Pandora is seeing plenty of shakes up these days, with a new rapper from Atlanta making a splashy debut, two fresh faces hitting the country scene, and female rapper Cardi B busting into the male dominated top ten.
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Guest post by Emily Blake of Next Big Sound
Unless you made the unfortunate mistake of staring at the solar eclipse today without your special, NASA-approved glasses, if you look at the Pandora Top Spins Chart, you’ll see plenty of exciting shakeups going on. There’s a new rapper from Atlanta making his debut, two new faces in country, and a fierce female rapper breaking through the male-heavy top 10. Read on for more.
The Leaders
DJ Khaled continues to dominate this week as “Wild Thoughts” and “I’m the One” — both off his latest album, Grateful — stay strong at #1 an #2, respectively. But there are some heavy hitters right on their heels, including Khalid’s monster of a breakout single, “Location.” While the track hit its 16 week sunset back in April — more on that here — it’s on a powerful comeback, this week at #5 with over 4.4 million weekly spins. Kendrick Lamar’s “LOVE (FT. ZACARI)” is on a strong hot streak, too, jumping 23 spots to #8 in its 17th week. J Balvin’s “Mi Gente” and Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” round out the top 10.
“Bodak Yellow” is the only track by a female artist in the top 10 this week. (In case you haven’t heard, the top of the charts have sort of been dude-dominated lately.) The song — Cardi B’s first single since signing to Atlantic Records — has been a “Monster” of a breakout hit for the Bronx rapper, who got her start as an exotic dancer and later as a star of VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: New York. The strength of “Bodak Yellow” — it just jumped 24 spots in one week — has driven a see a 200% lift in artist station adds, a 250% increase in Wikipedia page views and a 160% lift in Instagram followers month-on-month for Cardi B. In other words, she’s makin’ money moves.
The Newbies
There are a ton of new songs showing their face this week, but the highest debut goes to Louis Tomlinson, whose latest single “Back to You” enters the chart at #22. All the former members of One Direction have gone in decidedly different directions with their solo music — Zayn went R&B, Harry went glam rock — and it seems Tomlinson has laid claim to dance pop. After linking up with Steve Aoki for “Just Hold On,” “Back to You” finds him collaborating with British DJ/producer Digital Farm Animals, as well as pop singer Bebe Rexha.
We have a brand-new face from Atlanta in rising rapper Joe Gifted, who’s getting his feet wet this week with “Water,” which features fellow Atlanta up-and-comer Frontstreet. The MC has been putting in work in Atlanta for a bit, but the Migos-esque “Water” marks the first time he’s really broken through. The song debuts at #62, 14 spots ahead of “Butterfly Effect,” the latest single from Travis Scott. Elsewhere in hip-hop, Baltimore native 6LACK returns with “Ex Calling,” which is a sample of Future’s Purple Reign track “Perkys Calling.” This marks 6LACK’s second appearance on top spins after “Prblms,” which debuted back in December.
There’s also two new faces in country in Aaron Watson and Adam Craig. Texas native Watson debuts with “Outta Style,” which is Taylor Swift’s “Style” if Taylor Swift were still releasing country music and also a happily married man. While Watson has been releasing music for a while the pop-leaning “Outta Style” marks his first crossover success, this week seeing around 975,000 weekly spins. And after years of work in country music as a songwriter, Adam Craig steps up to the mic with “Just a Phase,” which debuts this week at #96, two spots ahead of “Unforgettable,” the latest single from Thomas Rhett.
The Climbers
While Portugal. The Man have been making a name for themselves in the alternative space for a while, it’s now that they’re starting to cross over to more mainstream success. The song — off their eighth album, Woodstock —mark the Portland alt-rock band’s first release to land on the Billboard Hot 100, and now it’s their first track on top spins too. This week it jumps 15 spots, breaking through the top 20. The song has helped the band see significant gains across social media and streaming, including more than 83,000 new artist station adds in the past three months.
Other notable movers include Major Lazer’s “Know No Better (Feat. Travis Scott, Camila Cabello & Quavo),” which jumps 52 spots; 21 Savage’s “Bank Account,” which rises from #72 to #43; and Khalid’s “Young Dumb & Broke.” “Young Dumb & Broke” marks Khalid’s second American Teen single to hit the chart following the release of the track’s buzzy music video.
Check out the full Pandora Top Spins Chart here.