Chart Beat
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Silk Sonic reasserts its might on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart as the duo’s “After Last Night,” with Thundercat and funk legend Bootsy Collins, ascends to No. 1 on the list dated Nov. 19. The coronation gives the pair, comprised of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, their fourth champ from their first five singles.
“After Last Night” rises from No. 3 after a 12% gain in weekly plays that made the single the most-played song on U.S. monitored adult R&B radio stations in the week ending Nov. 13, according to Luminate. The track evicts Tank’s “Slow,” featuring J. Valentine, after its two weeks on top.
As noted, the new champ is the fourth No. 1 for Silk Sonic out of five singles since the duo’s first release in early 2021. The pair first reigned on Adult R&B Airplay with debut effort “Leave the Door Open” for 13 weeks in April – June 2021, returned to the summit with third single “Smokin out the Window” for one week in January 2022, and ran up another 13-week stay on top for fourth release “Love’s Train” in April – July of this year. Of their first five singles, the only one to miss the top slot was the second, “Skate,” which peaked at No. 4 in October 2021.
Four of the five tracks, sans “Love’s Train,” all originally appeared on Silk Sonic’s An Evening With Silk Sonic album upon its release in November 2021 (“Train,” released in February 2022, was added to the album’s digital and streaming versions.) An Evening With Silk Sonic debuted at No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top R&B Albums charts, leading the former for one week and the latter for two terms.
With all four No. 1s now on the album, An Evening With Silk Sonic is only the second album to generate four Adult R&B Airplay No. 1s. Toni Braxton’s self-titled 1993 LP was the first, thanks to the chart-topping runs of “Another Sad Love Song,” “Breathe Again,” “Seven Whole Days” and “You Mean the World to Me” between September 1993 and March 1994.
As Silk Sonic also contributes to Mars and Anderson .Paak’s individual chart accounts, “After Last Night” gives Mars his eighth career No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay, while Anderson .Paak notches his fourth. Thundercat claims his first champ on the list with his first entry, while Bootsy Collins earns his first leader with his second appearance on the 29-year-old list, after “Don’t Take My Funk” featuring Catfish Collins and Bobby Womack, stopped at No. 32 in 2011.
Elsewhere, “After Last Night” rides its adult R&B momentum to push 19-16 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, which measures songs by audience listenership from both adult R&B and mainstream R&B/hip-hop stations. There, the song improves 6% to 7.5 million in audience in the week ending Nov. 13. The rebound brings the song within two places of its No. 14 peak thus far, achieved four weeks ago.
Alicia Keys’ first seasonal effort, Santa Baby, jingles onto Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart (dated Nov. 19) as the list’s highest debut of the week, arriving at No. 19. The 11-track effort is Keys’ first independently released album after a career in the major-label system, first with J Records and then RCA. The download and streaming editions of the album are exclusive to the iTunes Store and Apple Music, respectively, while the physical album is widely available to all retailers.
The set bows with 3,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 10, according to Luminate, with traditional album sales powering 74% of that sum.
Meanwhile, Keys’ cover of “Please Come Home for Christmas,” from the Santa Baby project, enters at No. 27 on the Adult Contemporary airplay chart – her seventh visit to the list.
A second debut joins Santa Baby on Top Holiday Albums as Switchfoot’s first Christmas release, This Is Our Christmas Album, enters at No. 400 (1,000 units). Coincidentally, both include covers of a pair of classics: “Christmas Time Is Here” and “The Christmas Song.”
Elsewhere on Top Holiday Albums, Michael Bublé’s Christmas crowns the chart for a 37th nonconsecutive week (rising 2-1 with 13,000 units; up 107%), while the various artists compilation A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector jumps 10-2 (a new peak) as holiday streaming programming kicked into gear post-Halloween in the chart’s tracking week of Nov. 4-10.
The Top Holiday Albums chart ranks the 50 most popular seasonal albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each units equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram. The seasonal Top Holiday Albums returned for another festive season with the Oct. 22-dated list and will continue as part of Billboard’s weekly chart menu until it dashes away in January 2023.
Barbra Streisand’s Live at the Bon Soir debuts in the top 10 on both Billboard’s Top Album Sales and Top Current Album Sales charts, and arrives as her 64th entry on the Billboard 200 — extending her record for the most total albums charted among women.
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The archival live set was recorded in 1962 and was originally intended to be Streisand’s debut album for Columbia Records. Instead, the project was shelved and her first release for her longtime label was the studio effort The Barbra Streisand Album in 1963. (It was also her first charting album on the Billboard 200, debuting at No. 17 on the Aug. 17, 1963-dated list, later peaking at No. 9.)
Live at the Bon Soir sold 7,500 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 10, according to Luminate, and bows at No. 8 on Top Album Sales and No. 7 on Top Current Album Sales.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Live at the Bon Soir’s 7,500 sold, physical sales comprise 5,000 (all on CD) and digital album download sales comprise 2,500. The album will be released on SACD and vinyl LP at a later date.
On the Billboard 200, Live at the Bon Soir bows at No. 150, marking Streisand’s 64th entry on the chart. That extends her record for the most charting albums among women. It’s also her ninth live project to chart on the list, and she’s logged at least one charting live album in each decade from the 1960s through the 2020s.
Streisand’s live albums on the Billboard 200:Title, Peak Position, Peak DateA Happening in Central Park, 30, Dec. 14, 1968Live Concert at The Forum, 19, Jan. 6, 1973One Voice, 9, June 6, 1987The Concert, 10, Oct. 15, 1994The Concert Highlights, 81, June 10, 1995Timeless: Live in Concert, 21, Oct. 7, 2000Live in Concert 2006, 7, May 26, 2007The Music… The Mem’ries… The Magic! Live in Concert, 69, Dec. 30, 2017Live at the Bon Soir, 150, Nov. 19, 2022
At No. 1 on Top Album Sales, Taylor Swift’s Midnights holds tight for a third straight week, with 93,000 sold (down 19%). In its first three weeks, the album has sold 1.348 million copies in the U.S.
Joji debuts at a career-high No. 2 on Top Album Sales, as Smithereens bows with 17,500 sold. Of that sum, CD sales comprise 13,000, bolstered by its availability in a Target-exclusive variant with alternative cover art, along with an array of deluxe box sets sold through the artist’s official webstore.
The Beatles’ Revolver falls 2-3 on Top Album Sales with 15,000 sold (down 68%) while the Stranger Things: Season 4 soundtrack re-enters at a new peak of, fittingly, No. 4 with 14,000 sold (up 2,067%), following its arrival on vinyl. Of that sum, vinyl sales comprise 13,000, enabling its debut at No. 2 on the Vinyl Albums chart.
Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss – which launches atop the Billboard 200 – starts at No. 5 on Top Album Sales with 12,000 sold.
Home Free collects its highest charting effort on Top Album Sales, and third top 10, as So Long Dixie debuts at No. 6 with 8,000 sold.
Steve Lacy’s Gemini Rights bows at No. 7 with nearly 8,000 sold following its vinyl release. Nearly all of its sales for the week were driven by its vinyl LP (No. 3 debut on Vinyl Albums). Gemini Rights was released on streaming services and to purchase as a digital download album on July 15, but never sold enough to chart on Top Album Sales until its vinyl was released. It has yet to be issued on any other physical format other than vinyl.
Rounding out the top 10 on Top Album Sales is Berner’s From Seed to Sale (4-9 with 6,000; down 55%) and Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city (16-10 with 6,000; up 45% thanks to continued strong performance of its 10th anniversary reissue variants).
In the week ending Nov. 10, there were 1.749 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 8.1% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.363 million (up 10.2%) and digital albums comprised 386,000 (up 1.3%).
There were 631,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Nov. 10 (up 1.8 % week-over-week) and 720,000 vinyl albums sold (up 18.8%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 29.652 million (down 7.3% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 33.294 million (up 3.7%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 80.993 million (down 6.7% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 63.412 million (down 1.7%) and digital album sales total 17.581 million (down 21.1%).
Colombian Jessi Uribe secures his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay chart (dated Nov. 19) as “Si Ya Hiciste El Mal,” his first collaborative effort with Luis R Conriquez, lifts 2-1.
Uribe is one of the forerunners of Colombian ranchero, a branch of regional Colombian music that borrows from Mexican mariachi, ranchera and corrido formats. He becomes the second Colombian singer-songwriter to score a No. 1 on Regional Mexican Airplay in 2022: As “Si Ya Hiciste el Mal” hits No. 1, it sends Camilo, a core Latin pop Colombian artist, to No. 2 as “Alaska,” with Grupo Firme dips after its one-week command (chart dated Nov. 12).
“Honestly, I’m extremely happy and grateful,” Uribe tells Billboard. “It’s a dream fulfilled. I have been a regional Mexican music lover since childhood, I am singer of regional Colombian music and to be the first one to achieve this, is an honor. Thanks to Luis, my team, and the listeners who have given us so much love.”
“Si Ya Hiciste” climbs from the runner-up spot after a 3% increase in audience impressions, to 7.1 million, earned in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 13, according to Luminate.
As mentioned, the song gives Uribe his first leader on an airplay chart. He previously scored a No. 6 best with “El Alumno,” with Joss Favela, in May. Meanwhile, Conriquez clocks his second ruler: “JGL,” with La Adictiva, topped Regional Mexican Airplay for one week (Sept. 10).
“Working with Jessie was a beautiful experience,” Conriquez tells Billboard. “We traveled to Colombia to record the song and our bonding was beyond great.”
Further, thanks to its radio reception, “Si Ya Hiciste” debuts at No. 50 on the multimetric Hot Latin Songs chart. It earns Uribe his first chart appearance. Conriquez claims his ninth entry.
The track also makes progress on the all-genre Latin Airplay chart jumping 10-8, the closest Conriquez has been to the top after another No. 8 high (“JGL” in the Sept. 10-dated ranking).
Joji’s Smithereens becomes his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rock & Alternative Albums and Top Alternative Albums charts, opening atop the surveys dated Nov. 19.
Smithereens bows with 57,000 equivalent album units earned in the Nov. 4-10 tracking week, according to Luminate.
The set’s streaming equivalent unit count of 40,000 is the best for any album on the chart since the debut week of Zach Bryan’s American Heartbreak, which accumulated 65,000 units from streams (June 4).
Smithereens surpasses the No. 2 debut and peak of Joji’s Nectar on the Top Alternative Albums ranking dated Oct. 10, 2020.
Concurrently, Smithereens starts at No. 5 on the all-genre Billboard 200, marking Joji’s third top five entry, following the aforementioned Nectar and 2018’s Ballads 1 (both No. 3 peaks).
Six cuts from Smithereens dot Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, led by “Die for You” at No. 4. The song earned 12.1 million official U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads Nov. 4-10. The former count places the track at No. 2 on Alternative Streaming Songs (as well as No. 32 on the all-genre Streaming Songs list), while the latter generates a No. 18 showing on Alternative Digital Song Sales.
“Before the Day Is Over” follows on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs as the album’s other top 10, beginning at No. 10 with 5.1 million streams.
Gryffin debuts at No. 3 on Billboard‘s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart (dated Nov. 19) with Alive. The set starts with 5,000 equivalent album units earned in the Nov. 4-10 tracking week, according to Luminate.
It’s Gryffin’s second top 10 and fourth chart entry, following Gravity (No. 1, 2019), Gravity, Pt. 1 (Remixes) (No. 20, 2019) and EP Gravity, Pt. 1 (No. 12, 2018).
On the multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, Gryffin (aka DJ/producer Dan Griffith) has amassed 33 total entries, including 10 from Alive. The new set has yielded Gryffin’s first Hot Dance/Electronic Songs top 10, “Woke Up in Love” (with Kygo and Calum Scott), which started at its No. 9 best in September and rebounds 28-18 this week.
New this frame from Alive is “Lose Your Love,” with Matt Maeson (912,000 U.S. streams). It’s the second straight week in which Gryffin has debuted a track at No. 20, after “Forever,” featuring Elley Duhe. “Lose” is singer Maeson’s second showing on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, following another DJ collab, “Heavenly Side,” with ILLENIUM (No. 12, July 2021).
Gryffin also scores on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, where his track with Olivia O’Brien, “Caught Up,” cruises 22-9. Gryffin’s fifth top 10 and O’Brien’s first, the team-up (which reached No. 12 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs in May) is drawing core-dance airplay on Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel, iHeartRadio’s Evolution network and iHeartRadio’s Pride Radio, among other supporters.
Not So ‘Bad’
Steve Lacy also lifts to his second Dance/Mix Show Airplay top 10 with “Bad Habit” (14-10). His “Live Without Your Love,” with Love Regenerator, hit No. 7 in 2020. (The chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on around 70 top 40-formatted reporters.)
As previously reported, “Bad Habit” concurrently crowns the all-format Radio Songs chart, as well as Pop Airplay.
Time for Tiësto
Returning to Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Tiësto bows at No. 8 with “10:35,” featuring Tate McRae. Tiësto’s eighth top 10 earned 3.5 million domestic streams in the tracking week. Tiësto has added three of his top 10s this year, as “10:35” follows “Hot in It,” with Charli XCX (No. 10, July), and “The Motto,” with Ava Max (No. 2, March).
“10:35” is McRae’s second top 10 on the tally, after “You,” with Regard and Troye Sivan, reigned for eight weeks in June-August 2021.
Concurrently, “10:35” starts on Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales (No. 6) and Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs (No. 8). The track is from Tiësto’s album Drive, due Feb. 24, 2023.
Bad Omens ride TikTok virality to their first No. 1 on a multi-metric Billboard songs chart, jumping to the top of the Hot Hard Rock Songs list dated Nov. 19 with “Just Pretend.”
In the Nov. 4-10 tracking week, the song earned 2.8 million official U.S. streams, up 26%, according to Luminate. It also garnered 538,000 audience impressions on radio and sold 1,000 downloads.
Bad Omens’ first Hot Hard Rock Songs No. 1 follows the band’s “Like a Villain,” which hit No. 17 in March. The other song that the band has placed on the chart, “The Death of Peace of Mind,” re-enters the latest tally at No. 19, a new high (689,000 streams).
“Just Pretend” also appears at Nos. 22, a new best, and 32 on Hot Rock Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, respectively. The TikTok trend for the song largely finds users lip syncing the lyrics, particularly a portion directly before and during the chorus, with some videos also addressing mental health.
The track concurrently rules Hard Rock Digital Song Sales for a third week (after debuting on the Oct. 22 survey) and leaps 24-11 in its second week on Hard Rock Streaming Songs. The song — the band’s current radio single — climbs 22-17 on Mainstream Rock Airplay and it marks Bad Omens’ third top 20 hit, following the aforementioned “Villain” (No. 10, June) and “Limits” (No. 19, 2020).
“Just Pretend” is the second single from the album The Death of Peace of Mind, which zooms 25-13 on Top Hard Rock Albums with 5,000 equivalent album units earned, up 20%. The set premiered at its No. 11 peak in March with 6,000 units and has earned 93,000 units to date.
Colton Dixon tops Billboard‘s Christian Airplay chart for his first time, as “Build Me a Boat” lifts to No. 1 on the Nov. 19-dated ranking. In the tracking week ending Nov. 13, the single increased by 3% to 6.8 million audience impressions, according to Luminate.
Dixon co-wrote “Boat” with Pete Becker, Mikey Gormley, Johan Linbrandt and Seth Mosley, and the latter three produced it with Sandro Cavazza. “Absolutely stunned at the support,” Dixon tells Billboard. “Thank you to everyone at radio for making this my first-ever Christian Airplay No. 1 single! Grateful would be an understatement, but it seems to be the word I keep coming back to over these last few months. Thank you all so much.”
The 31-year-old Murfreesboro, Tenn., native previously banked four Christian Airplay top 10s. “You Are,” his maiden entry, reached No. 10 in April 2013, followed by “More of You” (No. 5, November 2014); “Through All of It” (No. 6, September 2015); and “Miracles” (No. 5, December 2020).
Concurrently, “Boat” leads the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Christian Songs chart and Christian AC Airplay for a third fame each, after first topping the Nov. 5 tallies. The song drew 1.6 million streams (up 28%) and sold 1,000 downloads (up 17%) Nov. 4-10. On Christian Streaming Songs, it rises 12-6, awarding Dixon his first top 10.
Jokia Reigns Again
Jokia scores her second straight career-opening No. 1 on Gospel Airplay with “Let Him In” (up 18% in plays). The 23-year-old (full name Jokia Williams), from Killeen, Texas, wrote the song solo and self-released it.
Jokia broke through with “Yahweh,” which led for a week in April 2021. She is now within one of DOE’s mark as the female artist with the most career-opening Gospel Airplay leaders. DOE (aka Dominique Jones) added her third No. 1 with “When I Pray,” which led for two frames starting in September.
Her Loss, his win.
As has become the norm, a new Drake album’s yields a monster week on Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop charts, extending multiple records already safely in the superstar’s possession and pushing him dangerously closer toward a few that still elude him.
Her Loss, a collaborative album with 21 Savage, was released on Nov. 4 via OVO Sound/Republic. The set debuts at No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart with 404,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Nov. 10, according to Luminate.
With the entry, 21 Savage obtains his third (and third consecutive) No. 1 on the list, after I Am > I Was led the list for two weeks in 2019 and Savage Mode II, with Metro Boomin, posted one week on top the following year.
Drake maintains his perfect run of 14 No. 1s among his 14 chart appearances, dating to the arrival of his first full-length album, Thank Me Later, in 2010. The achievement ties him with Jay-Z for the most No. 1s on the list among rappers, male artists and solo artists; only The Temptations, with 17 No. 1s, rank above the pair.
In the songs’ realm, “Rich Flex” leads the new recruits, as the title debuts at No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. With the arrival, Drake secures his record-extending 26th champ on the list and creates more space between himself and the joint-second place holders, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder, who each hold 20 leaders.
As Drake’s count increases, here’s the current leaderboard for most No. 1s on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs since the chart became an all-encompassing genre survey in 1958:
26, Drake20, Aretha Franklin20, Stevie Wonder17, James Brown16, Janet Jackson15, The Temptations13, Marvin Gaye13, Michael Jackson13, Usher
21 Savage, meanwhile, picks up his fourth Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs No. 1, after a 14-week stay through his featured turn on Post Malone’s “Rockstar” (2017-18), a one-week reign with “My Life,” with with J. Cole and Morray (2021) and another week in charge with his prior Drake collab, “Jimmy Cooks,” this July.
Below “Rich Flex,” Drake and 21 Savage, either together or individually, fill out the rest of the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs’ top 10 and land six more songs between Nos. 11 and 20. To recap all their Her Loss placements this week:
Position, Artist (all are Drake and 21 Savage, unless noted):No. 1, “Rich Flex”No. 2, “Major Distribution”No. 3, “On BS”No. 4, “Spin Bout U”No. 5, “Pussy & Millions,” featuring Travis ScottNo. 6, “Privileged Rappers”No. 7, “Circo Loco”No. 8, “BackOutsideBoyz” (Drake)No. 9, “Hours in Silence”No. 10, “Broke Boys”No. 12, “Treacherous Twins”No. 13, “Middle of the Ocean” (Drake)No. 14, “Jumbotron Shit Poppin” (Drake)No. 15, “More M’s”No. 16, “I Guess It’s F*ck Me” (Drake)No. 19, “3AM on Glenwood” (21 Savage)
For the second time in his career, Drake runs a full shoutout of the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs’ top 10. He previously managed the 10-for-10 on the chart dated Sept. 18, 2021, when tracks from his Certified Lover Boy album flooded the competition.
In addition to logging his 26th No. 1, the new haul pushes Drake’s already-record top 10 total to 117, and 21 Savage’s count climbs to 23 visits to the region.
Welcome to The Contenders, a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 albums chart dated Nov. 26): Two of the most historic names in rap and rock compete with a solo Directioner, as each of them try to knock Taylor Swift’s Midnights and Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss out of the top two spots.
Louis Tomlinson, Faith in the Future (BMG): Back in early 2020, Louis Tomlinson became the last of the five One Direction alums to release a solo album with the No. 9-peaking Walls. He seems likely to return to the top 10 next week with sophomore set Faith in the Future, released last Friday (Nov. 11), which Tomlinson recently described to Billboard as “the record I always wanted to make.”
Helping Tomlinson’s sales total for the new album will be a wide variety of physical options for sale: 10 vinyl variants (including a signed one), a Newbury Comics-exclusive CD with a signed insert, a Target-exclusive CD, a zine CD deluxe package, and even three cassettes.
Bruce Springsteen, Only the Strong Survive (Columbia): Only a handful of artists in history have visited the top of the Billboard 200 more often than The Boss, who has 11 No. 1 albums ranging from 1980’s The River to 2014’s High Hopes. Can he get there again with a new set of covers? He’ll try with Only the Strong Survive, which honors what Springsteen calls “the great American songbook of the ’60s and ’70s,” including classics made famous by Jerry Butler, Ben E. King and The Temptations.
He almost did once already. We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, a tribute to folk legend Pete Seeger, peaked at No. 3 in 2006 — and every album of newly recorded studio material released by Springsteen so far this century has reached the chart’s top three.
Nas, King’s Disease III (Mass Appeal): Nas received acclaim for the first two installments of his King’s Disease series, both recorded with producer Hit-Boy — including a pair of top five entries on the Billboard 200 and a Grammy nomination each for best rap album, with the first set even giving the rapper his first Grammy win in 2019.
We’ll need to wait another year to find out if King’s Disease III can make it three-for-three with the Grammy recognition, but next week we’ll see if it can match the chart success of the first two. But unlike the first two sets, which boasted guest appearances from the starry likes of Lil Durk, Eminem and Ms. Lauryn Hill, King’s Disease III includes no big features.
In the Mix
GloRilla, Anyways, Life’s Great… (CMG/Interscope): GloRilla is one of this year’s hip-hop breakout success stories, with a pair of vicious Hot 100 hits in HitKidd collab “F.N.F.” and Cardi B teamup “Tomorrow 2,” and now a Grammy nomination for the former in best rap performance. Both songs are featured on her debut EP, Anyways, Life’s Great…, along with seven other hard-hitting tracks to prime audiences for one of the most-anticipated rap debut albums of the next few years.
Rauw Alejandro, Saturno (Sony Music Latin/Duars): Few Latin pop stars outside of his “Party” collaborator Bad Bunny have been as visible on the Billboard charts recently as Rauw Alejandro, who scored his first Hot 100 top 40 hit last year with “Todo de Ti” and has kept the momentum going in 2022 with hits like “Desperados” and “Lokera.” It’s led to the release of his high-octane third studio album, Saturno, which features Alejandro motoring down the same dark, neon-lit sonic highways as The Weeknd’s last couple efforts.
Wizkid, More Love, Less Ego (Starboy/RCA): It’s been a slow and steady trek to global domination for Afrobeats star Wizkid, who topped the Hot 100 in 2016 as a guest on Drake’s “One Dance” and hit the top 10 as a lead artist in 2021 with the unstoppable “Essence.” The Nigerian star takes another victory lap with this month’s More Love, Less Ego, boosted by an internationally streamed live performance in London this Monday, hosted by Apple Music.
Guns N’ Roses, Use Your Illusion (UMG): Guns N’ Roses‘ dual album set of Use Your Illusion I & II debuted in the top two spots of the Billboard 200 back in October 1991 — with II inching past its counterpart. The two sets are combined on this month’s Use Your Illusion (Super Deluxe) box set of seven CDs and 12 LPs, including two early-’90s live shows, while CD and vinyl reissues of each of the individual UYI sets are also available for purchase.