Monthly Report: May 2024 Singles
1. Kendrick Lamar - "Not Like Us"
The week that the Drake/Kendrick Lamar beef boiled over is one of those surreal moments that will stick with me a long time -- particularly the Friday night when I listened to Drake's "Family Matters" just before going into an event, and while I was there Kendrick dropped "Meet The Grahams" and I listened to that in the car before going home. But it was 24 hours later when Kendrick released "Not Like Us," an extremely mean and ingratiatingly catchy DJ Mustard-produced track, that the whole thing became surprisingly fun. Kendrick Lamar and DJ Mustard are probably the two most important figures in the resurgence of west coast rap in the 2010s, but they've never worked together much. The only other time Kendrick has been on a Mustard beat that I can remember is Jeezy's "R.I.P." remix (which also featured Chris Brown -- dissing Drake!). So "Not Like Us" fulfills a desire to hear Kendrick on a Mustard banger while also dealing a decisive blow in the feud. I wrote a recent Complex piece covering some of the harshest stuff Drake and Kendrick said about each other, and honestly, a lot of what's happened doesn't sit well with me, especially in light of the ongoing Diddy story, perhaps the most serious abuse and assault allegations against an A-list hip-hop artist ever. Either Drake and Kendrick are bluffing about the dirt they claim to have on each other for entertainment value, which is kind of gross, or it's true and they're rapping playful punchlines about it, which is also gross. Here's the 2024 singles Spotify playlist that I update every month.
2. Hozier - "Too Sweet"
On Friday, my wife and I saw Hozier at Merriweather Post Pavilion, and it was a really great show, he's fantastic live. I think it's fun to see an act perform a big hit song while it's their current single, but having bought our tickets as a Christmas gift back last year, I know this tour sold out months ago, so the entire crowd was people who've been Hozier fans long before "Too Sweet" came out and became his first #1 single this year. And that kind of made it an even better experience, because there was a pretty big reaction when he played it, but there was also a pretty big reaction when he'd play certain album tracks from 5-10 years ago. It feels like he's in the perfect position to have this enormous crossover hit without it really substantially changing this great career he already has.
3. Lucky Daye - "HERicane"
The recent Bruno Mars-penned Lucky Daye single "That's You" was pretty good, but I'm a lot more excited about the follow-up "HERicane." The titular wordplay is a little cheesy but this is such a perfect summery groove to hear him on.
4. Olivia Rodrigo - "Obsessed"
Guts is still one of my favorite albums of the past year or so, and the 5 songs on the recent deluxe edition all feel like worthy additions, I don't even know if "Obsessed" is my favorite of the new tracks but I love hearing it on the radio, the bass on the chorus is so wonderfully grungy.
5. Gracie Abrams - "Risk"
Gracie Abrams seems very much poised to be one of the next big pop girls -- she's opened for Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo, and Swift is on her upcoming album. She even sounds a bit like Rodrigo, although her music is more wispy and acoustic and less up my alley. I really like "Risk," though, I think it's a really well written song. I just realized that Gracie Abrams is the daughter of big time Hollywood director J.J. Abrams, which makes her rapid ascent kind of eye-rolling, but whatever, I like this song.
6. Hailey Whitters - "I'm In Love"
I hate how slow-moving Billboard's Country Airplay chart is compared to other radio formats, it seems like country stations just take forever to decide whether they like a song. "I'm In Love" has been on the chart for 30 weeks, over half a year, and still hasn't peaked higher than #47. I like it a lot more than Whitters' previous hit "Everything She Ain't," though, it's so bright and sweet and has a little bit of zydeco in the accordion part.
7. Don Toliver - "Bandit"
Travis Scott sidekick Don Toliver has always seemed to me like a 5th-generation knockoff of better melodic rap singers like Future, but he finally landed on a song I like, "Bandit" has been really growing on me.
8. J.P. - "Bad Bitty"
J.P. is a college sophomore from Milwaukee who became famous when this goofy 102-second track went viral. And even though the song's low end is all distorted and it feels like a relatively amateur effort, he's got a real undeniable star quality and he packs so many catchy melodic hooks into this short song.
9. The Black Crowes - "Wanting And Waiting"
Jay Joyce has produced a lot of my favorite country records of the past couple decades (Eric Church, Lainey Wilson, Brothers Osborne, etc.) but he also occasionally produces rock acts, and he was really a perfect choice for the Black Crowes' comeback album, Happiness Bastards sounds fantastic and this song has a little of that Shake Your Money Maker swagger to it.
10. Renee Rapp f/ Megan Thee Stallion - "Not My Fault"
I'm disappointed that nothing from Renee Rapp's great debut album Snow Angel got any attention from Top 40 radio, but I'm cool with this track from the Mean Girls soundtrack taking off, it's lightweight but entertaining.
The Worst Single of the Month: Shinedown - "A Symptom of Being Human"
Shinedown never quite became a huge divisive band people love to hate like their post-grunge contemporaries Creed and Nickelback, but they've been insanely successful on rock radio, with the most #1 songs (19!) in the 43-year-history of Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart. Their biggest hit, 2009's "Second Chance," is a genuinely good song that I thought deserved its success, but their latest single "A Symptom of Being Human" is their first crossover to pop radio and alternative radio in a long while, and it's just absolute dogshit.
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