Tired of hearing about The Life Of Pablo yet? Kanye West's highly anticipated album only dropped about 36 hours ago, but its eventual release was preceded by several days of frustrated waiting, as his haphazard release strategy continued (and may still be ongoing) with a series of remixing, tracklist updates, and delays. Annoying, yes, but you have to admit that the guy knows how to keep himself in the daily conversation for longer than nearly anyone in our era of short attention spans. Most of TLOP isn't available to stream, let alone purchase, on services other than TIDAL, but Mr. West's presence can definitely still be felt in this week's top ten.
Elsewhere, Future, Drake, Rihanna, and Yo Gotti have repeat showings with strong singles that all dropped a few weeks ago. Outside of the top ten, French Montana, Jeezy, Waka Flocka, Chief Keef, anf Rockie Fresh all have rising tracks, so perhaps they'll show up here next week. Unless of course we get several remixed versions of TLOP tracks.
Here's the top ten songs on our Top 100 chart, from February 8th through Valentine's Day.
10. Schoolboy Q - Hoover Street (Original Version) (Prod. by The Alchemist)
While we still haven't gotten any full tracks from Groovy Q's upcoming album (though this snippet sounds fire), Alchemist randomly uploaded his original version of Oxymoron's "Hoover Street," which ended up produced by Sounwave on the album. As the album dropped two years ago this month, fans are growing impatient for new material, but this was the next-best thing. Unfortunately, it was taken down from Soundcloud.
9. BJ The Chicago Kid Feat. Kendrick Lamar - The New Cupid
This Friday, BJ The Chicago Kid will release his album In My Mind, and he gets a good look a week prior by notching what may be his first entry on our top ten as a lead artist. Really though, he can thank Kendrick Lamar for that, as any new verse from K. Dot is enough to garner tens of thousands of views. As the song was premiered on NPR, it too is no longer available to stream.
8. Yo Gotti Feat. Nicki Minaj - Down In The DM (Remix)
Although dropping two spots on the rankings, Yo Gotti's hyper-relevant "Down In The DM" hit continues to benefit from the first Nicki Minaj verse we've gotten in quite some time. It'll definitely end up being the Memphis mainstay's biggest hit to date.
7. A$AP Ferg - Work (Remix)
Ferg, another star who's laid dormant for quite some time, also surprised us with a non-album track this week, lending a few verses to Rihanna and Drake's "Work." The Caribbean-flavored cut perfectly lends itself to his vibrant stylings, and some in the comments were even saying that they prefer this to the original. It was a limited-time-only deal though, as Fergie has taken it down from his Soundcloud. Still, it managed to slide in the Top 100 right at number seven.
6. Young Thug - Untitled (Yeezy 3)
Thugger got a huge look this week by not only being a featured model and vocalist in both Kanye's TLOP listening event and SNL performance, but also by getting West to debut a new song of his at the Madison Square Garden event. Acting like the amateur DJs at a house party, Ye handed Thug the aux to premiere some new shit, and we ended up getting just around two minutes of a still-untitled cut. Perhaps it'll end up on Slime Season 3 tomorrow? Or maybe Thug, learning a thing or two from Ye, will keep us on the edge of our seats for a few more days.
5. Wiz Khalifa Feat. Ty Dolla $ign - Lit
While Wiz's Khalifa album was overshadowed in almost every way, first by Future and Young Thug's most recent tapes, then by TLOP, he did seem to capture HNHH users' attention with Taylor Gang collab "Lit." As they did on last year's Talk About It In the Morning EP, Khalifa and Ty Dolla $ign show their great vocal chemistry, and Ty straddles the line of the "cool pants" beef by appearing on both Khalifa and Ye's projects.
4. Future - Fly Shit Only
Perhaps thanks to a Beats Super Bowl commercial that had Cam Newton working out to the EVOL track, Future's "Fly Shit Only" stayed put at number four this week.
3. Rihanna Feat. Drake - Work
A$AP Ferg's remix was popular, but it still didn't top the original in its second week at number three. The track's just beginning to ascend the actual charts, hitting number one on R&B/Hip Hop and climbing at number seven on the Hot 100. ANTI didn't exactly seem chock full of bangers, but this one seems like a sure winner thus far.
2. Drake - Summer Sixteen
Drizzy's latest OVO Sound debut is now the most-viewed track in HNHH history, topping five songs ranked #2-6 that also feature, you guessed it, the man himself. "Back To Back" seemed like it was the talk of last summer, but now that "Summer Sixteen" has eclipsed it by over a million views, does it have potential to be even bigger? Only time will tell.
1. Kanye West - 30 Hours
On Friday morning, Kanye claimed that his album would be out later that day, but perhaps already planning a post-SNL release, he threw fans a bone to keep them occupied for the remainder of the wait. "30 Hours" definitely managed to distract us while also jacking up anticipation, as it wasn't one of the TLOP cuts that we heard at the listening event, though it did end up being one of the seven songs West added to the tracklist after the fact.
Produced by J Dilla and Madlib disciple Karriem Riggins, the song continues Kanye's tradition of sampling cult experimental musicians from the 70s and 80s, cribbing its titular phrase from NYC legend Arthur Russell's 1986 gem "Answers Me." It's one of West's most involved lyrical cuts on the album, with lyrics devoted to both Kim K and Amber Rose. In typical fashion, though, this wasn't the version that ended up on the album, which added Andre 3000 for a hot second, as well as some new lyrics referencing the MSG show.
