billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 18, 2020

So as a rule, I don’t tend to talk about posthumous albums in my regular album reviews, and as such, I didn’t review the newest Pop Smoke album in full. Part of this was because the majority of the singles released before his death weren’t very impressive and I felt it’d be bad taste to cover it - also the reason I’m not going to be reviewing the new Juice WRLD, but more on that next week - but also because I knew we were set for a big album bomb, and that’s what we got. Damn near the entire album debuted this week, and that means album bomb rules are in effect, but it honestly landed the sort of chart shakeup we might have needed…

Except in the top ten, where to nobody’s surprise ‘ROCKSTAR’ by DaBaby and Roddy Ricch holds the #1, and it basically feels uncontested. Dominant on sales and streaming, with radio surging, it holds a strong margin against our #2… ‘Blinding Lights’ by The Weeknd, which actually picked up a spot because it still has a lot of sales and isn’t quite as dependent on streaming. That’s arguably the biggest reason why ‘WHATS POPPIN’ by Jack Harlow and his remix featuring DaBaby, Tory Lanez, and Lil Wayne fell to #3 - it’s got a mini-radio run of its own, but it’s more dependent on the streaming dominated by Pop Smoke, and it’s got weaker sales. This takes us to ‘Savage’ by Megan Thee Stallion ft. Beyonce holding at #4, which is actually pretty steady but just lagging where she’d need to make up the margin - which is something I’d say for ‘Roses (Imanbek Remix)’ by SAINt JHN at #5, but it spent most of this week jockeying for position on the radio as it picked up sales and weathered the storm on streaming. Speaking of that, we actually did get a Pop Smoke song debuting in the top 10: ‘For The Night’ with Lil Baby and DaBaby - we’ll talk more about the song itself later, but it’s here because of streaming and actually some decent sales, but given what I’m expecting from Juice WRLD next week, it’s not going to last. Then we actually saw a few gains: ‘Watermelon Sugar’ by Harry Styles rose to #7 as its radio and sales picked up, and ‘Blueberry Faygo’ by Lil Mosey went to #8 on mostly stable streaming and radio… although I’d probably chalk its success more to the failures of the songs below it, as ‘Say So’ by Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj fell to #9 and ‘Intentions’ by Justin Bieber and Quavo went to #10 - can’t run on radio alone forever, can you?

This takes us to our losers and dropouts, and in the latter category, I’d argue it feels less impactful than it might seem - yeah, ‘Righteous’ by Juice WRLD got knocked out, but it’ll be back, and you can argue both ‘BELIEVE IT’ by PARTYNEXTDOOR and Rihanna and ‘In Your Eyes’ by The Weeknd and Doja Cat were on their way out anyway, the latter likely missing its potential year-end spot. The three big exits are all long-running and have clinched their positions - shame none of them are good, but I’m not going to complain about ‘Memories’ by Maroon 5, ‘Nobody But You’ by Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani, and ‘Hot Girl Bummer’ by blackbear all getting turfed -about time! Unfortunately, we’ve also got a solid thirty losers here, and I’m going to try and break this out the best I can. First off, from debuts last week we saw ‘Girls In The Hood’ by Megan Thee Stallion fall to 51, ‘Wash Us In The Blood’ by Kanye West tank at 75, and ‘How You Like That’ by BLACKPINK collapse to 91, and on the topic of collapses, following losses last week we had ‘Go!’ by Kid LAROI and Juice WRLD at 94, ‘After A Few’ by Travis Denning falling fast to 90, and ‘TROLLZ’ by 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj at 83. Then we had gains and returns cut short, in the latter category with ‘3 Headed Goat’ by Lil Durk, Lil Baby and Polo G at 85, in the former ‘Like That’ by Doja Cat and Gucci Mane at 61 and ‘More Than My Hometown’ by Morgan Wallen at 83. Finally, from the bottom up, we start with country with ‘One Beer’ by HARDY, Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson at 100, ‘In Between’ by Scotty McCreery falling hard to 96, and ‘One Night Standards’ by Ashley McBryde at 95. A quick break for ‘Yo Perreo Sola’ by Bad Bunny down to 92 - likely on its way out soon - and ‘Flex’ by Polo G and Juice WRLD at 89, we’re back to country with ‘Beer Can’t Fix’ by Thomas Rhett and Jon Pardi at 88 and ‘One Of Them Girls’ by Lee Brice at 87. Then after ‘Chicago Freestyle’ by Drake at 84 and ‘Need It’ by Migos and YoungBoy Never Broke Again at 82, we have general crap with ‘GOOBA’ by 6ix9ine down to 81, ‘After Party’ by Don Toliver at 80, and ‘God Whispered Your Name’ by Keith Urban at 72 - probably a little mean there, but I’m souring on that song pretty fast. What’s more depressing is that we have some decent songs falling back: ‘Does To Me’ by Luke Combs and Eric Church at 71, thankfully clinching its year-end list spot, ‘Pu$$y Fairy’ by Jhene Aiko at 71, she’s only here on new radio gains and I don’t know how long they’ll last, and ‘Don’t Rush’ by Young T, Bugsey and Headie One at 68, though I expect this might rebound. The rest are a mixed bag that are arguably wearing out their welcome: ‘Here And Now’ by Kenny Chesney at 62, ‘I Love My Country’ by Florida Georgia Line at 58 - let’s not make this a patriotic thing and turn this recurrent every 4th of July, can we - ‘THE SCOTTS’ by Travis Scott and Kid Cudi at 53, ‘Be Kind’ by Marshmello and Halsey at 50, ‘Stuck With U’ by Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber at 45, and finally ‘Toosie Slide’ by Drake at 38 - yes, somehow this is still here.

Now as expected, our gains and returns are pretty brief, the majority tied to Pop Smoke, with ‘Make It Rain’ featuring Rowdy Rebel back at 49, and ‘Dior’ rising big to 22. The only other gain - depressingly so - is ‘Rags2Riches’ by Rod Wave off the debut to 64; you can thank Tiktok for that, because of course you can. But as I said, we have an album bomb from Pop Smoke, and here are the songs that didn’t otherwise make best or worst that fell below the top 40: ‘Tunnel Vision’ at 79, ‘Diana’ with King Combs at 76, ‘West Coast Shit’ with Tyga and Quavo at 65, ‘Creature’ with Swae Lee at 57, ‘Enjoy Yourself’ with Karol G at 56, ‘Bad Bitch From Tokyo’ at 55, ‘Snitchin’ with Quavo and Future at 54, ‘What You Know About Love’ at 52, ‘Mood Swings’ with Lil Tjay at 44, ‘Yea Yea’ at 43, and ‘Something Special’ at 41.

Got all that? Good, because we’re starting with putrid garbage, otherwise known as…

99. ‘YAYA’ by 6ix9ine - see, this is exactly what I was expecting for 6ix9ine, because this is analogous to what happened last time - he did his Spanish crossover single where it downplays his aggressively obnoxious personality for him to croon, it did okay but a little less than it should, and people start losing interest. Granted, the blaring autotune against the rumbling clunk of the groove with the sample pitch shifted all over the place and the cruddy vocal mastering don’t help, but it’s such a flagrantly cynical move that it’s not a surprise it’s not working twice, especially without someone like Anuel AA to open that inroad. Because it’s not like the content is interesting here either - it’s him hooking up with a bad girl who even he describes as a golddigger… I thought his appeal was callous disrespect, not this. Again, I’ll keep repeating this: 6ix9ine is incredibly limited as a personality, and these attempted crossovers prove it again and again. Bad song, next!

74. ‘Life’s A Mess’ by Juice WRLD x Halsey - honestly, this makes sense - Juice WRLD was the only reason ‘Without Me’ became tolerable as a song, and if Halsey is looking to return the favour here, maybe it could work? Well, kind of… Juice WRLD is playing the guy for which love didn’t work but now that he’s in some sort of tumultuous situation, it’s at least a bit better? And I’ll say this: Halsey sounds great on this song, and she and Juice WRLD have always had good chemistry, especially for the piece she delivers against the fractured strings on the outro. I guess if I have complaints they come in structure and production: the sample is kind of thin against the acoustics, it’s not particularly tuneful, and Juice WRLD didn’t really modulate for the hook much - if Halsey had contributed more here beyond the final hook and outro, I think this could have been stronger. Otherwise, it’s still a good song - i’m fine with this.

63. ‘Said Sum’ by Moneybagg Yo - Okay, I’m not sure if I mad this clear, but Moneybagg Yo is starting to test my patience - and considering I forget pretty much every song he releases the day after I put up Billboard BREAKDOWN, that is impressive. But his flow is monotonous, the warping warble of the sample gets increasingly grating, the trap groove is utterly rote, and you can tell he’s trying to do the DaBaby run-on plus adlibs thing on the second verse and that’s not something that works for everyone - hell, half the time DaBaby can’t even pull it off. Oh, and to top it off, taking girls from guys and then discarding them once he buys them cars - which seems to be missing the point - saying the comments don’t bother him so of course he references them multiple times, makes a COVID-19 reference because that won’t be dated instantly, and in the process of calling other guys childish, he ends his first verse with a period joke and before that says the woman is salty that you ‘scarred her’. So here’s a question: what has this guy added to the game, and can we move past that?

39. ‘44 Bulldog’ by Pop Smoke - so the rest of the songs here are from Pop Smoke… and I’ll be honest, I don’t have a ton to say about them, because he wasn’t exactly a diverse or unique MC when it came to his content - it was more about his husky vocal timbre and his choppy flow and if he had good production. And by that limited criteria, this works pretty well for me: bleak pianos against sharp snares and a rumbling bass as Pop Smoke growls through a series of threats to shoot people. Hell, what’s probably most distinctive are the loud, Westside Gunn-esque adlibs, and they’re somehow more tolerable from Pop Smoke than him! So yeah, pretty basic, but really solid for what it is - and on that note…

37. ‘Gangstas’ by Pop Smoke - yep, similar sort of approach here - pianos, a trap-inspired rumble, albeit a little less intimidating with the cleaner production, and Pop Smoke growling through a series of threats, with the most notable note coming in a disdainful intro cussing out 6ix9ine, which I’m just fine with. Outside of that, though… it is only a single verse, it probably charted this high because of the 6ix9ine mention, and really, it’s just not particularly interesting. Not bad, though, I’ll take it.

34. ‘Aim For The Moon’ by Pop Smoke ft. Quavo - so as you probably noted, there were a lot of guest appearances across this Pop Smoke project, which did leave me concerned given that it could feel exploitative, with so many people hopping on the bandwagon. Apparently, though, this was a song near-done beforehand, and it was intended to give Pop Smoke a bit more variety beyond the muttering gunplay. - although hollow guitar, Travis Scott-esque vocal inflections, trap snares, and a roiling bass against drug, luxury porn, and guns isn’t that unique. And then Pop Smoke drops the r-word in the first line of the verse that he spends referencing his older hits, and I remember exactly why I was kind of lukewarm at best on the guy. Hell, with all the smoked-out, glassy fragments and Travis Scott touches it reminds me of a lost Huncho Jack track… which isn’t a compliment, because I’m not really crazy about Quavo delivers here either. Ehh, I don’t hate it, but let’s just say there’s a reason why I haven’t talked about the other Quavo collaborations on this thing.

31. ‘Got It On Me’ by Pop Smoke - now this is the Pop Smoke I probably could have really liked - gothic bombast with the bells and symphonic vocals off the trap knock, sharp verse full of gunplay, and enough haunted swell that it makes sense to be paired with that liberal interpolation of 50 Cent’s ‘Many Men (Wish Death)’, which was a great hook seventeen years ago and is just as great here. Hell, when you find out that 50 executive produced this song - in my opinion, the best cut on the album - it makes sense that he might have seen Pop Smoke as a protege or heir to his tarnished legacy. But yeah, this slaps and is potent as all hell, but on the topic of 50 Cent…

11. ‘The Woo’ by Pop Smoke ft. 50 Cent & Roddy Ricch - this should be better than it is. Now on some level that might not make sense: we’ve got Pop Smoke crooning through a Travis Scott imitation really well, sharp, cascading sputters of guitar that Roddy Ricch can bounce off well on a song that’s all about girls who want to fuck with them as gang members. And as someone who is no big fan of 50 Cent, his verse is on point and he’s got that sneering potency that’s always made his best songs… and it’s a damn shame that Pop Smoke chose to flip ‘Candy Shop’ for his third verse, dropping into a different key to interpolate one of the worst hit songs of the 2000s! It’s frustrating because this had all the components to work great… and yet that final verse just killed it for me. Not bad, but man it should better.

6. ‘For The Night’ by Pop Smoke ft. Lil Baby & DaBaby - and on the topic of songs that should be better… why does anyone think putting DaBaby and Lil Baby on the same song is some formula that works for anything beyond name recognition? Against the watery flutes and echoing guitars, Lil Baby’s delivery sounds really canned and warbling, and this is not production that flatters DaBaby’s sharper flow, where even he seems a bit off. And it’s not like the content’s about to redeem it - I appreciate Lil Baby and DaBaby paying respects in their verses, but only Lil Baby makes it more central to his paranoia… although it’s backed by the line ‘I just go Ray Charles they can’t see me’. Meanwhile DaBaby and Pop Smoke are just complaining about girls and brand name flexing, and it’s just not that interesting. I mean, it’s not the worst on the album, but there were songs from the album that should have hit the top 10 before this, just saying.

And that was our week… kind of all over the place, but it least it falls out quickly: ‘Said Sum’ by Moneybagg Yo nabs the Dishonourable Mention while ‘YAYA’ by 6ix9ine easily gets the worst, but the best of the week is a bit trickier. Well, ‘Got It On Me’ by Pop Smoke is the obvious best, but I’m actually going to give a tie for Honourable Mention: ‘44 Bulldog’ from Pop Smoke with ‘Life’s A Mess’ by Juice WRLD and Halsey - yeah, I’m as surprised by the latter as you might be. Better deal with that surprise fast because the Juice WRLD album bomb is likely coming big next week…