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deadcactuswalking · 3 months

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 03/02/2024 (Megan Thee Stallion, Skepta, Justin Timberlake)

Noah Kahan’s at #1 with “Stick Season” for a fifth week, but lower down the chart, there’s a lot of nonsense going on, most of it involving female rappers. Welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

As always, we start with the notable dropouts, songs exiting the UK Top 75, which is what I cover, after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. This week, we bid adieu to “n.h.i.e.” by 21 Savage and Doja Cat, “Kool-Aid” by Bring Me the Horizon, “Strangers” AND “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi, “FTCU” by Nicki Minaj and “Disconnect” by Becky Hill and Chase & Status. Other than the last one, not really complaining much about these.

As for notable gains and returns, well, much of what’s of interest will come down to the new arrivals, and a lot of our gains are confined to within the top 40. Outside of that, we do see “When We Were Young (The Logical Song)” by David Guetta and Kim Petras back at #71 because that song refuses to have a coherent run. Then in the top 40, we see a lot of interesting pick-ups, some a bit surprising and most I’m also really not complaining about either, with “Scared to Start” by Michael Marcagi at #38, “Whatever” by Kygo and Ava Max at #27, “Nothing Matters” by The Last Dinner Party surging at #22 and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s higher given the album this week, “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” by YG Marley up big at #20 and again, there’s a movie coming out that could boost this even higher in the coming weeks. Other than that, we see “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone actually gaining off of the high debut last week at #11 and finally, Madonna gets her first top 10 since 2009 and Playboi Carti his first since, well, ever, as “Popular” with The Weeknd crawls its way to #10. I’m still surprised those two even have a song together.

Our top five should seem pretty standard: “yes, and?” by Ariana Grande loses steam at #5, “Lovin’ on Me” by Jack Harlow is steady at #4, “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims is on a surprising run at #3, then we have “Murder on the Dancefloor” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor at #2 and of course Mr. Kahan at the very top. Like I said, it’s much more interesting down below, and that’s naturally what we’ll focus on today. Now… stay with me.

New Entries

#75 - “Think U the Shit (Fart)” - Ice Spice

Produced by RIOTUSA, Synthetic and venny

This song makes me feel so old. I’ve missed out on the Ice Spice craze entirely in the first place, but I’d also never seen this meme she was referencing, hadn’t heard the viral snippet of the song, this is just entirely beyond me. There’s a quirky, you could argue jazzy set of 80s-sounding keys but it’s quickly drowned out by a thrusting 808 and the reverb-drowned vocal take from Ice Spice that really shows the limitations of her and RIOTUSA, given how she goes for such a basic flow all the time, and this is actually the most energy she’s ever given a performance… which is depressing! She has to fill in blank space with constant, unbothered ad-libs and punching in, and RIOT has made such a minimal rhythm section for much of the song that he seems to actively switch into a more recognisable trap beat just so Ice Spice doesn’t sound painfully out of place. As for content, you’re joking, what is there to it? I’d complain about she rhymed “fighting” with “Saiyan” but pronounced both words as expected so it straight up doesn’t rhyme at all, but that’s definitely just an element of her troll persona or whatever. I don’t know, any detail I can pick apart just feels so nulled by the fact that, well, it’s an Ice Spice song called “Think U the Shit (Fart)”. It’s basically novelty, comedy rap. Why should I try?

#61 - “Not My Fault” - Reneé Rapp and Megan Thee Stallion

Produced by Ryan Tedder, Alexander 23, Jasper Harris and Jeff Richmond

Ah, Megan Thee Stallion, I’m sure this is the last time this week I will have to talk about them. Sigh, this is embarrassingly the one time where I can say I have actually seen the contemporary film attached to the soundtrack single, and this was tacked onto the credits sequence, with Megan making two pointless cameos within a fun Pixarification of the original Mean Girls that I don’t think I’d ever watch again, but was still a fun, harmless time in the cinema. Now because I’m lame, there are songs from the film proper I much prefer but I don’t expect them to chart because 1.) they’re much further embedded into the musical tradition and 2.) they’re not produced by Ryan Tedder. Believe me, I checked. As much as I’m convinced by Ms. Rapp as an actor, as a singer, she has a lot to prove, not really showing how capable she could be in translating those acting skills to developing a true character in songwriting and performance a lá Olivia Rodrigo. This is a bratty disco-pop song that acts as a bit of a mean girl anthem so to speak, but is completely toothless, including the kind of embarrassing Megan verse that will date the song even further than its dated-on-arrival concept, although I at least like the consistency of the references - she has been calling herself the “black Regina George” since 2017. The song overall is just a reflection of a semi-failed conglomerate project, it’s ephemeral and serves no purpose other than to end up being a time capsule one looks upon 20 years from now questioning what the zeitgeist was in 2024, much like how we now look at the original Mean Girls for 2004 which, by the way, is directly sampled in this song, instead of the same line from the new film… which makes me think they hadn’t even shot the film by the time this song was made. Keeping it professional, Paramount.

#56 - “Big Foot” - Nicki Minaj

Produced by Tate Kobang and ZellTooTrill

The worst thing about rap beef, to me, is that the newer diss, if released the same week, will probably debut lower than the catalyst diss - the cata-diss, if you will - so I have to review the songs in reverse chronological order. It just doesn’t make sense, does it? With that said, it seems like a stretch to describe this as a song, not because it’s so terribly awful or anything, though I do notice that the song’s quality - or lack thereof - and pure antagonism has made some Barbs jumped ship. It’s more so because this is just a verse that starts off in a bizarre, unhinged Roman flow and ends with ASMR. I do think I have a pretty “no-holds-barred” attitude when it comes to feuds in hip hop as long as it doesn’t escalate to violence, so it’s not like I’m offended by anything Nicki said here, even if it gets ruthless and almost needlessly so, but it does just appear a bit desperate, attention-baiting using the villain persona. That’s not new for Nicki though, and all rap beef is villainised attention-baiting, often with flow and song structure as mostly if not entirely irrelevant factors. Therefore, I really can’t review this one, and no, I’m not ducking from Barbs because Pink Friday 2 is one of the worst albums I have ever heard, and I have long criticised Nicki for having bad music on this series, this just can’t really be treated as such. Sure, there’s a Detroit trap beat behind it, but only for half of the song’s runtime, and given how rushed-together it sounds, it’s clearly not a priority. I don’t review Instagram Live videos from gossip merchants, and I fail to see how this, given that it rarely ever criticises Megan’s standing as a rapper or public figure, more just using the same accusations Remy Ma threw at Nicki on “ShETHER” with a new coat of paint, is worth analysing as a piece of popular music and not just a social media rant… which Nicki has given plenty of in the past week, it’s been bizarroworld on Twitter. I will indeed hold that same standard for Megan coming up as well.

#49 - “Grey” - Yung Filly

Produced by JuwonMix

Well, the vast majority of our debuts are from or involving rappers so it’s only fair that we have some UK representation this week, and… I’m not familiar with Yung Filly but I didn’t really expect an Afrobeats / dancehall track about how meaningless fame and success can be. To be honest, that seems like it’s mostly the subtext rather than the text, coming mostly in prominence in that melancholy chorus but the song definitely sounds like the colour of its title given the bouncy percussion not doing a great job at hiding the stray reggae chords or blasts of trumpet that seem to put a noir downer on the whole parade, especially considering his longing, monotone delivery that fits into a tight pocket but never actively, almost like he just slides into it and happens to be on the beat rather than any conscious effort to ride it. That’s not to say the vocals are smooth, or not good, they’re surprisingly emotive for an Auto-Tune crooner yet also somewhat staccato in places, it’s a nuanced performance. I don’t really have much left to say, it’s not exactly a complex song, but it’s honestly surprisingly good, would absolutely not mind if this stuck around.

#37 - “Selfish” - Justin Timberlake

Produced by Justin Timberlake, Louis Bell and Cirkut

No, you can’t get back from this. We all heard “Filthy” back in 2018. Whenever I think of Justin Timberlake, I don’t just think of the classics, “SexyBack”, “Cry Me a River”, “Suit and Tie”, *NSYNC, I think of “Filthy” and this will poison the well of Justin Timberlake discourse for as long as he continues to release music because no man should be able to release “Filthy” and stand untested. In fact, I don’t give a shit about this new song, let’s talk about “Filthy” because what is that?! Who starts off the rollout for their woodsy, back-to-basics country-pop album with a dramatic glam-rock curtain call diminishing itself into a squelchy “funk” (stretching the use of the word) coated with female moaning and wonky-influenced production that allows for Justin to just bring all his effortless swagger, right? Right? Oh, he’s just going to list off a bunch of 90s hip-hop references for some reason, as if that in his view emulates actually being cool and sexy. The lyrics are rife for analysis in their failure to succeed in just about anything other than make a fool out of the lead artist, and it is fascinating. The song ends with his wife delivering spoken word over ambient, for God’s sake. I respect it, though. I respect taking a risk - or 10 - in a lead single. I don’t respect calling up Post Malone’s production crew to get an easy white-boy pop hit, rejecting pretty much every element of your sound that people were drawn into, AKA Timbaland, Pharrell and Danja, just for the safety of your own flailing career. Justin, you’ve still got Mickey Mouse money left over, let alone the incredibly storied and successful career from then on, and that’s not including the Trolls cheques, which I can only imagine are insane. You do not need to do this, you really don’t. Have some dignity, Justin. You’re not The Kid LAROI. You’re a grown man. Do what you want to do, not what you feel you need to.

#32 - “Gas Me Up (Diligent)” - Skepta

Produced by Cardo and ThatGuyNamedJalen

You’re really under-selling yourself there, Jalen. Anyway, Skepta’s back and much like “Big Foot”, this is one long-form verse over a pretty standard, unmixed-sounding beat, making threats towards others, but there a few key differences that mean I’m a lot kinder to this: firstly, the cloud rap beat is thoroughly aquatic in its lead melody and even if I’d prefer the song keeps some of that underwater energy once the beat drops, the loud, cowbell-accentuated rhythm is still sick and Skepta rides it perfectly. He’s always been one of the smoothest rappers out of the UK, mostly because of how much he has become a student of American hip hop despite his grime origins, and here he shows those Stateside connections off with some of his best, least tacked-on singing performances yet but also a faster-paced blunt delivery for much of the verse that feels much more embedded into British flows and cadences. The content isn’t particularly intriguing for me at least, but the rhyme schemes are clean and his word choice seems very deliberate in order to present a very prestigious sounding set of bars. It’s not exactly Skepta’s best, and definitely not his most interesting, but it’s worth checking out regardless and I feel like he’s been laying low for a while so this seems like a promising comeback.

#31 - “HISS” - Megan Thee Stallion

Produced by LilJuMadeDaBeat, Bankroll Got It and Shawn “Source” Jarrett

Megan Thee Stallion is an independe nt artist nowadays, and her lead single with a switch in sound and massive video, “Cobra”, despite all the reach and pull that Megan has, the promo, the rock remix… it failed to chart in the top 75, a real shame because I think it’s excellent, and just unfortunate that drama and feuding is what lands Megan a top 40 debut. That’s not to say she wouldn’t have charted without Nicki’s free promo of the otherwise not really substantial song by causing such a fuss, but definitely not at #31. Now, there are elements of this song that make it much clearer that it was intended as a piece of music rather than a worthless gossip piece. Firstly, it came with a big video, it’s actually mixed with double-tracked vocals and a decent amount of care put into a still minimal Dirty South beat, as well as a consistent, catchy flow and aggressive delivery that I can appreciate. Even the spoken word elements are left to interludes instead of grand amounts of the song, and sometimes rhyme… but regardless, this is still not exactly introspective in any way, it’s not inward-looking, or even forward-looking really. It’s a hit-out at a lot of the unwarranted hatred that surrounds Megan or is directed towards her, but it’s still just her going through a hit-list of complaints and haters, keeping it relatively subliminal - as much as I don’t like “Big Foot”, at least she’s being upfront. This often feels like it could be about anyone, so the unloading of dirty laundry feels much more detached and therefore easy to stop caring about, and this isn’t just me avoiding making comments on the beef, I apply this same standard to, say, Doja Cat, whose song “Attention” and album Scarlet I complained about being too focused on her own drama, and I’ve held many similar grievances with male rappers like Jack Harlow and ESPECIALLY Kanye in the past. When you let out your problems with people on wax, hook me in first, don’t just assume I’m already listening.

Conclusion

What a week, huh? Yeah, Skepta gets Best of the Week, of course he does. “Gas Me Up (Diligent)” is probably the most realised song this week, even if generally, a lack of realisation and finishing touch seems to be a vague theme in this episode. It’s not the only good song though, Yung Filly takes the Honourable Mention for “Grey”, whilst Worst of the Week should be just as obvious as Skepta’s shoe-in was… no pun intended there. The Dishonourable Mention, of course, goes to Justin Timberlake for “Selfish” because, man, no one wants to hear this from you, JT. As for what’s on the horizon… who knows? That’s for future me to figure out. For now, thank you for reading and I know I keep saying this, but I may see you earlier than next week.

#uk singles chart #pop music #song review #megan thee stallion #skepta #justin timberlake #yung filly #nicki minaj #renee rapp #mean girls #ice spice

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