billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 15, 2021
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
There’s a part of me that wants to be more deeply annoyed with this week than I actually am - oh look, another album bomb week that’s just small enough that I have to cover all of it - and all the more frustrating given that’s coming from DJ Khaled’s newest project that seems to have already exited the critical and cultural conversation! But there’s a part of me that can’t be angry with DJ Khaled anymore - at least his motley collection of songs might be interesting in both their successes and failures, and let’s be real: this is what he does, more a memetic money-laundering operation than album statement, and people keep on buying into it.
Thankfully, it doesn’t impact our top ten, where for a second week it looks like the remix ‘Save Your Tears’ by The Weeknd and Ariana Grande held on to #1 by a thread, slipping off the top spot in sales and only barely eking out a lead in streaming thanks to YouTube. Make no mistake, if ‘Leave The Door Open’ by Silk Sonic closes that gap as it currently leads radio with stronger sales, it would move up beyond #2. But even then ‘Peaches’ by Justin Bieber ft. Daniel Caesar and Giveon is in the conversation too at #3 - yeah, sales are weaker but it has more radio momentum and better streaming, if not better YouTube. And right now, it looks like even ‘Levitating’ by Dua Lipa ft. DaBaby could make a run here beyond #4 - sales have risen, streaming and YouTube are holding their own, and it’s got that next wind of radio traction, it all becomes a margins game from here on out. This kind of leaves ‘Kiss Me More’ by Doja Cat ft. SZA on the outside looking in, even despite great streaming and YouTube… mostly because sales traction is lukewarm and they just don’t have the strong radio presence yet. And that’s very similar to the issue with ‘RAPSTAR’ by Polo G down to #6, where radio has been even slower and the sales aren’t there to prop up the massive streaming. But people are buying ‘Astronaut In The Ocean’ by Masked Wolf at #7 - its rise in all channels has been slow, but consistent, and again, I can see this going further… even if that godawful remix with G-Eazy and DDG might do more harm than good. And on the topic of spikes I didn’t want to see: ‘Without You’ by Kid LAROI is in the top 10 at #8, mostly thanks to a big remix with Miley Cyrus that just illuminates how much massive radio it’s accumulated along with a big boost on sales - very telling how relatively quiet streaming and YouTube have been, though - almost like this ripoff has industry connections like having both parents work in the music business or something; I think there’s a term for that. Anyway, this pushes back ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ by Lil Nas X to #9, where the streaming and YouTube are still solid but the radio and sales are just not propping him up enough… and this takes us to our biggest debut this week: ‘Your Power’ by Billie Eilish. I’ll talk more the song itself much later on, but I will say I’m a bit surprised it didn’t break higher: she really came through on YouTube, but outside of streaming, it looks like radio and sales have lagged a bit to get onboard, so it winds up at #10, and I have to wonder whether it’ll get that sustained traction.
But that takes us to our losers and dropouts where it seems deceptively like a lot happened. Now when it comes to our dropouts, there was a solid bit here: in what looks to be missing the year-end list we have ‘Wasted On You’ by Morgan Wallen, ‘Long Live’ by Florida Georgia Line, ‘My Head and My Heart’ by Ava Max, and right on the borderline ‘Damage’ by H.E.R., whereas nabbing their spots we have ‘Anyone’ by Justin Bieber and ‘willow’ by Taylor Swift, but also ‘For The Night’ by the late Pop Smoke ft. Lil Baby and DaBaby. And our losers are mostly just album bombs fading away: from Moneybagg Yo we have ‘Time Today’ down at 41, ‘Shottas (lala)’ at 62, ‘Hard for the Next’ with Future at 72, ‘Go!’ with BIG30 at 80, and ‘If Pain Was a Person’ at 96. But then from Young Thug and Gunna we have ‘Ski’ at 48 and ‘Solid’ with Drake at 52, and then from Rod Wave we’ve got ‘Richer’ with Polo G at 91. The rest are kind of scattered - ‘What’s Next’ by Drake slid to 45, ‘Botella Tras Botella’ by Gera MX and Christian Nodal skidded off the debut to 76, ‘Somebody Like That’ by Tenille Arts went to 78 - they’re really rotating this out quick - and ‘La Noche de Anoche’ by Bad Bunny & ROSALIA slid to 86, as it looks to be on its way out too.
Now as expected in an album bomb week, we didn’t have much in the way of gains or returns - hell, the only song that came back was the bottom feeder that is ‘Hello’ by Pop Smoke and A Boogie wit da Hoodie at 98, and thank God DJ Khaled’s Drake collabs on that album didn’t come back. But in our gains… once you factor out ‘Without You’, I’m actually mostly positive on all of these: ‘Made For You’ by Jake Owen hits a new peak at 32, ‘pov’ by Ariana Grande continues to rise to 55, ‘4 Da Gang’ by 42 Dugg and Roddy Ricch looks have to swung around at 83, and ‘Blame It On You’ by Jason Aldean rose off the debut to 87 - overall that’s pretty solid and I can’t complain that much!
But I can complain about our lengthy list of new arrivals… strap in folks, we’re starting with…
100. ‘Thankful’ by DJ Khaled ft. Lil Wayne & Jeremih - hey look, we’re starting off with a DJ Khaled song actually produced by DJ Khaled! Granted, in Khaled’s usual fashion it’s riding a painfully obvious sample flip with synth horns and electric guitar - this time of Jay-Z’s ‘Heart Of The City’, which has its own painfully heavy-handed sample flip but that was Kanye producing in 2001, not DJ Khaled’s increasingly flat sounding lack of dynamics here where Jeremih can’t blend with the choirs at all and the crescendo just doesn’t have much impact. It sounds cheap and clumsy, and leaves me hoping that Lil Wayne can do anything… and yet somehow on a song all about humility and being thankful, Wayne drops the bar ‘be proud, be shameless’. Somehow it feels like everyone missed the message - including DJ Khaled, who to cap it all off seems to have forgotten to add drums to this - not good, next!
97. ‘Tampa’ by Cico P - another week, another frustratingly one-dimensional trap song viral on Tiktok… although with Cico P it feels like this should go harder than it does, especially for a Texas rapper. But no, the melody feels very wispy, the beat has some knock but doesn’t feel overstated - in fact I think the mastering of this song is actually really good - and Cico P has his one, tightly multi-tracked melodic flow where you will not be able to tell the difference between the hook and the verses. I’m not going to deny that it’s mostly catchy - I get why it went viral for that one line on the second verse - but go beyond that and this is really thin, with its drug and gun references and how that the girl has ‘cakes like a Pamper’. Funny thing is, by the standards of songs like this, I actually don’t mind this at all, especially in terms of production and vibe, but it might wind up being too low key to actually work, so I’m not sure how much its virality will last - not bad, though, at least while it’s here.
95. ‘Single Saturday Night’ by Cole Swindell - hey look, it’s a song that dropped nearly a goddamn year ago that’s only now getting chart traction, presumably because Cole Swindell might finally be prepping to roll out the next album… and wow, if this is what he’s going for, he’ll be fighting an uphill battle between the snap beat, the oddly blocky drums and trap-inflected skitter, the warbling melodic touches, and how the hook is clearly punching for heavier impact with some of the clumsiest production I’ve heard in a while from him. And I don’t know why I’m disappointed here - Cole Swindell’s biggest problem since the beginning has been inconsistent production and a painful reliance on anonymous cliche, and guess what the lyrics are, imported straight from bargain barrel bro-country - but somehow I am. I thought the guy had started turning a corner in 2016 when he seemingly realized the subgenre was dying and yeah his approach to it was messy on both that album and the 2018 follow-up, but this just feels lazy and derivative. In other words, he’s back to a bad square one - no thank you.
90. ‘Final Warning’ by NLE Choppa - So I’m no fan of NLE Choppa, that’s been obvious for a while now, but given that his production and personality has gradually picked up more refinement and focus, and his lyrics feel a little better constructed, I’m not sure what to think about him. Yes, he flubs a rhyme on the first lines of the hook, but at least the shuddering bass is mixed better opposite the pianos, and NLE Choppa playing into a straight gun-toting villain role is at least distinctive in comparison with the more conscious and thoughtful rappers out of the drill scene today, even if you can tell NLE Choppa doesn’t quite have the same wild intensity given the rubbery autotuned backing vocals behind him. The one notable set of bars is telling the Broward County Police to, and I quote, ‘lick my nuts and suck my wood’ - which is a bold statement to the police department that had arrested him on gun and drug possession charges, but he claims they set him up; you’d think there’d be more detail in the song to support that claim, but NLE Choppa might be shrewd enough to keep that out pending more legal cases. Either way, the song is fine, but I’m still not really impressed - there’s a lot of rappers who do his new schtick better, so let’s move on.
85. ‘Durag Activity’ by Baby Keem & Travis Scott - okay, the last time I talked about Baby Keem I wasn’t at all impressed, mostly because he came across thoroughly unlikable and lacking the unique personality to match an okay groove. Well now he has even less presence, spends half of his hook calling someone a ‘big stench’, and then complaining about his friends not sharing their women with him… even despite the fact that he doesn’t seem to like any of these women anyway. But the bigger focus here is Travis Scott, both in the offkey melody and shuddering tap of the production, trying to create that eerie vibe… and yet I feel like I’ve heard this verse a dozen times from him, where there’s some demon girl who does all of his drugs and spends all of his money, and this many years in, there’s just not enough to stay likable, especially when his verse is stuck carrying the song. So yeah, this wasn’t fun or good, and on that note…
84. ‘Big Paper’ by DJ Khaled ft. Cardi B - okay, of everyone I expected to work with DJ Khaled on this album, Cardi absolutely makes the most sense - it’s a stopgap to fill time before whenever that album is going to drop, and she’s got the outsized personality to fit with his production… but it’s Tay Keith handling the majority of it this time, aiming for the very stripped back pattering bass and bell-accented synth and wow, this isn’t fun at all. Part of it is that I don’t think Cardi B rides this beat all that well, especially with some of the stuttered flows, but it’s also a ‘more money more problems’ flex song in the vein of what Nicki shoveled out in the mid-2010s that I never liked… but I’ll say it, Nicki can sell that imperious vibe a little better. The punchlines are here but they’re not quirky or funny - it’s the sort of braggadociousness that has very limited returns from Cardi because it doesn’t fit her sense of populism, so even with the acknowledgement that this is targeting a different audience, it’s both awkward and feeling like cashing a paycheque for DJ Khaled. So no, this ain’t good either.
79. ‘Body In Motion’ by DJ Khaled ft. Bryson Tiller, Lil Baby & Roddy Ricch - why do I get the feeling this song was built for a different artist on the hook? Yeah, I know DJ Khaled has thrown Bryson Tiller on songs that seem out of his comfort zone - ‘Wild Thoughts’ springs to mind - but in this case it feels like he doesn’t quite have the energy to ride this faster, Spanish guitar-backed shuffle where the song is going for more of a sinuous feel, especially when he’s drowned in so much autotune. And even if I think Lil Baby is mostly okay, even he sounds a little tired in his chase of this girl, especially if so much of it just involves buying her things. I guess Roddy Ricch sounds more enthusiastic and his bars are more colourful, but it falls in similar horndog territory that by the time he’s shouting about wanting ‘a bitch who wants a bitch who wants a bitch’, I’m left thinking this should be a fair bit better than it is. Production is likable, though, I’ll give it that.
73. ‘Country Again’ by Thomas Rhett - I’m a little surprised that nobody has put the new Thomas Rhett album on my schedule, especially as the buzz has been that it’s going more organic or even neotraditional country… which isn’t really surprising, given the acts that have gotten traction in recent months with that sound, but hey, I’m not about to complain if it adds flavour beyond Thomas Rhett’s beyond one-dimensional last album. And with this as the album’s title track… honestly, it had potential, but it’s the details that fumble it. Yes, I like the fiddle and banjo and warmer acoustics, but the vocal tracking feels way more processed than it should and the live percussion takes way too long to take over for the drum machine that opens up the track. And then there’s the content - I’m not against making the ‘coming home to the country’ song, recapturing one’s roots, especially when Thomas Rhett makes it clear he wouldn’t trade the L.A. experiences he’s had… but there’s a part of this song that’s just as ‘list-driven’ and lacking the storytelling that’s put his better songs a cut above. And when he’s referencing Eric Church in the second verse, it makes me wonder I’m not just listening to the best cuts of Heart & Soul again, even if he’s got his own estrangements from Nashville. I’m not saying this is bad, but compared to the best songs on the album, it could be better.
67. ‘Ramen & OJ’ by Joyner Lucas & Lil Baby - …there’s a part of me that could be very petty with this, given how much Joyner Lucas dumped on the melodic trap scene that’s less lyrical miracle and saw his badly managed career implode multiple times as a result… but if the music wound up okay and he saw the light with Lil Baby who is more thoughtful in this sound, I was willing to give this a chance. And honestly, it works - the trap skitter feels cheaper than I’d like but the swells of watery keys and bells are well-balanced and both of them are sharp as hell in riding the beat and handle their melodic passages well! I do wish there was a little more visceral hunger from both of them - the gunfire that splits both of their verses was welcome - and the ‘focus on the hard come-up’ is tried and true material for the both of them, but the wordplay is pretty sharp and if this is the turn to get Joyner on stable footing, I’m not going to complain. So yeah, pretty solid song - don’t mind this at all, I’ll take it.
54. ‘Let It Go’ by DJ Khaled ft. Justin Bieber & 21 Savage - alright, we have four more DJ Khaled songs before the end, and here’s a guest collaboration that baffles me. I get that Justin Bieber has a pretty consistent working relationship with DJ Khaled, but why put him on a song with 21 Savage, who honestly just seems a bit confused to be on this song and drops into a pretty standard verse about hustling and success that doesn’t match with anything. Granted, the entire song feels awkward and undercooked, with the burbling, angular synth playing off the spare percussion which is just enough foundation for Bieber to spout a lot of platitudes about just letting go of the things you can’t control… but again, it’s not a relaxing song, it’s bumpy and doesn’t flatter anyone. And yet bizarrely I don’t think this is bad - it hits a weird uncanny valley where it’s just catchy and inoffensive enough to not hit any bad nerves, where its flaws cancel each other out. Not saying it’s good, just saying that it should be worse, and I’m fine that it’s not.
43. ‘I Did It’ by DJ Khaled ft. Post Malone, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Baby & DaBaby - this was the song that from my friends got the most attention and I kind of get why, starting with the very obvious sample of the guitar line from ‘Layla’ to anchor a trap rock fusion that is such an obvious anthemic plug behind all the artists behind them that I was almost able to overlook how overcompressed the entire mix feels, especially the percussion. And if you’re able to ignore how Post Malone sounds bizarrely anonymous and lacking bite on the hook, all the rappers deliver with defiant force and solid flows - nothing out of their comfort zone in content or delivery, and yet bizarrely it’s Megan who is getting backlash for ‘not changing it up enough’, very telling rap fans. Anyway, this is probably the best thing we were going to get from DJ Khaled’s charting singles… and yes, I’m including…
30. ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ by DJ Khaled ft. Nas, Jay-Z & James Fauntleroy - there was a time when a Jay-Z and Nas collaboration meant something… or at least it would if I lived in New York or was invested in their long-running pettiness. And that’s kind of the problem: a song like this is coasting on legacy from both rappers coming together, with another big Jay-Z sample and jacking the title from a bad Demi Lovato song for James Fauntleroy to sing through the autotune… and if you’re not enamoured with the legacy, I’m not sure there’s much here to work with. Nas calls himself the ‘cryptocurrency Scarface’ and it’s as awkward of a line as you think it is, Jay-Z brags about his billions and compares himself to Jesus in how despite everyone trying to kill him he spreads his gospel, and I just cannot care about two moguls taking a victory lap. It’s got the same haughtiness I didn’t like the Cardi B track and it isn’t populist - it’s lazy bragging relying on its glamour rather than actual content, and samples ‘Song Cry’ to do it. In other words, it’s just about as pointless as the last ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ - not a fan, next!
20. ‘Every Chance I Get’ by DJ Khaled ft. Lil Baby & Lil Durk - you know, I get the feeling that Tay Keith should fight for credit on more of these songs given that when it comes to the production his fingerprints are just as much as Khaled does, especially with the harder snares and swampy bass rumble over the glossy melodic loop that still leaves the entire song feeling a little overcompressed. But hey, Lil Baby is trying to bring more intensity here and I’d argue his severity fits the production - even if he’s going to regret getting that overdone watch that hurts his wrist - and Lil Durk makes sense here too, even if his vocal quality sounds like it was from a different studio and I do think this is pretty lightweight subject matter from the both of them. But again, that’s the point: it’s a flex, and at least from these two it feels more grounded in the reality of where they still very much are, which helps make the hunger sound convincing. So yeah, solid song - not the best of what charted from Khaled, but I’ll take it.
10. ‘Your Power’ by Billie Eilish - I don’t know how to feel about Billie Eilish’s single rollout for this new album - granted, her last rollout was unconventional in terms of what singles caught fire and which didn’t, but ‘my future’ has been long gone and ‘therefore i am’ always felt like a bit of an attempt to recapture the meme of ‘bad guy’, so this feels more like the proper rollout. And… yeah, of course it’s really damn good, but a bit of a shift from what I was expecting. It’s primarily rooted in an acoustic line with very subtle touches of percussion around her, and of course it’s mastered in a way for Billie’s hushed delivery to take center stage. And that was the right decision because even though there’s not a lot of distinctive details, there are layers to parse through in this song, exploring the dynamics of an abusive - and drawing on her own experience underage - relationship with a lot of even-handed complexity. She speaks from the position of someone taken advantage of, made to feel like she was the bad guy even as he was trying to assert control, but then she does an interesting thing in trying to dissect why someone would manipulate and abuse, examining his insecurities and ignorance and fear in just how much of it was trying to preserve one’s own power and security, especially if your career could be jeopardized. And I really like two things she does on the hook, firstly by implying that having power is strange, given that she herself now has it and might understand the temptation, but also by ending the song with the statement that ‘power isn’t pain’, which shows even if she’s sympathetic to that struggle, there’s still a responsibility to each other that supersedes your individual angst of wielding power, which shows a lot of maturity to hit there regardless and suddenly I feel this could work really well in a Rick and Morty episode.
But yeah, easy Best of the Week to Billie Eilish here, with Honourable Mention to ‘I Did It’ by DJ Khaled ft. Post Malone, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Baby and DaBaby - hey, sometimes if you throw enough talent and names into the mix, you get something workable. Worst of the week, though… I’m giving that to ‘Durag Activity’ by Baby Keem and Travis Scott as just the most unpleasant song here, with Dishonourable Mention going to DJ Khaled and Cardi B for ‘Big Paper’, mostly on disappointment alone here, she can do much better and this is not helping her momentum. Next week… seems like a breather before J. Cole crashes through in a few weeks, but I’ve been wrong plenty of times before on this, we’ll have to see.