billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 11, 2021

…look, we knew the Kanye album bomb was coming, we knew it would be overwhelming courtesy of the fact the album was over twenty tracks long - I’m frankly just grateful that not all of the ‘bonus’ cuts charted. And given we’ve got Drake’s album bomb waiting in the wings… yeah, no preamble, let’s get to it.

Top ten, where I’ll admit I was surprised that ‘Butter’ by BTS has once again reclaimed the #1. In this case it’s tied to the Megan Thee Stallion remix which saw a streaming boost, but she’s not actually getting credit from Billboard outside of the streaming chart because whatever passes for the original version of this song outsold anyway - I find it weird that Billboard recognizes a definitive version of this song given the multiple versions and the ISRC spoofing, but whatever, with radio tanking, this feels like a one-off. I’m not complaining that it knocked off ‘Stay’ by Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber, though - even if it saw Kanye cut into their streaming margins, the sales are up and the radio is really throwing weight behind this one. Contrast this with ‘Bad Habits’ by Ed Sheeran at #3, which is now ruling the radio but lagging enough on sales and streaming to not get over the hump. And this elbows back ‘good 4 u’ by Olivia Rodrigo to #4, where it looks like radio and streaming are starting the decline; similar case with ‘Kiss Me More’ by Doja Cat and SZA at #5. Then we have our first dose of Kanye West, with ‘Hurricane’ debuting at #6 - I’m going to cite the features this week even if none of them are credited, because the presence of The Weeknd and Lil Baby is the reason this debuted as high as it did on insane streaming… and little else. See, I don’t believe for a second this Kanye album bomb is built to last beyond residual streams because there’s no radio push or much single sales to speak of - which means any streaming challenger will knock this back fast. Then we get ‘INDUSTRY BABY’ by Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow at #7, which is still clinging to streaming even as its radio and sales are too slow to make up the difference, followed ‘Levitating’ by Dua Lipa at #8 which is getting rotated out across the board but has momentum still. Then we have the real problem this week: ‘Fancy Like’ by Walker Hayes at #9. I could go off on an extended rant how this is borderline-novelty trash coasting on cheap virality, but that’s not what it is anymore: Nashville radio still hasn’t thrown any real weight behind this, it’s here on sales and streaming; people like this, and by the time we get to the end of the year, we’re going to have to delve into what that really means. Finally we have Kanye pulling up with his Jay-Z collab in ‘Jail’ at #10 - again, streaming, we know the deal.

Now we get to the losers and dropouts, normally the worst part of any album bomb discussion, but considering the swathe Kanye cut through the Hot 100… I’m honestly not complaining much especially as most of what he got rid of was due to exit anyway or just outright sucked! So in the dropouts, we saw ‘Permission To Dance’ by BTS, ‘You’ by Regard, Troye Sivan and Tate McRae, and (sadly) ‘Tombstone’ by Rod Wave fall short of the year-end list, and with those that have comfortably notched their spots… ‘Lil Bit’ by Nelly and Florida Georgia Line, ‘Famous Friends’ by Chris Young and Kane Brown, ‘RAPSTAR’ by Polo G, ‘Astronaut In The Ocean’ by Masked Wolf, ‘Without You’ by Kid LAROI and Miley Cyrus, ‘Glad You Exist’ by Dan + Shay, and after breaking all sorts of records as one of the longest running songs in Hot 100 history, ‘Blinding Lights’ by The Weeknd. Now for our losers… it’s over a third of the chart, folks, so let’s deal with the easy exceptions: off the debut ‘Matt Hardy 999’ by Trippie Redd and Juice WRLD hit 100 and ‘Summer of Love’ by Shawn Mendes and Tainy hit 85, continued losers are ‘You Should Probably Leave’ by Chris Stapleton at 91, ‘Motley Crew’ by Post Malone at 86, ‘Volvi’ by Aventura and Bad Bunny at 72, and ‘Rumors’ by Lizzo and Cardi B at 32, and the one gain knocked back is ‘Chasing After You’ by Ryan Hurd and Maren Morris at 47. Then, starting from the bottom up: ‘Don’t Go Yet’ by Camila Cabello at 89, ‘Ain’t Shit’ by Doja Cat at 88, ‘Single Saturday Night’ by Cole Swindell at 83, ‘Get Into It (Yuh)’ by Doja Cat at 81, ‘Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)’ by Elle King and Miranda Lambert at 79. Then we have ‘Yonaguni’ by Bad Bunny at 73, ‘Wild Side’ by Normani and Cardi B at 71, ‘Todo de Ti’ by Rauw Alejandro at 69, ‘Love Again’ by Dua Lipa at 66, ‘We Didn’t Have Much’ by Justin Moore at 65, and ‘2055’ by Sleepy Hallow at 62. Then it’s ‘Whole Lotta Money’ by BIA and Nicki Minaj at 60, ‘Skate’ by Silk Sonic at 57, ‘Cold Beer Calling My Name’ by Jameson Rodgers and Luke Combs at 55, ‘Wockesha’ by Moneybagg Yo at 54, ‘Every Chance I Get’ by DJ Khaled ft. Lil Baby and Lil Durk at 49, ‘Late At Night’ by Roddy Ricch at 48, ‘Thot Shit’ by Megan Thee Stallion at 46, and ‘Things A Man Oughta Know’ by Lainey Wilson at 45. Finally, to end things off, ‘Arcade’ by Duncan Laurence at 44, ‘Forever After All’ by Luke Combs at 41, ‘traitor’ by Olivia Rodrigo at 39, ‘Happier Than Ever’ by Billie Eilish at 38, ‘Waves’ by Luke Bryan at 37, ‘Pepas’ by Farruko at 36, ‘Heartbreak Anniversary’ by Giveon at 34, ‘Leave Before You Love Me’ by the Jonas Brothers and Marshmello at 33, ‘Peaches’ by Justin Bieber, Daniel Caesar and Giveon at 31, ‘Leave The Door Open’ by Silk Sonic at 29, and ‘Need To Know’ by Doja Cat at 24.

Did any of you follow that? Do any of you appreciate the editing it’s going to take to get all of this assembled for chart positions that are only going to be more in flux when Drake hits next week? Well, given that we only have one return this week with ‘Repeat It’ by Lil Tecca and Gunna at 99, I might as well rattle through the Kanye West songs of the album bomb I’m not covering. Now he’s got twelve songs in the top 40 alone, so I’m very much doing my job here regardless, but as for the rest… ‘Come To Life’ at 77, ‘New Again’ with Chris Brown at 68, ‘Jail Pt. 2’ with DaBaby and Marilyn Manson at 63, ‘Keep My Spirit Alive’ with Westside Gunn, KayCyy, and Conway The Machine at 59, ‘Donda’ with Stalone at 58, ‘No Child Left Behind’ with the Sunday Service Choir and Vory at 53, ‘Pure Souls’ with Roddy Ricch and Shenseea at 52, and ‘24’ with the Sunday Service Choir at 43.

Alright, lots of new arrivals, but we’re not starting with Kanye…

96. ‘In Da Getto’ by J Balvin & Skrillex - is anyone else a little perturbed on what the hell J. Balvin is doing? Maybe he’s just hunting for ways to further differentiate himself from his peers, but some of his creative decisions have felt a little questionable as of late, and teaming up with Skrillex… well, it’s not as bad of an idea as teaming up with Metallica, but I was skeptical here, even with Tainy showing up uncredited as well. And… have to be honest, I’m not sure there’s much to praise here - the chintzy organ and sample backing slightly more interesting percussion than your standard reggaeton bounce, but rarely running two minutes with only more rubbery switch-ups and J Balvin rattling through the description of a street party, it feels like a fragment more than a full composed idea with an hook beyond the sample. In other words, maybe not bad, but it’s not interesting either, let’s be real.

90. ‘Tell The Vision’ by Kanye West ft. Pop Smoke - okay, so do you remember the version of this song that was on Pop Smoke’s album with the samples and Pusha-T verse, that charted a few weeks ago and I already talked about on this show? Yeah, Kanye threw it on his album too, dropped the interesting samples, Pusha-T verse, and drums, and mixed Pop Smoke’s vocals so badly off the lead piano loop that it feels like a glorified muddy interlude more than anything. More importantly, it sounds like dogshit and not even in an interesting or potent way - and even as someone who has never really liked Pop Smoke, this feels like a slap in the face to recontextualize a fragment of what he actually said to lend pathos to an album that was already short on it to begin with. Forget ‘this shouldn’t have charted’, this shouldn’t have made the album - period.

64. ‘I Am Not A Woman I’m A God’ by Halsey - I feel bad for Halsey, I really do. They were priming a really ambitious project that I was shocked they were able to convince a major label to ship… and they have to go head-to-head against Kanye. Now to be fair, I’m not sure there was an obvious single that was guaranteed chart presence, and I include this song, even if I think it’s got potential - the pulsating whir and wonky downwards synth progression playing off the sharper clatter of percussion has a pretty solid groove, even if it feels like Halsey’s vocal presence is inconsistent even within the song; again, whoever mastered this has some explaining to do. But I’m not sure the lyrics quite work either - I said this in On The Pulse, it feels like in chasing these dualities Halsey doesn’t really elevate them beyond highlighting the extremes of their nature; it feels hyperbolic, but nothing in the production or delivery really amplifies that power clash, so it comes across as trying to be edgier than it is. I dunno, I know to some queer audiences this has more resonance… but it feels compromised from hitting as hard as it could, that’s all I’ll say.

52. ‘Heaven And Hell’ by Kanye West - hey look, it’s the other glorified interlude on this album that absolutely sucks! And yes, a significant portion of my distaste comes with that pitched up, grainy sample opposite the bare handclap and the weird feeling that part of the synth reminds me of ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’, but it gets worse when you look at the content - only Kanye would compare himself to Jeff Bezos in 2021, and then frame himself as a divine warrior which by the end has him scatting gunshots by the end - and unlike when he did it on KIDS SEE GHOSTS, it doesn’t even feel visceral or punchy. So yeah, it’s the other flagrant dud on the album, all the worse when examined on its own.

40. ‘Remote Control’ by Kanye West ft. Young Thug - okay, we’re now in the top 40 and we’ve got a lot of Kanye to move through here, and given I did already review the album, I’m going to try and keep this short for each song - not difficult because there’s really not much here. In this case, we get wonky bass synth touches bracketing a whistled interlude, painfully dry percussion, and lyrics framing him as woozily above everyone, detached but still in control, only reinforced by Thugger’s verse… probably why he attached that sample of the Globglogabgalab at the end that led to a memetic moment, but not much else.

30. ‘God Breathed’ by Kanye West ft. Vory - so I was surprised to see Vory all over this new Kanye album - apparently he caught a break being on The Carters’ album from 2018 that everyone pretty much forgot about, but he does a lot of autotuned crooning on DONDA. Here he provides support to Kanye’s sharper delivery that reminds me a little of Yeezus opposite the sputtering sample and low vocals, all building up to Kanye planning to say something transgressive… and the most we get ‘God, The Father, like Maury’ and a Dustin Hoffman reference, which goes to show Kanye will actually dig for those accused multiple times of sexual assault, all of which will be redeemed by God’s breath. Also it runs for five and a half minutes to try and sell the same clattering breakdown - yeah, I wasn’t moved the first time.

28. ‘Believe What I Say’ by Kanye West - honestly, this might be one of the closest cuts to an older Kanye song - the chopped sample of Lauryn Hill, a bit more of an actual groove and sung hook, I even don’t mind the interlude of Buju Banton on the back half of the song. The problem is that it’s basically Kanye complaining to Kim that he’s given her everything she wants and she’s not satisfied - it basically runs as an extended guilt trip where Kanye places himself in a messianic role again as both saviour and victim - where he still thinks he can get off lines like ‘free throat coat for the throat goats’ - and it feels sanctimonious in a way it can’t really excuse. So yeah, production was better, but man, this feels sketchy in a way I can’t really escape.

27. ‘Jonah’ by Kanye West ft. Lil Durk & Vory - full disclosure, this is a song I wanted to like: the focus on the deaths in Chicago with melancholic verses circling all the success and waste that comes with losses in the street, Vory and especially Lil Durk really deliver here, especially as he sees the pointlessness of the grudges between Kanye and Jay-Z. And you know, at the start I was almost on board for Kanye’s verse… until you realize so much of his verse feels like veiled threats towards those not coming to him with the right respect - gee, given the past few weeks, can’t imagine who he’s talking about! It completely shoves me out of any atmosphere of reconciliation… not helped by the production being very thin with its warping, beeping synths. Again, this could have been more… but even then it feels like I’m stretching to make it that.

26. ‘Jesus Lord’ by Kanye West ft. Jay Electronica - this is the album centerpiece and for the most part, for good reason. The hook builds well off the claps and swells of organ behind the hook, and I think Kanye’s verse, while rambling and kind of disconnected between the stories of street vengeance and trying to find reconciliation with the loss of his mother and his own grief-stricken depression, it mostly works - putting aside the Barney and Buzz Lightyear references, obviously. But then Jay Electronica shows up and drops arguably the most layered verse on the entire album: nested political and religious references, which has the expected pseudo-conspiratorial apocalypse angle and that’s not to touch on the Nation of Islam reference, but what I find most striking is the monk visiting the Rothschilds, of which Jay clearly sketches a parallel as another heavenly crusader. Kind of ironic given his own connections to that family of storied wealth, but when matched alongside the monologue from Larry Hoover Jr. who highlights the systemic failures of capitalism that contributed to the gangs, you have to wonder who’s actually seeing the bigger picture. Not a bad moment, but given that it also runs for over eight minutes, not one I’m about to revisit.

22. ‘Sharing Locations’ by Meek Mill ft. Lil Baby & Lil Durk - alright, we’ve got a bit of a break from Kanye here, with a collaboration that makes a lot of sense in terms of street level framing. Interestingly, Lil Durk might take the hook but it’s not really a traditionally structured teamup, as all three share the same verses and trade back and forth, which I actually tend to like - and I actually dig this a decent bit! A big part of that is how Meek Mill still has a taste for bombast for his brand of trap with the twinkling backing the choral sample and faster stutter of the beat, but his flow has gotten sharper and he can match Lil Baby and Lil Durk pretty effectively. Now I don’t think the content makes the most of it - a lot of gunplay, cars, stacking cash, screwing other guy’s girls, and brand name porn - but if you’re going to go for that, might as well have a solid hook and bombast to sell the ominous vibe - I can see this going off in the right environment. So yeah, I actually dig this a decent bit - cool stuff, check it out.

20. ‘Praise God’ by Kanye West ft. Baby Keem & Travis Scott - yeah, back to Kanye for a bit, but only just the one here… and actually two Baby Keem features in a row, which is better to acknowledge than whatever the hell Travis Scott thought sounding fried out as hell opening the song opposite the swamped out bass and fragmented sample. I’m not going to deny this creates some atmosphere - shame there’s so little actual content beyond some vague references to walking through darkness - but the real focus is on Baby Keem. And… you know, there’s some things I dig, like that ‘y’all treat your Lord and Savior like rental’s insurance’ line as he tries to maintain his vigil towards living a good life… the problem is that half of his verse is just filler repetition and that’s before we get him going into his squeaky voice that is the definition of annoying as hell and the worst way he could have ended his verse. So yes, there’s one good line and okay atmosphere - when it’s opposite everything else that annoys me, that’s not a pass!

18. ‘Family Ties’ by Baby Keem & Kendrick Lamar - but speaking of Baby Keem… I guess with the cosign from Kendrick we should be expecting to hear a lot more from him in the near future, but more to the point if this is a sign that Kendrick Lamar is moving towards a new album, I’m certainly approaching this with some expectations, even if this song is just two extended verses with no real hook. And… okay, there’s parts I like about this, but I was looking to be a lot more hyped than I am. Yes, Baby Keem is better here, his flows are faster and sharper, and you can tell he’s a clever dude in knowing how to get the right money and cosigns on his come-up rather than just anything, which allows his hunger to feel pretty visceral even if he repeats bars to fill up space a little too much for my liking on choppier staccato flows off the horns and clunky trap beat. But then there’s Kendrick, coming in after the shuddering beat switch, where it’s not only clear he’s aware that so many have been wondering where the hell he is, but he’s also back to reassert dominance. And while I can appreciate him dissing those faking streams and the overnight activists - and that line about him being the vaccine to the game was great - I’m not crazy about all of his flows here; for most of this verse he has a very yelpy delivery that doesn’t flatter him; I prefer his raw, groovier side, and it’s been a while since we’ve gotten as much of that. Still, while I don’t really think this is great, if this is a guest verse that kicks off more Kendrick to come, it’s damn good enough; I’ll take it.

17. ‘Moon’ by Kanye West ft. Kid Cudi & Don Toliver - alright, the last six are all Kanye here, let’s get through them. And here’s another one I actually like a decent bit, mostly focusing on Kid Cudi’s verse where he’s trying to find some form of peace and transcendence, backed by the very spare synth and Mike Dean’s guitar. Even if I’m not crazy about Don Toliver’s falsetto or how the song basically feels a little like a fragment - I’d love to hear a proper crescendo built out of it - it’s a more abstract, centered brand of spirituality that honestly resonantes more than so much of what Kanye’s done… so yeah, credit where it’s due that it’s here - good song.

16. ‘Junya’ by Kanye West ft. Playboi Carti - kind of jarring to go straight to this, isn’t it? And it kind of blows holes in your spiritual vibe when the majority of the song is a brand name flex with Playboi Carti with some really rough vocal mixing alongside the swampy bass and organ, and then the half formed shots at Drake where he wants him to get out of the way of the release and saying that he ‘won with the bucks’ before he drops the Giannis reference. And its cuts like this that just shatter the attempted atmosphere, especially when outside of the album’s context, it feels like a half-composed fragment. In other words, it’s not good - next!

12. ‘Ok Ok’ by Kanye West ft. Fivio Foreign, Lil Yachty & Rooga - only Kanye would think ‘in 2021, we need a verse from Lil Yachty’, which is a dicey choice when he opens his verse taking more potshots at Drake as being deceptive and an imitator with no true identity with Kanye framing himself as the G.O.A.T., which… I don’t really care about rap hierarchies, but given how few of your bars you write, like Drake you’re not in that conversation. Also the oily synth opening the song sounds awful, Yachty’s verse features him choking women in bed and saying everything he does is for the broken youth, and Rooga might be the act most screwed by Kanye censoring all the swearing on this album with his verse - shame, because otherwise he’s not that interesting. Also, this isn’t good either.

11. ‘Off The Grid’ by Kanye West ft. Playboi Carti & Fivio Foreign - so the big story with this song is how Fivio Foreign came out and stole the entire album as a massive surprise when the song becomes a drill banger - the discourse kind of reminds me of when Rick Ross did something similar on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and just like then… I mean, it’s better than what he’s known for, but considering just how low that bar is, I’m not that impressed, especially when we’re stuck some really bad vocal mixing for Kanye himself and a sample that reminds me this was a leftover from the Whole Lotta Red sessions. Granted, this would have been a highlight on that album, but then you get to Kanye’s verse where once again he’s throwing potshots at Drake, has the line ‘she put my paintings inside of her living room’ which is absolutely a double entendre, and then amidst all of his divine flexing, he has to throw in brand names and that Messi reference and we’re back on the prosperity gospel bullshit again. At least the drill percussion finally has some impact and Kanye got his writers to give him one of his best flows on the album, but again, it feels like it compromises its own impact, so I’m not that enthused.

10. ‘Jail’ by Kanye West ft. Jay-Z - …what’s the bet that they’re still not fully reconciled? I mean, Durk wouldn’t have highlighted it if there wasn’t still some animosity there, even if Jay is trying to sell the return of ‘The Throne’ that’ll likely never happen. But ‘Jail’ is kind of a wonky song as it is - the vocal mixing is messy but features some of Kanye’s best singing, especially with the choir behind him, and I think the swell of the buzzy synth had some potential to really explode… but come on, nothing said or done on this song or album is sending anyone to jail, stakes that are utterly muted by Jay-Z opening his verse by comparing himself to God. Honestly, I really don’t like Jay-Z’s verse here, half because he says he tried to get Kanye to stop the ‘red cap’ nonsense but it leaks that Kanye wanted to get the ex-president to show up at one of the live shows, half because of that ‘Hell of a Life’ and ‘Yikes’ reference that bookends thinks and reminds me of my favourite song from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and one of my least favourite in Kanye’s catalog - it implies that this is all provocation and transgression, something nobody dares to do… shame that I don’t buy into any of the stakes. And when the song just kills its momentum by running for another full minute with an abortive drum break… yeah, this could have been way better.

6. ‘Hurricane’ by Kanye West ft. Lil Baby & The Weeknd - and now if there’s a song on this album that can be a single, it’s this one - thankfully it’s also one of the better songs here, mostly because The Weeknd takes the bassy synths and spare tapping percussion and makes the song his own with his extended hook. And hell, I’d say with that gospel swell at the end of the hook, it’s one of the best moments on the album, especially as Lil Baby delivers on his verse where his come-up and hunger translates… even if I could swear he’s dropped this verse like five times already and the vocal mixing isn’t great. Now Kanye himself… honestly, not a bad verse either, you can tell he’s trying to cast off the distractions that came with success but never gave him fulfillment, and that recklessness was often judged, but with God he’d be okay in the eye of the storm. Honestly, it’s a potent idea, and it makes me think if Kanye had been able to focus and build off of this, this album could have worked for me! As it is… this is probably one of the best songs on the album, but even then, I think it could have really soared with a bit more refinement, and bereft of support on the album, the contrast is glaring.

Still, I’m actually giving a tie for the best of the week between ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Moon’ with Kid Cudi and Don Toliver - probably the best version of what Kanye’s spiritual vision could have been, and it sucks that it fell so very short, with Honourable Mention to ‘Family Ties’ by Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar because again, it’s good, but it didn’t quite click. Worst of the week is easy and also another tie: ‘Tell The Vision’ with the late Pop Smoke with ‘Heaven And Hell’, with Dishonourable Mention to ‘Ok Ok’ with Lil Yachy and Rooga. And next week… yeah, then we get the Drake show, y’all have been warned.