billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 20, 2020

There’s at least a part of me that’s grateful the Hot 100 slowed down a bit - indicative of the times, where it seems like mainstream pop music is the last thing on anyone’s mind, and that’s probably how it should be for a bit. But there is a very real likelihood that this is going to cascade onto the Hot 100 over the next few weeks - which is weird because given the lightspeed in which everything has moved going back to check old tracking weeks for the Hot 100 is strange and can feel like months away instead of just days, but old system move slowly… and many of them should be abolished or rebuilt from the ground up.

But enough of me being coy, the top 10, where for a second week, ‘ROCKSTAR’ by DaBaby and Roddy Ricch hold the #1, breaking the cycle of the top spot rotating for the past month - and really, if nothing breaks it streaming, it could hold for a bit, especially with strong sales and a bit of a radio run supporting it. And again, it’s a margins game against ‘Savage’ from Megan Thee Stallion and Beyonce, who holds #2 with better sales and radio but slightly weaker streaming… and I don’t quite trust her radio strength either. Then we have ‘Blinding Lights’ by The Weeknd at #3, which actually picked up sales and streaming htis week… but has peaked on the radio, and despite resting on top there will probably start its descent sooner rather than later. Which could open up an opportunity for ‘Say So’ by Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj at #4… but her streaming is slipping and her radio is falling even faster and harder - which isn’t good, because ‘Intentions’ by Justin Bieber and Quavo is now on a radio run and picked up threee spots to #5 - it looks like he’s just been working to wait out the competition, wonderful! So of course it slid past ‘Toosie Slide’ by Drake at #6, which thanks to streaming is holding while the radio can’t dump it fast enough. Now this opens things up for ‘Roses (Imanbek Remix)’ by SAINt JHN at #7, which picked up its own radio run and does have real strength across the board - it’s a serious challenger, and it blew right past by ‘Don’t Start Now’ by Dua Lipa at #8, which with its radio collapse is very much on its way out. Then we have ‘The Box’ by Roddy Ricch holding at #9 - even as the radio tries to get rid of it too, streaming is still rock solid - and also falling off pretty fast, ‘Rain On Me’ by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande at #10, which I expect will recover thanks to sales and its radio run, but the way its streaming numbers are collapsing, especially in on-demand… yeah, it’s got a tough road ahead.

And on that note, losers and dropouts, where this is going to be a very short conversation, where the biggest of the latter category is ‘Godzilla’ by Eminem and the late Juice WRLD clinching its year-end list spot - hell, not a good sign for Juice WRLD, as his song ‘Tell Me U Luv Me’ debuting with Trippie Redd last week fell to 77, along with ‘Sour Candy’ by Lady Gaga and BLACKPINK to 82 because Chromatica single combined with k-pop does not guarantee chart staying power. But we also don’t have much in the way of gains or returns here either… and more questionable country than I’d prefer. Yes, ‘21’ by Polo G is back at 98, but it came with ‘Catch’ by Brett Young at 96 and ‘Cool Again’ by Kane Brown at 85. And it’s a similar story when we get to our gains: yes, I’m happy that ‘Die From A Broken Heart’ by Maddie & Tae is still rising at 60, and I’ll stick up for ‘Watermelon Sugar’ by Harry Styles on its radio run up to 29… but right behind it we have ‘We Paid’ by Lil Baby and 42 Dugg at 34, ‘Go Crazy’ by Chris Brown and Young Thug at 37, and ‘Like That’ by Doja Cat and Gucci Mane up to 79 off the debut. And on the point of questionable country and country-adjacent songs, that also saw boosts for ‘One Beer’ by HARDY, Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson at 87 and ‘July’ by Noah Cyrus and Leon Bridges at 88. Honestly, I’m more interested in the mild radio run ‘Pu$$y Fairy’ by Jhene Aiko is doing, because between it and ‘OUT WEST’ by JACKBOYS and Young Thug, it seems like Billboard is treating their twenty-week recurrent rules with casual disinterest.

But on the topic of country, it’s a solid half of our short list of new arrivals, so let’s start with…

100. ‘Worldwide Beautiful’ by Kane Brown - …ugh, this is what I was worried about from Kane Brown. I knew that at some point given how Kane Brown is a person of colour working in country, he’d be politely coaxed into making a song like this, where if you’re only seeing black-and-white you’re not seeing the whole picture because we’re all one big family under God. And am I the only one who thinks this is a little tone-deaf to drop right now - even if he was targeting the Pride audience and wasn’t trying to soothe any racial tension, the frequent evocation of ‘God’ across the majority of the song doesn’t help! What also doesn’t help is the terrible production - how cheap the canned drums sound blended with the drum machines, a blur of badly chipmunked vocals that introduce the damn song and come up, the overwrought gospel blending, the awkward lyrical cadence… at best it’s treacly and hamfisted and not even with the over-the-top bombast that made ‘Love Wins’ by Carrie Underwood somewhat tolerable, where at worst… ugh, just no.

95. ‘Hard Days’ by Brantley Gilbert - I’ve said this before even this year: we don’t need Brantley Gilbert to come back. Hell, I thought his career was flaming out five years ago but now he’s getting traction again with a new song and… it’s actually okay. Yeah, there’s problems with it - mostly the fact it’s sung by Brantley Gilbert, who doesn’t have much in the way of vocal presence or power for the pretty rote rock touches that were dated in his brand of country eight years ago. But the guitars and drums do feel organic even if there’s nothing in the way of groove, and I do like the writing, questioning how much you can really appreciate the good things in life if you don’t have hard times to place them in context, and the religious references here feel more sober and reflective, albeit a bit broad. Honestly, it doesn’t feelt much like what I’d expect from Brantley Gilbert, so either he’s growing up a bit at 35 or he’s found a song that’d probably play better coming from Luke Combs or maybe even Keith Urban. But as it is… it’s fine, but on a better note…

93. ‘One Night Standards’ by Ashley McBryde - okay, I don’t want to overhype this - hell, on some level given her industry backing I’ve been inclined to say this was going to happen eventually. But yeah, Ashley McBryde has finally hit the Hot 100 - I reviewed her excellent album Never Will earlier this year on my main channel, and while this wouldn’t be my favourite from the album - that’d probably be ‘Stone’ or the title track - it’s still a great song! Jay Joyce’s production doesn’t feel overworked or forced, which lets the electric guitars ebb across the sharper percussion and acoustic groove before we get a quick solo, and I like how there’s just enough melancholic sourness that creeps through the song in how both people are using each other and they’re going to make the best of it. Ashley McBryde has described this as an ‘exercise in honesty’, and the attention to detail really reinforces it - it’s a third-rate romance, but they’re going to get something out of it at least. So yeah, not especially a happy country song, but I’m very happy it’s here - great track, absolutely worth hearing… unlike…

90. ‘Mamacita’ by Black Eyed Peas, Ozuna & J.Rey Soul - are we really going to do this? Okay, I had questions about bringing back Brantley Gilbert but we sure as hell don’t need to bring back the goddamn Black Eyed Peas doing bad reggaeton! Reggaeton fans don’t want it, I can’t imagine Black Eyed Peas fans want it, and even as someone who was charitable to their last project, I don’t want it, especially when you’ve got Ozuna and J.Rey Soul basically playing the undercooked Fergie role with a very liberal interpolation of ‘La Isla Bonita’. So again, just like ‘RITMO’ we have basically a photocopy of a song, only this time with more pitch-shifting, scratchy drum machines, and the Black Eyed Peas trying desperately to expand their marketshare by playing on obvious Latin tropes, in both lyrics and delivery. It’s just so transparently phony and canned - ‘RITMO’ at least had the big sample, this is just hollow, and just leaves me questioning how the Nine Hells Madonna got away with this in 87! So yeah, crap - next!

80. ‘Deep End Freestyle’ by Sleepy Hollow - okay, follow me on this: Sleepy Hollow is a Brooklyn rapper, from what I can tell on his YouTube channel he’s been active about a year, and this is something that apparently went really viral… and I’m not sure why, unless the tiktok presence behind this is bigger than I observed.Basically it’s a repeated sample with a very minimal beat and a keening tune that cuts in midway through, and he just raps about guns, screwing some girl, calling out people who aren’t real… I’ll be honest, this sounds barely finished, it can’t even run two minutes and it’s pretty bereft of unique content even then. The best thing I’ll say is that the rapper has an okay flow - kind of reminds me a bit of a slower, more methodical DaBaby with a smattering of Tyler - but other than that, this is a fragment that got viral for a minute, let’s move on.

64. ‘Otherside of America’ by Meek Mill - you know, at first glimpse, it completely makes sense for Meek Mill to deliver a song that speaks on this - he’s come out of the other side of the justice system, he’s found new success while not losing his edge, annd he’s gotten more conscious in recent years with an anthemic focus to go for more… so maybe it’s on me that this doesn’t hit as strongly as it could? Part of this is the feeling that the timing doesn’t do it a lot of favours, especially when you hear that he originally intended SAINt JHN and the late Nipsey Hussle to be on this song, which tells me it’s been in development for a while, which would have been fine if it felt more targeted in addressing broken systems than this is. Oh, it gets there - Meek references the neighbourhoods caught in a cycle of violence and he tells the folks within to do whatever they can to feed their families and break out, because that system sure as hell isn’t getting them there, but that plays more to a lonely, DIY-approach than any sort of broader unification, and it doesn’t quite mirror the current times in the same way, even if Meek’s furious delivery off the big horns and explosive hook have that street level reporting tone nailed perfectly. I’m also not really fond of how he flipped the opening sample from the current POS-in-chief, which describes in explicit detail systemic disenfranchisement of black people and the implied offer to vote for him because ‘what else do they have to lose’ - and given how things have gotten worse, I’m not sure it lands right as a call to action. Still, it’s a furious and potent song all the same and I do think it’ll hold its fire outside of the immediate conflict, the hook is that great.

But I do think ‘One Night Standards’ by Ashley McBryde slightly edges it out for the best of the week, while the worst goes to ‘Worldwide Beautiful’ by Kane Brown, because while the new Black Eyed Peas song is dumb, it’s a little better produced and it wasn’t nearly as disappointing. Next week… again, it might be slow, there’s not much moving right now, so we’ll have to see…