billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 14, 2019 (VIDEO)

Yeah, rough episode... it happens.

Next up, I'm finally going to talk about The Highwomen, then probably Lower Dens - stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 14, 2019

This week does not matter. Now the natural expansion of that is saying, 'look, the Billboard Hot 100 is a badly constructed fugazi of contradictions and payola, none of it really matters', but let's focus on this week here, because next week Post Malone is going to bulldoze through here with a full Hollywood's Bleeding album bomb, and most of what showed up here will be gone: you've been warned.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - august 11, 2018 (VIDEO)

Hey look, the Hot 100 was crap enough that I completely forgot to update here, go figure.

Anyway, the more important update is...

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - august 11, 2018

You know, sometimes you just want to take the cooldown weeks when you can - given the streaming numbers I know Travis Scott has an album bomb coming for Astroworld, and while I haven't reviewed the record proper just yet, I can only imagine how big the impact will be on the rest of the Hot 100... joy.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 9, 2018 (VIDEO)

And now we have a busy but overall pretty damn good week, I'm generally pleased with this.

Next up... okay, fine, we'll deal with the elephant in the room, and I won't have a lot of mercy - stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 9, 2018

...well, I can't say that the Hot 100 doesn't surprise me occasionally. I was expecting some fallout from the Pusha-T and Drake beef, but the most we got was the worst song to come out of it and half of Pusha-T's album! And when you pair it with all the rest of the scattered entries, this week wound up feeling surprisingly busy...

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - april 21, 2018 (VIDEO)

So yeah, crazy busy episode, but it seems like it's going down well, so enjoy!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - april 21, 2018

There are a lot of narratives that need to be considered going into this week, most of which I predicted and those that I didn't I'm not sure I wanted to entertain. Of course the biggest story is the Cardi B album bomb, but like last week the Hot 100 would have been plenty busy without her.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - december 2, 2017 (VIDEO)

Well, this was... awful, actually. Can only hope what's coming up next will be better... eh, we'll see. Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - december 2, 2017

So we're now starting the fourth year of Billboard BREAKDOWN, and the plan - at least for me - was that we'd start off with a bang, the flurry of activity that you would expect coming from the massive release of Taylor Swift's reputation... and yet as I predicted last week, the impact was pretty muted, thanks to her one-sided war with streaming that led to the album still not up on those platforms. So what could have been a blowout turns falls limp, and the week actually turns out pretty quiet... eh, it happens.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 30, 2017 (VIDEO)

Overall not a bad week, and I have to say, it's going to be interesting in the days ahead here, especially given all the coming shakeups.

But on the topic of one of those shakeups not quite going according to plan... well, stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 30, 2017

This is one of those weeks where I'm increasingly unsure where the hell the Billboard Hot 100 is going, and not just because we've got a few albums bombs in the making that are going to be dropping over the next few weeks for further destabilize things. And while part of it is also linked to the headlong race for what'll make the year-end lists, the larger point is that as a whole, songs that you'd expect to not seem fragile feel increasingly perilous, especially when you take a look at the top ten.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 11, 2015

And that happened. Whew, glad that episode is over with.

Next up, I finally talk about Vince Staples. From there, Czarface, Between The Buried And Me, I've got my work cut out for me. Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - july 11, 2015

...so remember when I said last week I had a sense of foreboding that something bad was coming, that I couldn't quite feel it and it hadn't quite happened yet, but it was on its way? Yeah, I'm starting to wish these bad feelings didn't come up so much, because sure enough...

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 20, 2015 (VIDEO)

Completely forgot to post this. Oops!

Next up, Surf - stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 20, 2015

You know, after the past few weeks – and somehow falling behind again in my reviews – it’s nice to actually have a new Hot 100 that’s actually fairly lightweight in terms of new songs, most of which I’ve already heard before in some capacity. It’s one of the breather moments you get as summer starts to settle into gear and the album release schedule eases back a bit, at least for the pop charts.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 13, 2015 (VIDEO)

Well, the computer crashed twice when uploading this thing, which might be a sign or something.

Next up, something special - stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 13, 2015

Well, that didn't last long. Almost as quickly as it took the top slot, Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar were elbowed off the top, and it's not exactly surprising that happened either. Once again, the fight over the top will likely be the biggest story this week, but it obscures what happened below, where a whole load of songs surged up the charts and we got another well-sized crop of new songs - and in a nice change of pace from last week, most of them are actually decent!

video review: 'at. long. last. a$ap' by a$ap rocky

Whoo boy, controversy will abound with this one. Overall, pretty happy with the review, even if I got so little out of the album.

Next up, June looks to be a busy as hell month, so stay tuned!

album review: 'at. long. last. a$ap' by a$ap rocky

I have issues with A$AP Mob.

Let's put aside the fact that large tracts of their content has been fraught with wordplay that's nothing special and barely rises beyond ignorant luxury rap. Let's ignore that their usage of trap beats popularized the usage of dark, murky synth lines for this sort of hip-hop that were way more concerned with sounding menacing and were the furthest thing from fun or energetic. It was probably my biggest issue when I covered Trap Lord by A$AP Ferg way back in 2013, even though I have warmed a little to that album since. And let's move past the fact that in terms of their content, they aren't doing much different than the same luxury rap that's clogged up mainstream hip-hop for the past decade and a half.

Nope, I think my biggest issue with A$AP Mob is that, as a rap collective, they've underperformed in terms of actually dropping projects and I've frequently been underwhelmed by all of the hype placed behind the group. Hell, going back to A$AP Rocky's debut mixtape and album, I was frequently more interested in the atmosphere and more melodic, atmospheric production than A$AP Rocky himself, and his usage of pitch-shifted vocals to give his material more swell struck me more as a gimmick than anything. Yeah, I'm not going to deny he had a good flow and a fair amount of versatility, but his punchlines and introspection never really impressed me and his choice to surround himself with more interesting rappers like on tracks like '1Train' which contained a murderer's row of more distinctive MCs struck me as a poor choice. And sure, you can surround yourself with expensive brand names, but that doesn't give you a personality.

But whatever, it's a debut album, you typically expect the sophomore release to show more experimentation, and even though I'd argue the debut album didn't really define A$AP Rocky as a rapper beyond modest talent, he did look to be going for something a little weirder with his follow-up release, complete with a huge arsenal of distinctive producers and guest stars. Plus, with the death of his mentor A$AP Yams, we could be looking at a more personal affair with this - what did we get?