Dripping With Gemstones? (Very Very Preliminary Top Singles List For 2019)
Not remotely ready with my list, and faithful readers will note that I still haven't posted my list for 2018 either. But here we are, 2019, 82 or so, needs to be reordered, many more will be added and some of these will drop off. I'm trying to keep up with Cameroonian hip-hop and Korean pop and I'm six months behind with each. I checked the ILM nomination thread yesterday and only two of these songs were on it. No one's nominated Old Town Road yet, what the fuck? There's nobody like me. Or like you, no doubt.
Commentary after the list.
Here's the playlist:
1. Heavy-K x Moonchild Sanelly "Yebo Mama"
2. Bhad Bhabie ft. Tory Lanez "Babyface Savage"
3. Jvcki Wai, Young B, Osshun Gum, Han Yo Han "Dding"
4. Hong Jinyoung "Love Tonight"
5. Lil Pump "Butterfly Doors"
6. A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie "Look Back At Me"
7. Tory Lanez ft. Quavo & Tyga "Broke Leg"
8. Gasmilla ft. Mr Eazi "K33SHI"
9. Lil Pump ft. Lil Wayne "Be Like Me"
10. Ski Mask The Slump God "Faucet Failure"
11. Loopy&nafla "Ice King"
12. DALsooobin "Katchup"
13. Rich The Kid "4 Phones"
14. Gunna "Big Shot"
15. Gasmilla ft. Kwamz & Flava "Charle Man"
16. Rocket Girls 101 "Galaxy Disco"
17. Blueface ft. YG "Thotiana (Remix)"
18. Robyn "Ever Again"
19. Sofi Tukker "Fantasy"
20. YG ft. Tyga, Jon Z "Go Loko"
21. Lil Nas X "Old Town Road (I Got The Horses In The Back)"
22. Rich The Kid "Splashin"
23. Rema "Iron Man"
24. Kim Bo Kyung "It's Not Discarded"
25. Kidd Kenn "'Next Song' Freestyle"
26. Brooks & Dunn ft. Luke Combs "Brand New Man"
27. Yuna "Forevermore"
28. Chynna "iddd"
29. KeshYou "Уят емес"
30. Solange "Binz"
31. Bad Bunny "Solo De Mi"
32. Marilina Bertoldi "O No?"
33. Niniola ft. Sarz "Designer"
34. Kero Kero Bonito "Swimming"
35. Zola7 "Skobho ne-Hennessey"
36. Rema "Dumebi"
37. SAINt JHN ft. Lil Baby "Trap"
38. unperfect "Looking For A Hug"
39. Mr. Oulala "Let's Go"
40. El Alfa El Jefe ft. Diplo "Tecnobow"
41. Heavy Baile ft. MC Baby Perigosa "Grelinho de Daimante"
42. Sunmi "Noir"
43. Gunna "Richard Millie Plain"
44. Z-Tra ft. Mani Bella "Kokoriko"
45. Snow Tha Product "Bilingue"
46. Jenn Morel "Tra"
47. Grimes & i_o "Violence"
48. Swae Lee "Won't Be Late"
49. BewhY "찬란(Challan)"
50. Kitz "Jovi Tweets"
51. Y2K ft. bbno$ "Lalala"
52. J Balvin X Bad Bunny "Yo Le Llego"
53. Hot Place "TMI"
54. Rema "Trap Out The Submarine Freestyle"
55. Midnight "Girl Groups Flooded Part.2 (Swish)"
56. Bhad Bhabie "Lotta Dem"
57. Grimes "So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth"
58. Venum Daspik ft. Tilla Tafari "Bad Boyz 2.0"
59. Monsta X ft. French Montana "Who Do U Love?"
60. Momoiro Clover Z "Momoclo"
61. Whethan ft. Jeremih "Let Me Take You"
62. Sarah Jeffery "Queen of Mean"
63. Naomi Scott "Speechless"
64. Singuila "Ma go"
65. Yuna, Jay Park "Does She"
66. Park Ki Young "After Confession"
67. Billie Eilish "Bury A Friend"
68. M-PEE "เมียโทรมา"
69. DJ Just Dizle & SoJip "Non Sense"
70. Bryce Vine ft. YG "La La Land"
71. J.I.D "Off Da Zoinkys"
72. Bomba Estéreo, Systema Solar "Carnavalera"
73. Yemi Alade "Bounce"
74. Taemin "Want"
75. Miley Cyrus "Slide Away"
76. Shannon "Best"
77. FKA Twigs ft. Future "Holy Terrain"
78. DJ Vitoto ft. Moonchild Sanelly "Online"
79. Marc Cedric ft. Chantal Travolta "Ma Massa"
80. Semi Tee ft. Miano, Kammu Dee "Labantwana Ama Uber"
81. Nabila ft. Mink's & MPD "La Vie C'est Un Tour"
82. Sphectacula & DJ Naves ft. Beast & Hope & Leehleza "Ngeke"
Tory Lanez ft. Quavo & Tyga, "Broke Leg": I don't know how to take the video, whether it's funny or just gross; or maybe I do know how to take it, like it's saying "Look who we can afford!" The lyrics and the rapping, though, are less acquisitive and more good-humored than that - are about taking pleasure in how sexy a woman is, basically. Appreciating sexiness without the usual hip-hop boasting about how you don't care about her and without the usual resenting that you keep giving her money.
Gasmilla ft. Mr Eazi "K33SHI": Flows forward, with blips throwing darts across the flow. Right balance of gravity and nonchalance in the voice. I don't know what he's saying, but I'm guessing from the video that he's not dismissing the human body.
DALsooobin "Katchup": "I will catch up with you" seems to mean that she'll surpass him emotionally, socially, will stalk, maybe leave blood on the floor - the singing reminds me of the typical Lillian Gish tour-de-force where Lillian'd go through all emotions in 5 seconds, glee, despair, hope, resignation. This is the first time Subin's reached me like this.
Rich The Kid "4 Phones": He's braggin' that he doesn't have to brag anymore; his voice seems to have pang and uncertainty (anyway?). "I made 100 thousand in the same clothes" - I have no idea what the significance of that statement is. The instruments are the usual sad and pretty haze.
Gunna "Big Shot": Drawls confidently and confidentially with a sound that stays wary. "If killing was dripping, Gunna, I had a case closed." And I don't know what that means. Genius.com has no opinion. Dripping with gemstones? Now that he's got money he can afford lawyers? He's going from poor to not-so-poor.
Robyn "Ever Again": She's changed from being a song singer to being a groove singer, has lost too much of her tautness in the process; this groove track's the exception, all the razor-walking of old, the volatile cuteness, the sexiness, anger, dashed hopes, as she picks her way through treacherous beats.
Billie Eilish "Bury A Friend" - I haven't seen "'50s lounge vocalist" used to describe her, probably because she doesn't sound much like a '50s lounge vocalist; but she has that "restraint = authority" "restraint = maturity" thing, which is one of my blocks against both '50s lounge acts and her: but this, which is overwhelmingly my favorite track of hers, works because it's secretly rollicking, pushing against itself, have your restraint and rock it to pieces too. And sounds like "People Are Strange" by the Doors, a "dark" band that was just as much a hurdy-gurdy gone berserk. Chris Connor Sings The Jim Morrison Songbook.
Heavy-K x Moonchild Sanelly "Yebo Mama": South African Heavy-K calls these beats chopped beats - the comparison is to most house, which I guess is considered steadier, though his beats here have an ease of living you don't get in America's relatively tense hip-hop and dance music. I noticed by putting "Yebo Mama" and Bhad Bhabie's "Babyface Savage" 1-2 on the playlist that I'd accidentally created a great segue, Heavy-K's flow jumping straight into Bhabie's sirens and menace - not that the music, or rappers Bhad Bhabie and Tory Lanez, sound defeated; there's this optimistic snap to them that somehow is as much with and from the fear as against it... have to work out what I think I'm feeling here.
-I don't know why Anglo-America tends so much more towards tension musically; we've had the tension at least since postwar r&b and rockabilly. Tense music plays a role in our life but I wouldn't say it's a reflection of that life. (SA's murder rate is almost 7 times the USA's, though if you go to the neighborhoods where Bhad Bhabie et al. come from the difference lessens or disappears.)
Anyway, the South African track has a nice build and then releases into a chord progression and then builds and releases again and rides the progression out. Moonchild Sanelly seems to be an endearing or irritating force of nature, her voice being instantly recognizable even when cut down into rhythm blips as in the start of 2018's "Makhe" by DJ Maphorisa & DJ Shimza. Calls herself "the president for female orgasm." On "Yebo Mama" she's as alive and colorful as her hair, though her lyrics were a surprise when I hit Google Translate and saw them explained in YouTube comments. More or less: "Wozaa (come on), don't cry mama, I'm coming back mama. I went to investigate [hustle] mama, here in Jozi [Johannesburg] mama, grocery to buy mama, your house mama, I'll extend it mama, yebo mama (yes mama)." Half reassurance and half apology.
Y2K "Lalala": Manages to absorb hip-hop into '90s slacker slop [better word needed] (as contrasted to how the Soundcloud rappers try to incorporate '90s grunge into hip-hop).
Bryce Vine "La La Land": Sounds like '90s trying and falling apart at trying to incorporate life into itself while falling apart, like Sublime. Makes me uneasy but I recognize when something is under my skin.
J Balvin x Bad Bunny "Yo Le Llego": Relaxed. The beat has them walking on ball bearings with complete confidence.
Midnight "Girl Groups Flooded Pt. 2 (Swish)": Sorta post-Tymee tough, which is starting to be standard among female Korean rappers, but all of Midnight are strong and they absorb the fun of what they're attacking (if that's what they're doing). The beats are dumpsters clanking into one another in the bumper-car ring.
Hot Place "TMI": Hot Place have their own rocking madness, though smoother. Hot Place are a rebranding of Badkiz, and now they sound just like Badkiz, a quartet that's managed to run through 19 members in 6 years without ever scoring a hit. I hope someone involved is having fun in all this failure, because I am. The latest agglomeration is insouciantly tough, and they're party rocking like it's [whatever year "Party Rock Anthem" was, or the year after]. In the vid, the guy in the trench coat is a 1-man regiment of Keystone Cops.
Momoiro Clover Z "Momoclo": Collides what seems like old lounge and pop mannerisms into deliberate chaos; this isn't my image of the group, whom I only notice every 3 years or so; maybe I need to change that.
Z-TRA ft. Mani Bella "Kokoriko": More uproar.
DJ Just Dizle et SoJip "Non Sense": The bass sounds hurt while the voice responds with deliberate inflexibility.
KeshYou "Уят емес": Google Translate calls this "Don't Be Ashamed" which in social context in Kazakhstan may be gutsy (I wouldn't know) but in my context is still too hackneyed. Sounds good but the assertiveness is rote. Unless it isn't.
This entry was originally posted at https://koganbot.dreamwidth.org/375562.html. Comments still welcome here, there, and anywhere.
Commentary after the list.
Here's the playlist:
Click to view1. Heavy-K x Moonchild Sanelly "Yebo Mama"
2. Bhad Bhabie ft. Tory Lanez "Babyface Savage"
3. Jvcki Wai, Young B, Osshun Gum, Han Yo Han "Dding"
4. Hong Jinyoung "Love Tonight"
5. Lil Pump "Butterfly Doors"
6. A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie "Look Back At Me"
7. Tory Lanez ft. Quavo & Tyga "Broke Leg"
8. Gasmilla ft. Mr Eazi "K33SHI"
9. Lil Pump ft. Lil Wayne "Be Like Me"
10. Ski Mask The Slump God "Faucet Failure"
11. Loopy&nafla "Ice King"
12. DALsooobin "Katchup"
13. Rich The Kid "4 Phones"
14. Gunna "Big Shot"
15. Gasmilla ft. Kwamz & Flava "Charle Man"
16. Rocket Girls 101 "Galaxy Disco"
17. Blueface ft. YG "Thotiana (Remix)"
18. Robyn "Ever Again"
19. Sofi Tukker "Fantasy"
20. YG ft. Tyga, Jon Z "Go Loko"
21. Lil Nas X "Old Town Road (I Got The Horses In The Back)"
22. Rich The Kid "Splashin"
23. Rema "Iron Man"
24. Kim Bo Kyung "It's Not Discarded"
25. Kidd Kenn "'Next Song' Freestyle"
26. Brooks & Dunn ft. Luke Combs "Brand New Man"
27. Yuna "Forevermore"
28. Chynna "iddd"
29. KeshYou "Уят емес"
30. Solange "Binz"
31. Bad Bunny "Solo De Mi"
32. Marilina Bertoldi "O No?"
33. Niniola ft. Sarz "Designer"
34. Kero Kero Bonito "Swimming"
35. Zola7 "Skobho ne-Hennessey"
36. Rema "Dumebi"
37. SAINt JHN ft. Lil Baby "Trap"
38. unperfect "Looking For A Hug"
39. Mr. Oulala "Let's Go"
40. El Alfa El Jefe ft. Diplo "Tecnobow"
41. Heavy Baile ft. MC Baby Perigosa "Grelinho de Daimante"
42. Sunmi "Noir"
43. Gunna "Richard Millie Plain"
44. Z-Tra ft. Mani Bella "Kokoriko"
45. Snow Tha Product "Bilingue"
46. Jenn Morel "Tra"
47. Grimes & i_o "Violence"
48. Swae Lee "Won't Be Late"
49. BewhY "찬란(Challan)"
50. Kitz "Jovi Tweets"
51. Y2K ft. bbno$ "Lalala"
52. J Balvin X Bad Bunny "Yo Le Llego"
53. Hot Place "TMI"
54. Rema "Trap Out The Submarine Freestyle"
55. Midnight "Girl Groups Flooded Part.2 (Swish)"
56. Bhad Bhabie "Lotta Dem"
57. Grimes "So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth"
58. Venum Daspik ft. Tilla Tafari "Bad Boyz 2.0"
59. Monsta X ft. French Montana "Who Do U Love?"
60. Momoiro Clover Z "Momoclo"
61. Whethan ft. Jeremih "Let Me Take You"
62. Sarah Jeffery "Queen of Mean"
63. Naomi Scott "Speechless"
64. Singuila "Ma go"
65. Yuna, Jay Park "Does She"
66. Park Ki Young "After Confession"
67. Billie Eilish "Bury A Friend"
68. M-PEE "เมียโทรมา"
69. DJ Just Dizle & SoJip "Non Sense"
70. Bryce Vine ft. YG "La La Land"
71. J.I.D "Off Da Zoinkys"
72. Bomba Estéreo, Systema Solar "Carnavalera"
73. Yemi Alade "Bounce"
74. Taemin "Want"
75. Miley Cyrus "Slide Away"
76. Shannon "Best"
77. FKA Twigs ft. Future "Holy Terrain"
78. DJ Vitoto ft. Moonchild Sanelly "Online"
79. Marc Cedric ft. Chantal Travolta "Ma Massa"
80. Semi Tee ft. Miano, Kammu Dee "Labantwana Ama Uber"
81. Nabila ft. Mink's & MPD "La Vie C'est Un Tour"
82. Sphectacula & DJ Naves ft. Beast & Hope & Leehleza "Ngeke"
Tory Lanez ft. Quavo & Tyga, "Broke Leg": I don't know how to take the video, whether it's funny or just gross; or maybe I do know how to take it, like it's saying "Look who we can afford!" The lyrics and the rapping, though, are less acquisitive and more good-humored than that - are about taking pleasure in how sexy a woman is, basically. Appreciating sexiness without the usual hip-hop boasting about how you don't care about her and without the usual resenting that you keep giving her money.
Gasmilla ft. Mr Eazi "K33SHI": Flows forward, with blips throwing darts across the flow. Right balance of gravity and nonchalance in the voice. I don't know what he's saying, but I'm guessing from the video that he's not dismissing the human body.
DALsooobin "Katchup": "I will catch up with you" seems to mean that she'll surpass him emotionally, socially, will stalk, maybe leave blood on the floor - the singing reminds me of the typical Lillian Gish tour-de-force where Lillian'd go through all emotions in 5 seconds, glee, despair, hope, resignation. This is the first time Subin's reached me like this.
Rich The Kid "4 Phones": He's braggin' that he doesn't have to brag anymore; his voice seems to have pang and uncertainty (anyway?). "I made 100 thousand in the same clothes" - I have no idea what the significance of that statement is. The instruments are the usual sad and pretty haze.
Gunna "Big Shot": Drawls confidently and confidentially with a sound that stays wary. "If killing was dripping, Gunna, I had a case closed." And I don't know what that means. Genius.com has no opinion. Dripping with gemstones? Now that he's got money he can afford lawyers? He's going from poor to not-so-poor.
Robyn "Ever Again": She's changed from being a song singer to being a groove singer, has lost too much of her tautness in the process; this groove track's the exception, all the razor-walking of old, the volatile cuteness, the sexiness, anger, dashed hopes, as she picks her way through treacherous beats.
Billie Eilish "Bury A Friend" - I haven't seen "'50s lounge vocalist" used to describe her, probably because she doesn't sound much like a '50s lounge vocalist; but she has that "restraint = authority" "restraint = maturity" thing, which is one of my blocks against both '50s lounge acts and her: but this, which is overwhelmingly my favorite track of hers, works because it's secretly rollicking, pushing against itself, have your restraint and rock it to pieces too. And sounds like "People Are Strange" by the Doors, a "dark" band that was just as much a hurdy-gurdy gone berserk. Chris Connor Sings The Jim Morrison Songbook.
Heavy-K x Moonchild Sanelly "Yebo Mama": South African Heavy-K calls these beats chopped beats - the comparison is to most house, which I guess is considered steadier, though his beats here have an ease of living you don't get in America's relatively tense hip-hop and dance music. I noticed by putting "Yebo Mama" and Bhad Bhabie's "Babyface Savage" 1-2 on the playlist that I'd accidentally created a great segue, Heavy-K's flow jumping straight into Bhabie's sirens and menace - not that the music, or rappers Bhad Bhabie and Tory Lanez, sound defeated; there's this optimistic snap to them that somehow is as much with and from the fear as against it... have to work out what I think I'm feeling here.
-I don't know why Anglo-America tends so much more towards tension musically; we've had the tension at least since postwar r&b and rockabilly. Tense music plays a role in our life but I wouldn't say it's a reflection of that life. (SA's murder rate is almost 7 times the USA's, though if you go to the neighborhoods where Bhad Bhabie et al. come from the difference lessens or disappears.)
Anyway, the South African track has a nice build and then releases into a chord progression and then builds and releases again and rides the progression out. Moonchild Sanelly seems to be an endearing or irritating force of nature, her voice being instantly recognizable even when cut down into rhythm blips as in the start of 2018's "Makhe" by DJ Maphorisa & DJ Shimza. Calls herself "the president for female orgasm." On "Yebo Mama" she's as alive and colorful as her hair, though her lyrics were a surprise when I hit Google Translate and saw them explained in YouTube comments. More or less: "Wozaa (come on), don't cry mama, I'm coming back mama. I went to investigate [hustle] mama, here in Jozi [Johannesburg] mama, grocery to buy mama, your house mama, I'll extend it mama, yebo mama (yes mama)." Half reassurance and half apology.
Y2K "Lalala": Manages to absorb hip-hop into '90s slacker slop [better word needed] (as contrasted to how the Soundcloud rappers try to incorporate '90s grunge into hip-hop).
Bryce Vine "La La Land": Sounds like '90s trying and falling apart at trying to incorporate life into itself while falling apart, like Sublime. Makes me uneasy but I recognize when something is under my skin.
J Balvin x Bad Bunny "Yo Le Llego": Relaxed. The beat has them walking on ball bearings with complete confidence.
Midnight "Girl Groups Flooded Pt. 2 (Swish)": Sorta post-Tymee tough, which is starting to be standard among female Korean rappers, but all of Midnight are strong and they absorb the fun of what they're attacking (if that's what they're doing). The beats are dumpsters clanking into one another in the bumper-car ring.
Hot Place "TMI": Hot Place have their own rocking madness, though smoother. Hot Place are a rebranding of Badkiz, and now they sound just like Badkiz, a quartet that's managed to run through 19 members in 6 years without ever scoring a hit. I hope someone involved is having fun in all this failure, because I am. The latest agglomeration is insouciantly tough, and they're party rocking like it's [whatever year "Party Rock Anthem" was, or the year after]. In the vid, the guy in the trench coat is a 1-man regiment of Keystone Cops.
Momoiro Clover Z "Momoclo": Collides what seems like old lounge and pop mannerisms into deliberate chaos; this isn't my image of the group, whom I only notice every 3 years or so; maybe I need to change that.
Z-TRA ft. Mani Bella "Kokoriko": More uproar.
DJ Just Dizle et SoJip "Non Sense": The bass sounds hurt while the voice responds with deliberate inflexibility.
KeshYou "Уят емес": Google Translate calls this "Don't Be Ashamed" which in social context in Kazakhstan may be gutsy (I wouldn't know) but in my context is still too hackneyed. Sounds good but the assertiveness is rote. Unless it isn't.
This entry was originally posted at https://koganbot.dreamwidth.org/375562.html. Comments still welcome here, there, and anywhere.