by Drake, along with cuts that fell short like ‘Quickstand’ by Morray or ‘Nobody’ by Dylan Scott. And as expected, a full quarter of the Hot 100 is losing, so… ‘Ball If I Want To’ by DaBaby fell off the debut to 56, returns like ‘Come Through’ by H.E.R. and Chris Brown and ‘Tombstone’ by Rod Wave hit 91 and 97 respectively, and gains from last week lost momentum like ‘Build A Bitch’ by Bella Poarch at 67, ‘Fiel’ by Los Legendarios, Wisin and Jhay Cortez, ‘Things A Man Oughta Know’ by Lainey Wilson at 70, and ‘Miss The Rage’ by Trippie Redd and Playboi Carti at 98, this song cannot catch stability! Then we have album bomb cuts on their way out: from Olivia Rodrigo we have ‘traitor’ at 39, ‘happier’ at 58, ‘favorite crime’ at 62, ‘brutal’ at 73, and ‘jealousy, jealousy’ at 89, from Migos ‘Straightenin’ at 61 and ‘Having Our Way’ with Drake at 82, and still from J. Cole ‘my.life’ with 21 Savage and Morray at 65. Then we have songs that have clinched their spots and are heading out naturally: ‘my ex’s best friend’ by Machine Gun Kelly and blackbear at 43, ‘Calling My Phone’ by Lil Tjay and 6LACK at 46, and ‘Track Star’ by Mooski at 71. And for the rest… ‘Settling Down’ by Miranda Lambert at 52, ‘Hats Off’ by Lil Baby, Lil Durk and Travis Scott at 72, ‘One Too Many’ by Keith Urban and P!nk at 74 - how is this still around - ‘Breaking Up Was Easy In The 90s’ by Sam Hunt at 79, ‘Minimum Wage’ by Blake Shelton at 80, ‘Made For You’ by Jake Owen at 83, and ‘Country Again’ by Thomas Rhett at 86.

Now where things get kind of depressing come in our gains this week, especially with no returns: yeah, you could predict ‘LUMBERJACK’ by Tyler, The Creator leaping to 45 and ‘Need to Know’ by Doja Cat at 49, but we’re now seeing gains for ‘Drinkin Beer, Talkin God, Amen’ by Chase Rice and Florida Georgia Line continue up to 50, and more distressingly, ‘Fancy Like’ by Walker Hayes at 34. Keep in mind that Nashville has not thrown the might of radio behind this yet and streaming is so-so at best: people are buying this at shocking rates because of TikTok virality…. and you know, it’s just good to have one of those easy songs to plug up a worst list, because the way this is going America is going to ignore my advice and Nashville will eventually get on board to make this a hit, just watch. Anyway, we are in a double album bomb situation, but only really for Tyler, The Creator - which isn’t bad, given that I’ve already reviewed his album solo and if you want to check out that, go to my main channel, but for all the songs that fell below the top 40 and are not among the best or worst of the week… ‘RISE!’ with Daisy World at 100, ‘WILSHIRE’ at 95, ‘MANIFESTO’ with Domo Genesis at 84, ‘RUNITUP’ ft. Teezo Touchdown at 68, ‘MASSA’ at 66, ‘SWEET / I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE’ ft. Brent Faiyaz and Fana Hues at 60, ‘SIR BAUDELAIRE’ ft. DJ Drama at 59, and ‘LEMONHEAD’ ft. 42 Dugg at 42.

93. ‘Get Into It (Yuh)’ by Doja Cat - …I guess you always want to include a good ‘yuh’, it gets the people going… anyway, Doja Cat didn’t quite get enough songs to qualify for an album bomb, which paradoxically means I’m covering all of them here, starting with a song that was actually not produced nor written by Dr. Luke… and wow, this hook feels very Playboi Carti, at least until she opens up to belt a bit more alongside verses that owe a very obvious debt to Nicki Minaj in their manic flow and intensity. That’s not saying it’s bad - the production feels depressingly basic in its weedy synth line and chalky trap groove, but Doja Cat has enough personality to make her flexes at least feel a bit more interesting, but the name dropping on both verses and the outro feel like a misstep, especially as she’s trying to establish her own flavour. I mean, this is fine - maybe like with Coi Leray I like women doing Playboi Carti’s schtick more than him doing it - but beyond that, I could take or leave this.

88. ‘Woman’ by Doja Cat - alright, in the next song we have the album opener… and why am I now reminded of when Nicki opened up Queen with ‘Ganja Burn’, from the bassy emphasis on clattering afrobeat, and we get the name drop of Rihanna on the second verse? But in reality this song takes a different tact - the more textured percussion playing off the keys and thicker bass groove gives this a different flavour, and the content is more focused on distinctly feminine empowerment, which initially had me a little perturbed that so much of the song is about being such a women for some guy, especially given how she ends the first verse, but then by the second verse I remembered that she’s bi and the song kind of balances out. Beyond that… maybe it’s the very repetitive hook, but the whole song feels a little flat to me. Not bad, per se, but not something that’s really grabbing me.

78. ‘Beggin’ by Maneskin - So every year I get questions as to why I don’t talk about Eurovision, and… look, I’ve watched it before and it’s not my thing: acts that established themselves can feel they’re slumming it, the pop approach as a whole can get a little stale, and there’s a part of me that finds it weird conflating pop songs with nationalism, especially when you know about all the politics taken very seriously with Eurovision behind the scenes. But on occasion you do get acts who can use the competition for worldwide traction, and this seems to be happening with Maneskin, an Italian rock band who is now seeing global success with a bunch of English language cuts. This is one from 2017, a cover of an old Four Seasons song from 1967… and look, I’m not one to praise Frankie Valli if I have to, but when he stays away from his screechy upper-register to go for a song with a bit more swagger, it’s a solid 60s rock tune. Maneskin meanwhile has a frontman who sounds absolutely terrible, the sort of guy who is trying way too hard to be sexy with his fried out drawl against a mix that has none of the depth or punch of vintage mastering; given how unsupported everything feels, it sounds like a bad demo, or just unfinished! This feels like an attempt at retro that utterly misses the point of how to do it well, and…yeah, it sucks. There’s Eurovision songs that at least attempt to have more of a budget and polish than this, next!

57. ‘I Don’t Do Drugs’ by Doja Cat ft. Ariana Grande - is it in bad taste for me to say I don’t believe either of them with this song title - not even to imply addiction, just that I’m a little skeptical here. Anyway, it’s one of those songs that conflates love to drugs and how much they want a connection to their lover… and yet I get the feeling that given the collaboration that this should be way better than it is. The backing vocal arrangement is trying to be breathy and supple, but the leaden bass groove, cheap-sounding hi-hats, ugly oily synth touches that only serve to clutter the flute melody just highlight how much of an awkward fit this is, not helped by Doja Cat and Ariana not quite being on the same page when it comes to intensity, where Doja Cat tries to ramp it up for her first verse and Ariana is leaning into breathy effortlessness that some have called lazy but I’m more inclined to say she’s just good enough to pull it off. But even then … this leaves me cold, the sort of overarranged pop cut that doesn’t flatter everyone here as well as it should - again, not bad, but this should be better.

55. ‘CORSO’ by Tyler, The Creator - I think this might be my favourite song right now from CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, even if I can recognize some flaws. I really wish the bass was better mixed but it does somewhat fit the ramshackle acoustic vibe with the buzzy keys and pianos and Tyler’s guttural delivery, and he’s on point with this song. I like how much swagger he brings to this track where if he’s potentially stealing someone’s girl he’s down for the threesome and to cuss out his label, where he admits that he doesn’t even like to use the word ‘bitch’ but it sounds cool, which might as well be the underlying ethos to a lot of wordplay in his career, and I like by the time the song swings around for the final verse he admits that the hookup didn’t work and he shouldn’t have pursued it and is going to try and wash it all way; the lines at the end, ‘Remember I was rich so I bought me some new emotions / and a new boat ‘cause I’d rather cry in the ocean’, especially after DJ Drama cranked the crowd noise behind him. Not only does it feel like it encapsulates everything I like about this album, it might be one of Tyler’s strongest bangers - great song, highly recommended.

51. ‘Red Light Green Light’ by DaBaby - okay, is somebody in DaBaby’s camp going to call for an intervention? Because when I can pick up the social media backlash to this with a healthy dose of laughter, someone should be ringing alarm bells. Because while I didn’t like his last single, it was more generic and borderline competent - whereas this is just bad! When the production from da got that dope is getting openly mocked as sounding reminiscent of Spongebob with the pan flute and the painfully cheap sounding trap beat, you’re on a downward spiral, but then you have to add how DaBaby barely even sounds like he cares or can get in the pocket for the hook; was he getting tips from Blueface or something for how sloppy this is? And it somehow gets worse - let’s put aside the fact that this a song based on a reference to red light, green light - the child’s game - we have multiple poop jokes that probably don’t help his white seats amidst all his sex references, and I’m starting to wonder if DaBaby is aiming to tell us something else entirely! Beyond that it’s just standard DaBaby material, but this might be his worst single to date by a country mile - he’s becoming a parody of himself, and if he thinks he’s getting a ‘10’ for whatever he drops next… frankly, I’m expecting a flush.

48. ‘HOT WIND BLOWS’ by Tyler, The Creator ft. Lil Wayne - and you know, on the topic of poop jokes… but seriously, Lil Wayne has been known to bring his A-game when working with Tyler, and it’s just as true here because this slaps too off the textured and sandy drums, flutes, and the Penny Goldwin sample behind them which is actually impeccable balanced - see, he can do it if he wants to! I like how the whistles are interwoven across the song, especially in how Tyler uses it to punctuate his traveling, I like how DJ Drama provides great hype man texture, and then Lil Wayne… just snaps. The bars all interweave, the sports references connect but still sound effortless, and then he drops into a double time to go off perfectly. This is the sort of classier flex I ike, just bragging better - and when it sounds this breezy and cool, I have to respect it.

41. ‘AM’ by Nio Garcia, J Balvin & Bad Bunny - …look, at this point I feel like I could just swap out my reviews for a lot of reggaeton and drop in here - stock percussion that feels stiffer than it should, hazy synth melody mostly left in the background, all three singers not really having much in the way of interplay for a pretty standard sex jam where I’m most distracted by J Balvin saying he’d go to the gym and work out with the girl, Bad Bunny targeting someone with a boyfriend and then offering to help her with homework if she’s in college, and Nio Garcia feeling like a guest on his own song. In other words, like with most reggaeton I might be missing something in the translation, but I sure as hell can’t care about this.

40 ‘JUGGERNAUT’ by Tyler, The Creator ft. Lil Uzi Vert & Pharrell Williams - so I said this in the review of the album: this is one of those tracks I’m almost certain will go off way better live at a festival than on record. After the gentle bounce of the intro the rattling trap percussion and bass swamps the entire song alongside the airhorns where even the vocals sound a bit drowned, especially when Tyler tries to go a little higher for the hook and he doesn’t sound great. Beyond that, it’s a brand name flex where to my amazement Pharrell comes out sounding the best - the sun surface line was cool, his flow was on point, and unlike Lil Uzi Vert I couldn’t swap out his verse with anything else he’s said in recent memory except for the line where he signs his ‘John Hancock’ on a bitch every time he checks them… given what has been coming out about him, that’s just charming. I dunno, I’m left thinking this should go off way harder than it does - not bad, but with this mix, it should be better.

24. ‘Ain’t Shit’ by Doja Cat - apparently this is one of the songs from Doja Cat’s album that was highly anticipated before the release… and while I think I get why to a predominantly female audience who want a pretty effective kissoff anthem, it’s not exactly a good one. Doja Cat sings most of this in a stilted upper register off the clipped piano line before the leaden trap percussion drops in, and even if she’s playing up a more cartoony persona - which actually works with the content, given how methodically she cusses this guy’s dad out and threatens to rat him out to his mom - by the time the second verse comes around it starts getting really grating. I think if this had more groove or flow it might hold together a little more, or go completely zany in an Ashnikko vein, but the awkward middleground doesn’t help her here - not a fan.

14. ‘WUSYANAME’ by Tyler, The Creator ft. YoungBoy Never Broke Again & Ty Dolla $ign - I found it really funny watching the shocked reaction to YoungBoy Never Broke Again on a Tyler album on social media - I mean, given what this song is, a pretty basic swing for some girl’s affection, this is something that YoungBoy can pull off, and he’s got the energy and tightness in his delivery to match with Tyler’s bounce off the liberal H-Town sample behind them with Ty Dolla $ign handling the ad-libs. It’s got a vintage pick-up track vibe, and the sincerity that everyone brings to bear with slightly more original flexing - Tyler taking this girl to Cannes, YoungBoy hoping that his time is more valuable to the girl than the brands he bought her - makes this pretty damn likable. Honestly, I have no expectations of how successful this could be given that Tyler has pushed none of this radio, but I wouldn’t mind this sticking around - good stuff.

11. ‘You Right’ by Doja Cat ft. The Weeknd - why is it the highest charting new single from Doja Cat with The Weeknd and a music video just so happens to be produced and cowritten by Dr. Luke? I mean, I’m not surprised - he’s got to cash in his meal ticket somehow - but anyway, this song… wow, this doesn’t give me much to work with, and I really have to point fingers at the production for this. Why does Dr. Luke think that this cloud rap that feels increasingly canned and lacking expansive flair is a good fit for the skill sets of everyone involved, especially with both Doja Cat and The Weeknd sounding better in recent years on more liquid retro grooves. I mean, this is something that can work for the both of them - Doja Cat opts for more restrained crooning as she yearns to cheat on her boyfriend with this new guy, presumably played by The Weeknd, and am I the only one who’s a little skeeved out by how much he mentions that boyfriend in the picture, especially given there’s a much weaker implication that The Weeknd may also be cheating? Look, this sort of hookup jam feels kind of automatic, but that might be the problem - it feels like both of them are doing something they could easily do on automatic, not make a song with more flair or colour or groove. So yeah, it’s fine, but will it stick around or be memorable? Kind of doubt it.

5. ‘Bad Habits’ by Ed Sheeran - at this point with Ed Sheeran the backlash is so entrenched that I literally had no gauge of what this song would be before hearing it, because as much as the industry wants this to be a hit, there’s a very vocal audience who wants this to fail and fail hard. I did know this was going a little more pop - which, come on, I remember the darker touches of ‘Sing’ and ‘Shape of You’, this isn’t new territory - so where did we wind up? Well, outside of a music video that looks utterly ridiculous - and the fact that there are cuts all across Niall Horan’s last album that eat this for breakfast while playing in the same territory - I think if I have an immediate issue with this it comes with how soft and ironically toothless it feels. I mean, I remember ‘Bloodstream’ and the darker cuts that show just how much Ed Sheeran can write about darker, grimier subject matter especially if he’s talking about bad habits and really trying to work that parallel with The Weeknd in substance abuse and hooking up with exes. But there’s no palpable edge and darkness to this arrangement - the groove is painfully underweight and clean, Sheeran is all in his upper register and falsetto, there’s no sense of greater palpable atmosphere, and a maddening lack of specifics means this has no real power; ‘Shape of You’ had more personality than this! Honestly, as much as Sheeran has expressed terror at becoming an industry player, this approach to writing and the music video is that, and it feels completely soulless. I know Sheeran is better than this, but if he’s going to stop trying, I’m going to stop caring.

But he’s not the worst of this week, which was really all over the damn place: that’s going to ‘Red Light Green Light’ by DaBaby with Dishonourable Mention to ‘Beggin’ by Maneskin - sorry, those vocals just kill the song for me, just awful. But thankfully Tyler brought enough to save this week, with ‘CORSO’ as the best and ‘HOT WIND BLOWS’ with Lil Wayne as the Honourable Mention - both terrific stuff, and the album is holding up pretty well for me too. Next week… see I just have no idea, we might get a slowdown with the charts snapping back to ‘normal’, but this many album bombs in, who knows what normal even is. Well, stay tuned to find out…