spectrum pulse: billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 12, 2018

And now we have round two, the second record-breaking album bomb in as many weeks and one from an arguably worse record... and yet somehow it doesn't quite feel as big, at least to me. It's still sizable - we have eighteen new arrivals this week - but since the majority of it is Post Malone and I already reviewed the record and likely will have even less to say, it feels less noticeable overall. Or maybe I just feel better because at the end of June Billboard will be releasing new streaming rules that'll likely curtail some of this mess, but that's a story for another day.

For now, the top ten... and yet despite Post Malone's success, it wasn't enough to unseat 'Nice For What' by Drake at #1 - and yet again, its position is not incredibly strong, not dominant on radio or sales and only really on top thanks to streaming. And even then 'Psycho' by Post Malone and Ty Dolla $ign cut into that margin considerably as it rose to #2 on streaming and radio traction... but it just didn't have any real sales for that extra push. Compare this to 'God's Plan' by Drake, which yes, is mostly anchored by YouTube especially as its radio hit a hard peak, but it's got enough sales to only drop one spot to #3. And I'd argue that's also one of the reasons why 'Meant To Be' by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line held its own at #4 - thanks to good sales and sliding but dominant radio, it's not as impacted by the album bomb. Also the same case for 'The Middle' by Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey up to #5 - good sales and strong radio compensating for no real streaming, although it also peaked in airplay and will probably start falling soon. This makes it vulnerable to our first new top ten entry: 'Never Be The Same' by Camila Cabello at #6, buoyed by a remix with Kane Brown on sales and good radio to break in and block the second new entry, this time from Post Malone: 'Better Now'. As always, we'll deal with the song itself later on but it got the most on-demand streaming and a modest amount of sales to crack #7. And right behind it is more Post Malone with 'rockstar' ft. 21 Savage back in the top 10 at #8, entirely thanks to a big streaming recovery. The last two entries aren't all that surprising: 'Look Alive' with BlocBoy JB and Drake at #9 thanks to residual airplay holding up weaker streaming and sales, and 'No Tears Left To Cry' by Ariana Grande slipping only to #10 off the debut thanks to streaming not quite fading and pretty solid sales and airplay growth - I'd expect this one to stick around.

On the flipside... man, it was another rough week in losers and dropouts, although you could make the argument that those in the latter category had it coming, with the long-overdue exits for 'Thunder' by Imagine Dragons, 'Feel It Still' by Portugal. The Man, and 'Let You Down' by NF. But really, the much bigger loser this week was J. Cole, so in addition to most of his album bomb falling off entirely, 'ATM' fell to 42, 'KOD' fell to 44, 'Kevin's Heart' went to 48, 'Motiv8' dropped to 71, '1985 (Intro To 'The Fall Off')' fell to 79, and 'Photograph' faded to 80. And it continued to be a bad week for Cardi B as well, as 'Bartier Cardi' with 21 Savage slid to 75, 'Ring' with Kehlani went to 86, and 'I Do' with SZA struggled at 89. But again, with Post Malone taking so much space in streaming he mostly served to drive back other songs in his own damn genre, with 'Plug Walk' by Rich The Kid down to 31, 'Esskeetit' by Lil Pump slipping to 51, 'Stir Fry' by Migos to 53, 'Japan' by Famous Dex to 55, 'King's Dead' by Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Future and James Blake to 66, 'OTW' by Khalid, Ty Dolla $ign and 6LACK to 82, and both 'SAD!' and 'changes' by XXXTENTACION to 60 and 96 respectively. The rest... hell, the country entries seem to be decaying naturally as 'Most People Are Good' by Luke Bryan slides to 74 and 'I Lived It' by Blake Shelton to 91, and 'Zombie' by Bad Wolves is finally dying after being around too long at 88, but the real disappointment are the continued losses for 'Say Something' by Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton to 78 - this can happen with sustained album bombs, they start downward momentum that can't be stopped, and while it could have a few weeks to recover, it's likely too little, too late at this point.

And what gets exasperating is that our gains probably can't pick up the slack - and yes, we do have gains this week, survivors that can weather the tide like 'Dura' by Daddy Yankee rebounding to 54 or the continued radio pickups for 'Boo'd Up' by Ella Mai at 37, or awful new arrivals like 'Dame Tu Cosita' by El Chombo which picked up a ton of streaming up to 43, or the surge for 'Te Bote' by six reggaeton artists I don't feel like naming because the song is hot garbage. And then there's 'rockstar' breaking into the top ten, but the better story is that we actually got one returning entry with 'Candy Paint' by Post Malone at 34. Now I won't mince words here - it's been on the charts too long to get the points it needs, and it won't last where it is as the streaming fades away... but man, it's great to see it back.

But now onto Post Malone... but before we get to him in our new arrivals, we have...

85. 'Ye Vs. The People' by Kanye West ft. T.I. - so I want to make this abundantly clear: there has been entirely too much discourse surrounding Kanye's ignorant ramblings the past few weeks, and frankly, the less time and attention given to it the better... but now that it's crossed over into the music, with T.I. in tow to act as the disbelieving voice of reasons, it needs to be addressed... and this is about what I expected. A sample chopped up behind a single verse of T.I. and Kanye going back and forth, but it doesn't even touch on policy or what's actually being done in the name of the current administration, but rather about Kanye's impact on it. And as such T.I really doesn't get the chance to effectively call Kanye out on his dumbass attempt to 'reclaim' 'make America great again' or attempts at recontextualization that hold precisely zero water - and even when he does, it's very clear Kanye's not listening - for as much as he wants to unify, it's hard not to feel like he's just being a contrarian to drive up attention, all the while pairing it with one of the worst flows he's ever ridden! No, this is painfully clumsy, and if it wasn't for the fact that so many damn people worship Kanye regardless of what he says and does, this would have fizzled and not made the chart in the same way Joyner Lucas' 'I'm Not Racist' did, which had its own issues but was certainly better than this. In the mean time, there's a part of me that wants to see Lupe and Common take Kanye to the woodshed, but really, the best thing that could happen is for all of us to ignore him and move on- next!

77. 'Overdose' by YoungBoy Never Broke Again - you know, I would say I felt bad for YoungBoy having the misfortune of any possible breakthrough overrun by Post Malone... but that would imply any of his music was interesting or all that good, and I'm still not remotely convinced that's the case. So just like the last song it's a single extended verse, this time after an extended intro just over two minutes... and look, I'm still not impressed at all. Rhymes are flubbed when he even bothers to connect his awkward, jittery flow at all, extended bars about shooting people including a stretched metaphor of bullets for drugs and when he shoots them up they overdose - yeah, that's the wordplay we're dealing with here. And yeah, there's some griminess to the arranged instrumentation and piano behind the darker trap groove... but man, talk about a waste of a decent groove. Next?