Top of the pops
Another week goes by and another top 5 on the Billboard 100 list that is filled with heavily hip hop inspired, non rap songs is upon us. We take a look at these tracks as well as some of the more interesting notes from actual rap tracks on the overall 100 chart in our weekly round up.
TOP 5
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“All about that Bass”, which unfortunately is not the title of an early 90′s Too Short classic , but instead is the generic Amy Winehouse-esque pop number by Nantucket, MA’s own Meghan Trainor , who sings with a pretty strong urban twang, remains atop the charts at #1.
Following her at #2 is the uptempo anthem dealing with “players” and “haters”, Taylor Swift‘s “Shake It Off”.
At #3 is Nicki Minaj‘s Ass song “Anaconda”, which, sure , isn’t her most lyrical offering , but I mean she at least raps on it.
At #4 is the current Nas to Nicki’s Jay Z – Iggy Azalea joined by (speaking of Jay) Roc Nations own Rihanna light Rita Ora – for the track “Black widow”. In all seriousness, props have to be given to Azalea for managing to re-emerge at the top of the charts with another hit. Many had implied the success of her #1 record “Fancy” was due more to the DJ Mustard-ish beat and ridiculously catchy chorus from Gwen Stefani Charlie XCX.
Rounding out the top five is Jessie J, Arianna Grande & King Nicki’s collabo “Bang Bang” which slips from number three to number five this week.
Another top 10 hip hop rape-ery of a song that needs to be mentioned is “Habits (Stay High)” by Swedish singer Tove Lo. The song jumps from #13 to #7 courtesy of a chorus that sounds like it was taken from a million different rap songs over the years.
” I gotta stay high all the time to keep you off my mind “
The Rest
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The first actual bars on the chart not spit by Icki (Nicki+ Iggy) come from Compton’s own YG, who’s “late-night thirsty” inspired verse is featured on Jeremih‘s smash “Don’t Tell Em”. The track spends it’s second week in the top 10, now sitting at # 9. This feat is extra impressive when you take into account that the song does not have an official music video or even a lyric video to go along with it. Billboard tracks streams from Youtube, so having no video seems like it would be a huge hinderance for the R&B stud, who’s Late Nights: The Album is set to release sometime in the next two months.
Bobby Shmurda‘s “Hot Boy” continues to gain traction and may have actually left the “that song from that one vine clip with the guy who throws his hat” lane, now sitting at #14 on the Hot 100. Much of this has to do with it’s continued dominance in the streaming world; between the original clip, the vevo official one, the lyric video and another random Youtube clip the song has well over 60 million total views. In addition, the track is heavily climbing on radio going from #9 to #7 on the ”R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay” chart, despite it being almost unlistenable with all the radio edits. The 12 million different remix’s of the track don’t hurt either.
Rich Homie Quan & Young Thug‘s “Lifestyle” also continues to climb the chart, going up one spot now siting at #29. The song which is technically listed as a song by Rich Gang ft Quan & Thug is a bit of an anomaly considering ‘Rich Gang’ is not a person but is considered its own entity on the chart’s. There are no details on whether the second Rich Gang album (first having came out last summer) is due out any time soon, however the release of the recent Rich Gang: The Tour pt 1 mixtape is sure to help the popularity of this single even though the song is not on the tape. The tape is quickly becoming one of the most well received and well reviewed projects of the year, Pitchfork.com gave it an 8.0, and extremely high score for any release, let alone a rap project.
Kendrick Lamar‘s HIGHLY ANTICIPATED new single “i” jumps onto the charts as a “hot shot debut” at number 39. The track which has received a bit of mixed but overall good reviews as a result of it’s highly positive message and Outkast sort of vibe came out the gate absolutely scorching on Soundcloud, raking up roughly 4 million listens in its first 24 hours (a number that is most likely a record), however those numbers do not count toward the billboard charts, and it’s Soundcloud link has subsequently been removed, a bit of a trend as of late. On radio, it’s Clear Channel promotion (the song played every hour on the hour the day it premiered) has done it well, it was the biggest R&B/Hip Hop radio gainer, landing it at #19 on that chart. That combined with it’s #5 Hip Hop track on iTunes (39 overall, WEIRD COINCIDENCE ) ranking and 1.5 million plus Youtube views led to it’s current position. This track is likely poised for a top 10 bow if it continues to gain momentum, how high it can reach is still up for debate.
Chris Brown‘s “New Flame” ft Usher & Rick Ross seems to be burning out, dropping from 27 to 31. Released more strategically this song could have had a much bigger chart presence.
As previously mentioned on TheSource.com Drake’s feature on I Love MAKONNEN‘s “Tuesday”- which debut at #90 gives the Canadian emcee his 72nd Billboard appearance on the Hot 100, passing the legendary group The Beatles. Drizzy’s “O/100 The Catchup” remains at #35
J.Lo‘s “Booty” ft Iggy Azalea makes a huge “drop” from 17 to 45, most likely proving that softcore porn may help views initially , but if the song isn’t that good, then…
Childish Gambino‘s “V. 3005″ stays strong at #67, keep in mind the track came out in december of 2013. It’ll be interesting to see if any of the track’s from his new semi surprise Kauai EP make the chart next week; not likely, but with the EP currently the number #1 album on iTunes, it’s possible. At the very least the remix of 3005 should probably help the original track’s performance.
Lil Wayne & Drake’s “Believe Me” continues to drop, this week landing at #69. It peaked at 26, if only the song had a video (insert smh emoji here).
Big Sean‘s “I Dont F**k With You” ft E-40 debuts at #70, very impressive for a song that was at first seen as just one of many random tracks released by the G.O.O.D/Def Jam artist. The song is currently #7 on iTunes Hip Hop/Rap chart’s and has an official lyric video with over 1/4 million views in less than a week.
Rae Sremmurd‘s “No Type” debuts at #77, “No Flex Zone” dropped a little from 40 to 36.
Migos “Handsome & Wealthy” from their No Label 2 project debuts at # 92.
Enjoyed this week’s recap and commentary of the Billboard chart, let Spencer know on Twitter – @sjeezs
