billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 10, 2023
I went back and checked - the last album bomb we got was three months ago - does that strike anyone else as a little wild that the mainstream charts have felt this scattershot that so little has been able to shake up the charts? And hell, that when we get that impact, it’s courtesy of Lil Durk, who’s been breaking through consistently the past few years but absolutely has his largest impact to date, albeit mostly courtesy of other acts? I don’t know if this is signaling the summer is finally going to kick into gear… but I wouldn’t be displeased if that happens, all I’m gonna say!
Of course, this all starts with the top 10, where for another week ‘Last Night’ by Morgan Wallen holds the #1 thanks to rock solid streaming and radio… but it may have hit its limit in the latter category, as the gains have fallen off there. And this opens up the doors for a new challenger: ‘Karma’ by Taylor Swift, featuring Ice Spice. I’m a little shocked that Taylor went to the remix given that this song was already on the upswing, but now it’s a challenger for the top spot thanks to ridiculous streaming gains, a tangible radio surge, and an influx of sales - there’s still a considerable margin to overtake, but this is now in contention. That’s not really something I can say for ‘Flowers’ by Miley Cyrus anymore at #3, which is now firmly on the downswing especially on radio. But then we saw the expected spike for ‘All My Life’ by Lil Durk ft. J. Cole up to #4 thanks to the streaming resurgence and some decent crossover radio gains - I don’t know how long this’ll last outside of the album bomb week, but there’s more here than I expected. Hell, it leapt over ‘Calm Down’ by Rema and Selena Gomez at #5, where it had a strange week on radio, where I thought it might be peaking until it got a last-minute surge - I reckon that put it over ‘Kill Bill’ by SZA down to #6, which is just bleeding hard and fast. Then we saw a step back for ‘Ella Baila Sola’ by Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma to #7, mostly due to a slight slip on streaming… which is pretty much all it has, because radio has not gotten going at all. And that opens up the door for ‘Fast Car’ by Luke Combs up to #8 - it’s up in all categories, it’s a bonafide hit, and the fact that it’s a great cover is a big shining moment in a year that’s not impressed me. Case in point, ‘Favorite Song’ by Toosii slid to #9 as it seems like radio momentum screeched to a halt and stronger songs bowled past it, but it was enough to stand over ‘Creepin’ by Metro Boomin, 21 Savage and The Weeknd at #10, which given the airplay collapse was on its way out anyway.
This opens the door for losers and dropouts, and there’s a lot of them here - that’s one of the benefits of album bomb weeks, they clear away so many songs! And look, I’m not gonna complain that ‘Spin Bout U’ by Drake and 21 Savage, ‘Unholy’ by Sam Smith and Kim Petras, or ‘Just Wanna Rock’ by Lil Uzi Vert all exited - albeit all with year-end list slots for 2023 - nor am I really going to complain much that ‘Nonsense’ by Sabrina Carpenter, ‘Painting Pictures’ by Superstar Pride, ‘Double Fantasy’ by Future and The Weeknd, and even ‘Red Ruby Da Sleeze’ by Nicki Minaj are gone well short - yes, I know with Nicki’s album announcement that the last song might return, but I have no clue what’s even going to be on that album, so I have no expectations there. And that takes us to our healthy list of losers, most of which I’d chalk up to Lil Durk’s disruption on streaming causing a serious shake-up with only a few exceptions like ‘Say Yes To Heaven’ by Lana Del Rey fading off the debut to 90. But for the return of ‘AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM’ by Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar at 54, it makes sense, as does ‘Mourning’ by Post Malone losing off the debut to 55, or the continued collapse of ‘Mathematical Disrespect’ by Lil Mabu at 97. Outside of that - and maybe ‘Dancin In The Country’ by Tyler Hubbard on its way out at 37 - the rest fall into disrupted streaming, like ‘Slut Me Out’ by NLE Choppa continuing out to 65, or ‘ICU’ by Coco Jones at 79, or ‘Shake Sumn’ by DaBaby at 80, or ‘Fight The Feeling’ by Rod Wave at 85, or ‘Low Down’ by Lil Baby at 89, or ‘Moonlight’ by Kali Uchis at 96, or ‘Trance’ by Metro Boomin, Travis Scott and Young Thug at 99. It also spilled into Latin crossovers spanning regional Mexican tracks like ‘Fragil’ by Yahritza Su Esencia and Grupo Frontera at 84 and ‘El Gordo Trae El Mando’ by Chino Pacas at 93 to more conventional Latin pop and reggaeton with ‘Beso’ by Rosalia and Rauw Alejandro to 88 and ‘Yandel 150’ by Yandel and Feid at 92. And to round out streaming impacts, a few residual Morgan Wallen cuts got hit like ‘I Wrote The Book’ at 95 and ‘Man Made A Bar’ with Eric Church at 100… yes, both songs are still around!
Now for the returns and gains… well, there’s not much of either as expected, and given that I already mentioned ‘Karma’ as the one gain, the only return we had was also from Taylor Swift with ‘Snow On The Beach’ with Lana Del Rey to 30 - it’s not clear in Billboard’s attribution whether this is the new version of this song with more of Lana than the last one. But we are in album bomb territory, and it’s a big one with fourteen new songs, so outside of the top 20, we’re only looking at the best and worst. Outside of those… ‘You Got Em’ at 86 - though this one was really quite bad - ‘B12’ at 83 - though I do dig this one, Durk seems to do Yeat’s sound better than he does - ‘Before Fajr’ at 82, ‘Grandson’ with Kodak Black at 76, ‘Sad Songs’ at 74 - one of the few Durk relationship songs that is actually good - ‘300 Urus’ at 73, ‘Put Em On Ice’ at 72, ‘Big Dawg’ with Chief Wuk at 67, ‘Never Again’ at 62, ‘Never Imagined’ with Future at 59 - this one was surprisingly good - and ‘Pelle Coat’ at 35.
Alright, now for a much more reasonable selection of new arrivals…
68. ‘Cross The Globe’ by Lil Durk ft. Juice WRLD - the worst songs from Lil Durk’s album are when he pulls in guests who shouldn’t be here, and to me… it’s kind of a tossup which is more offensive, but tacking on a Lil Durk verse to yet another posthumous Juice WRLD song just feels gross, made all the worse because the bass and snare mixing is shoddy against the faded guitar. And look, Juice WRLD was always at his worst when he was trying to be gangsta, especially on this track where he tries to get a girl to come over, she refuses to fuck him and his friend, but then when he pulls the money out, she screws them both and he bungled the rhyme on the hook. His verse is bad too - he wasn’t a dealer, the comparisons to 2Pac are wildly out of pocket, he says he ‘finger-fucks’ his gun, and then we get the line ‘smoke till my eyes look Ming, no Yao’. Lil Durk’s verse is better, as he’s trying to be more responsible in turning down 50 Cent’s offer for a movie on the ground in Chicago when he’s trying to set up scholarships to get the kids out, but then he references everyone he wants freed, and mentions YNW Melly… I’m not sure you can get away with that one, just saying! So yeah, this is bad and is only on the album for the Juice WRLD feature to spike up the streams, skip it.
66. ‘Pound Town 2’ by Sexyy Red, Tay Keith & Nicki Minaj - so I’ll freely admit I wasn’t familiar with Sexyy Red before this song - she’s from St. Louis, she’s been building buzz… and I’m not quite sure why, because the original ‘Pound Town’ wasn’t good at all. Yeah, the piano line was cool, but the percussion felt so awkwardly mixed with the glassy trap skitters not evenly placed in the mix, and Sexyy Red… well, her flow left a lot to be desired and the sleaze was just not very interesting. So even if the wonky mixing choices haven’t gone away, at least Nicki Minaj would be a significant upgrade… and yeah, her verse is better even if it’s just as effortlessly sleazy, but then there’s that bridge and while Nicki has been flagrant before, if the rumours are true and she’s talking about Diddy, that’s a mess I don’t even want to explain. Let’s make this clear, Nicki makes this better but not good - let’s not make this become a thing.
53. ‘Bye’ by Peso Pluma - you know, for a second with the slower and more melancholic guitars, I thought we’d be getting something close to a regional Mexican ballad, something I haven’t really heard yet before… but then those farty staccato horns flooded in against the somber acoustics and I ran out of patience with this fast, especially as Peso Pluma’s nasal singing makes him one of my least favourites to gain prominence this year. Now to be fair, from a content standpoint this is a ballad, where Peso Pluma commiserates about a breakup with the sort of utterly unconvincing bragging that proves it’s still very much on his mind. I dunno, the horns and vocals prevent me from liking this, but I can appreciate there’s a bit more diversity here and I’d be able to tell this song apart from the others, so… I’ll call that a win?
43. ‘Dance The Night’ by Dua Lipa - so in the most obvious choice imaginable, Dua Lipa got tasked to make a nu-disco song for the Barbie movie that she’s in, and Mark Ronson stepped in to deliver some really sleek production polish, especially with the strings and bassline - honestly, it’s some of the more lush throwback production that Dua Lipa has ever had, and I’ll admit this is a sound that works really well for me, where she tries to get over a heartbreak by being hot and dancing up a storm. Granted, in this lane I have the immediate comparison of Jessie Ware this year who has elegance and tighter melodies that Dua Lipa hasn’t quite mastered yet, and there’s a part of me that feels like this is very stock for her - not bad by any means, but it’s not taking any compositional risks either, and I feel like that’s a safe misstep, even for a soundtrack hit. I just hope it’s not a sign that the Barbie soundtrack plays it safe - given how stacked it’s likely to be and I’d put money on a small album bomb coming from it, I’m hoping for a bit more flair.
41. ‘War Bout It’ by Lil Durk ft. 21 Savage - I feel like it’s kind of cheating to put this here as my favourite song from Lil Durk that charted this week… because it’s hopping on a Metro Boomin track with 21 Savage and ergo it’s going to be one of the few songs here that’s competently and consistently mixed and mastered and can actually create some credible dread and atmosphere as Durk makes the loud threats against someone who betrayed him who was close enough to be around his kids… and then 21 highlights exactly how a ruthless killer would get it done. I think the only reason I’m not fully onboard with this because this is a formula in its keys, operatic touches, and spare trap beat that feels kind of driven into the ground - a really damn solid formula, but a formula nonetheless. Still really good, though, even if it can feel like the antithesis of any aspirational framing on early tracks on the album.
27. ‘Hits Different’ by Taylor Swift - okay, so the reason is this only charting now and not within the proper deluxe framing that Taylor previously had was this being included on a Target-exclusive release. But apparently enough folks really liked it, so in the newest and rather shameless deluxe issue this was made available for everyone. And… oh fuck, it’s great, I get why she released it, mostly because it plays to Taylor at her drunkest and messiest as she tries to stagger through the aftermath of a relationship where she very much still has feelings. But where ‘Back To December’ has a plea to try and bring things back, this is what happens when you try to move on and it blows up in her face, where friends can’t console her, old tokens make her cry, and once again she can’t change to fit into his world and there’s a callback to ‘our song’ as to when your own pop culture ubiquity becomes its own curse, when your friends stop inviting you out and you worry if the madness is taking you. It’s not really an easy or relatable version of Taylor - most don’t blow through guys like she does - but it’s like my favourite songs on Midnights, the messy humanity is what’s most compelling. Now I get why this was cut from Midnights - the chipper pop country guitars from Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff that bizarrely remind me of ‘Free Fallin’, the heavier percussion and bouncy hook are way too uptempo, even as the synths well up over the hook, and that second verse is just a total mess of clunky lyricism and flubbed rhymes… but I dunno, if the choice for the next hit is between this and ‘Karma’, I’d take this - great song!
22. ‘Stand By Me’ by Lil Durk ft. Morgan Wallen - At this point, it’s not even the fact that Morgan Wallen and Lil Durk appear to be friends - that’s their business, whatever - but can they stop making utterly terrible music together? Recruiting Dr. Luke for production - because you wanted more of his washed out synthetic guitars, fake claps, and barebones trap skitters with no texture or punch - this is a song all about standing together with either Durk or Wallen, and wow, I’m not convinced by either of them. Durk goes on how he totally didn’t go to the red light distinct in Amsterdam, but found different bad bitches to hang out with but he can explain… so long as she stays loyal. But at least Durk sells it with some tangible desperation, whereas Morgan Wallen plays the same card… but ends his verse with how if you’re not going to be that person, you should just be gone; at least Durk is apologetic and seems to care a little more! If we’re comparing this to ‘Broadway Girls’… I can’t say it’s worse because that one was just mixed like shit and the sour vibes were just ugly as hell, but this is the most sterile attempt at crossover I’ve heard in a long time, with Morgan Wallen putting on his best Adam Levine impression - so yeah, it sucks.
And… you know, it’s not the worst this week, it’s just getting Dishonourable Mention while the worst goes to ‘Cross The Globe’ by Lil Durk and the late Juice WRLD - although ‘Pound Town 2’ was closer than you might think. Best… Honourable Mention is going to Lil Durk and 21 Savage with ‘War Bout It’, but Taylor Swift kind of runs away with this with ‘Hits Different’, it’s a legit great song and I get why it charted highly. Next week… the fallout from all of this unless Toosii or Moneybagg Yo see more traction, stay tuned.