billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 13, 2018 (VIDEO)

Okay, I think I'm pleased with how I landed things here with regards to album bombs going forward, and the episode turned alright along the way. Enjoy!

billboard BREAKDOWN - october 13, 2018

Well, I was half right with this. I knew there'd be some form of album bomb with Lil Wayne - the sales and streaming numbers made it practically undeniable - but what I didn't expect that it kept Logic from charting anything with the entire album dominating the Hot 100 with a full twenty-two debuts from that album alone. And since I already reviewed the album... well, you'll see in a bit, but suffice to say that considering album bombs are now the norm in the streaming era and have been throughout 2018, I'm going to be putting in some new rules on how to properly handle them in a way that's reasonable to the health of this show, so stay tuned for that.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 6, 2018 (VIDEO)

So this came together pretty damn quick... nice stuff.

Next up... you know, this Logic album is so damn long, I need to knock out an episode of the Trailing Edge soon, so we'll see what comes first!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 6, 2018

Okay yes, I'm very relieved it's a cooldown week... but look, in the era of the album bomb and with Logic and Lil Wayne set to do stupid numbers for next week, it's really not that much consolation that I get a breather here, especially if it comes at the expense of any analysis or predictions beyond 'well, Lil Wayne has a shot for a few top 10 debuts and maybe a shot at #1'.

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 - april 14, 2018 (VIDEO)

Okay, that took WAY too long... but in the mean time, I think I'm finally ready to talk about Panopticon, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - april 14, 2018

...you know, there was a time when an album bomb happened it would at least slow existing traffic on the Hot 100. But since The Weeknd's new EP only had six songs - and seems like it's already vanishing from the cultural conversation given how flat and turgid it was - aside from every single song from it breaking we also had a pretty active week regardless - at least until the next album bomb with Cardi B, and I'd put a fair amount of money on that being far more disruptive.

video review: 'invasion of privacy' by cardi b

Yes, I know that Panopticon was on the schedule first, I'm working as quick as I can to get through it... but it's a two hour behemoth of a record and I'm still chugging through.

But before we get to that, Billboard BREAKDOWN - stay tuned!

album review: 'invasion of privacy' by cardi b

So I think it's about time I discuss something from my past reviews that has continued to spark a lot of controversy to this day and has been used by many as a cheap attempt to discredit my opinion: that time I gave Iggy Azalea's The New Classic a light 7/10 - don't worry, I'll tie it all together, I do have a point. Because in hindsight, that looks bad, especially considering the hard tailspin that her career took in the years that followed and how everyone really wants to forget just how those singles ruled 2014 and how her phony accent and ignorant behavior effectively discredited her from the jump.

So it might surprise you all for me to say I actually stand by that review, mostly because I think a lot of the criticisms she got were kind of bullshit. Oh, she's an awful human being and is completely ignorant and says disgusting things and oh hi 6ix9ine, Kodak Black, and XXXTENTACION, so where's our moral ground here again? Oh, but she was clearly co-opting an accent that was not her own to sound hard and pay no attention to the Drake in the corner over there, to say nothing of the dozens of bargain-barrel rappers who hopped on the Migos flow, including MCs who should really know better! And if all of that smacks of whataboutism... well yeah, it is, but it's more highlighting the hypocrisy inherent in the mainstream rap hype cycle. And that's not to excuse the real issues with The New Classic - it's all over the place, it falls apart in the final few songs, the production can feel flimsy and dated, it's a slice of shallow pop rap that I probably gave a shade too much credit, it'd probably have a slightly lower score now from me... and yet it effectively delivers what it set out to do, with really solid flows, strong charisma, and occasionally decent wordplay and good hooks. And yet that being said, it was a record built for disposability, and like countless other pop rappers before her, I'm not surprised Iggy Azalea couldn't follow it up.

And thus when I see Cardi B... really, I see so many of the same characteristics. Strong flows, tons of personality, occasionally decent wordplay and good hooks, and what do you know, her breakout hit was a flow jacked outright from another rapper! Hell, you're already seeing analogous authenticity questions, from Cardi B transitioning from stripper and reality show star to rapper to Iggy Azalea's underground come-up. And it's that last comparison that had me worried about this record, despite some critics already salivating over it - Iggy Azalea had time to refine her debut, whereas for Cardi B, despite those mixtapes she's had to pull together a record extremely quickly, and while a good production team can pull off a lot, there was reason to believe this could awry really fast. But hey, I'll give Cardi B a lot of credit for what she's done in her lane, and like with Iggy Azalea, if she sticks the landing I was prepared to praise this... so how is Invasion of Privacy?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 13, 2018 (VIDEO)

And here we go... not a great week, but I think it was somewhat interesting overall? Eh, you never know.

Next up... well, the schedule is pretty open-ended, so you never know. Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 13, 2018

So remember when I said last week I was expecting a slowdown... well, thanks to three factors I'd argue I was probably wrong in that department, because if you're looking a certain shifts in the charts, you might conclude it was a pretty busy. Now that's not entirely the case - indeed, look into the details and you'll see a pretty average or even slower week - but I would say it is more transitory, as the holidays rotate out for whatever's coming.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 6, 2018 (VIDEO)

And here's the episode from today, which... again, it's an episode. Transcripts for a few year-end lists are on their way out soon!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 6, 2018

There are only three names that matter on today's Hot 100. Sure, you could talk about how a bunch of old 2017 hits got their final wind, or how Christmas music seemed to linger a week longer than I personally expected, but the real story to open this week - with the date slightly revised because Billboard is bringing things closer in sync with their tracking week - belong to three people: Travis Scott and Quavo under their duo name 'Huncho Jack', and Cardi B, who seems to be pushing hard to extend her success into 2018.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - november 18, 2017 (VIDEO)

So apparently this was not my most well-edited video in the world... sigh, it happens, but I do wish this was better and there weren't blatant mistakes.

And speaking of records that might as well be mistakes...

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - november 18, 2017

Okay, second last week of the Billboard year, where the final list of songs that have a shot of clinching a spot narrows all the further... and where one album smash made an utterly exasperating non-impact on the Hot 100, somehow we got even less when Without Warning by Offset, 21 Savage, and Metro Boomin crashed through this week. Now again, how much any of this will matter in a few weeks when the rest of Taylor Swift's reputation destroys everything in its path, I can't tell you, but for now, I wouldn't put money on the Hot 100 remaining stable, even into next week.

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.