Like That
Around this time two years ago at Billboard, we were all asking: Where are the new hits?
Through the first few months of 2022, the Billboard Hot 100 was stocked almost exclusively with holdovers from 2021 and even 2020 or earlier, with totally new music in precious short supply in the chart’s top tiers. Relief eventually came that month in the form of Harry Styles’ instant runaway smash “As It Was,” and then as April turned to May, via new albums by Future, Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar. But it still felt like the year was playing catch-up, like at midyear 2022 was still only just properly getting started.
Suffice to say, we will be having no such problems in 2024. Just over four months into the year, we already have so many big-ticket releases, breakout hits of all sizes, and off-court drama from many of pop music’s primaries, that it feels like we might need the rest of the calendar this year just to catch our breath.
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Whereas in past years this decade — 2022 was the most extreme example, but ’20, ’21 and ’23 certainly had doldrums of their own for pop fans to weather — it felt like pop’s best and brightest mostly spent the early months biding their time, feeling out the year before joining the fray, this year feels like everyone jumping in the pool at once. It’s an exciting (if occasionally overwhelming) time to be a music fan, easily the most exciting we’ve seen yet this decade.
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Let’s start with the list of A-list artists who have already released entirely new albums by May 9: Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Ye & Ty Dolla $ign, Future & Metro Boomin (twice!), J. Cole and Dua Lipa. (Depending on your “A-list” definition, you could also potentially throw Usher, Justin Timberlake and Kacey Musgraves on that list as well.) Hell, you could probably cut the list after the second name and the point would still stand: Any year where you get new sets by Beyoncé (Cowboy Carter) and Taylor Swift (The Tortured Poets Department) — the two most celebrated pop stars in the world right now — before Memorial Day, you’re probably off to a pretty fast start. And both sets have been enormous, world-building, culture-conquering affairs, with huge Hot 100-topping lead singles and no shortage of critical and fan discourse over their deeper implications.
But Bey and Taylor weren’t the only superstars on that list to come correct so far in 2024. In a slower year, Grande’s Eternal Sunshine and its Hot 100-topping singles “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends” might still be dominating the culture following its early March release, with the set drawing some of her strongest reviews to date and her best first-week numbers of the decade so far. Ye re-emerged following deserved backlash to his anti-semitic comments (among other controversies) with Vultures 1, his most fan-celebrated album since 2016’s The Life of Pablo, and its lead single “Carnival,” which was his biggest pop hit in even longer. And of course, Future and Metro have topped the Billboard 200 and owned the weekend twice already this year with their We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You partner sets, also spawning a three-week Hot 100 No. 1 in the former set’s lead single “Like That.”
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Speaking of “Like That”: That Kendrick Lamar-assisted chart-topper essentially knocked the hip-hop world off its usual axis, kicking off the back-and-forth with Drake that has somehow managed to overshadow everything else that’s gone on in popular music so far this year. J. Cole responded first to Lamar’s pot-stirring “Like That” verse, on his lukewarmly received Might Delete Later mixtape and its closing “7 Minute Drill,” before publicly bowing out of the beef and deleting “Drill” from streaming services. But Drake was determined to get his money’s worth: He responded with both the leaked “Push Ups” and the social media-released “Taylor Made Freestyle” — which featured unlicensed, AI-generated guest verses “from” West Coast legends Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur, and was eventually taken down upon threat of legal action from the Shakur estate.
The beef has naturally only escalated from there, also roping in hitmakers ranging from Rick Ross to The Weeknd, and eventually being taken to the next level by Lamar. He dropped the excoriating “Euphoria” last Tuesday (Apr. 30), and then followed that with a trio of Drake disses over the weekend (May 3-5): “6:16 in L.A.,” “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us,” the last of which is now on its way to not only being the biggest song from the feud, but one of the biggest songs of the year, or of either rapper’s career. Drake dropped two songs of his own over that period, in the officially released “Family Matters” and the YouTube-only “The Heart Part 6” — though with Lamar’s anthems now essentially smothering him from all sides, the battle has largely been decided for Kendrick in the court of public opinion. Nonetheless, debate over the particulars of the beef (and who had taken the lead and/or fallen behind) absolutely dominated discussion for the last month and a half following “Like That,” not just for hip-hop or pop fans, but across all of popular culture, while also producing a handful of instant-classic tracks.
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The Kendrick-Drake feud has been the biggest in music this year, but it wasn’t the first. The stage was set for that blockbuster beef by the January back-and-forth between Megan Thee Stallion, whose “Hiss” was thought to have subliminals aimed at rap rival Nicki Minaj (as well as additional lyrics assumed to be shots at Drake and other rap-world figures), and which inspired a response track (in addition to a lot of social media talk) from Minaj in the form of “Big Foot.” The fallout from that beef was mostly contained to the release week of the two tracks, but it helped Megan secure her first-ever entirely solo Hot 100 No. 1 for “Hiss,” and generally established the competitive tone for hip-hop among its biggest 2024 artists.
“Hiss” and “Not Like Us” are also examples of how popular music’s biggest artists haven’t necessarily needed full releases to make an impact so far in 2024. SZA, our staff’s No. 2 Greatest Pop Star of 2023, also poked her head back out with her new single “Saturn” — supposedly a preview of her upcoming Lana project, whose release date remains TBD — which debuted in the Hot 100’s top 10 in March and is still hanging around the region months later. Olivia Rodrigo kicked off one of the year’s most-anticipated tours with the Guts World Tour, her first-ever arena trek, making news both for some of the tour’s special guests and for the new (Spilled) deluxe edition of her 2023 Guts album, which has already spawned another top 20 hit for her in live favorite “Obsessed.” Lana Del Rey, Tyler, the Creator and Doja Cat all headlined Coachella for the first time. Luke Combs had a major Grammy moment with Tracy Chapman. Zach Bryan is bringing out everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Sexyy Red for his live encores. Pretty much all the artists who have defined the ’20s thus far have been in the mix one way or the other in 2024.
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But the real reason 2024 has been so exciting, even beyond all these recognizable names showing up and showing out, is the equally impressive list of rising stars who have made their mark on the year so far.
Música Mexicana phenom Xavi began the year with two songs already climbing the top 100, and plenty more seemingly to come. Teddy Swims and Benson Boone have forced top 40 to make room for big soulful vocals and even bigger screaming guitar, with their crossover smashes “Lose Control” and “Beautiful Things,” respectively. Alt-rock has seen its fortunes revived on the chart through Djo’s psych-leaning “End of Beginning” and Artemas’ darkwave-inspired “I Like It When You Kiss Me,” both surprise top 20 Hot 100 hits. Even longtime cult favorite Hozier, a decade removed from his breakout hit “Take Me to Church,” is now back with a somehow-even-bigger hit: “Too Sweet,” lifted to No. 1 by good TikTok buzz and the currently rising tides of alt-folk and soul-pop.
Even in the midst of the Taylor and Drake/Kendrick takeovers, Shaboozey and Tommy Richman have seemingly come out of nowhere to score breakthrough hits that are genuinely competing with the superstars’ new singles, in country anthem “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and hip-hop/R&B singalong “Million Dollar Baby,” respectively, both already top five Hot 100 hits. Meanwhile, more regional hits from the likes of Cash Cobain and J.P. have not yet crossed over enough to make much of a national chart impact, but are helping to define the sound of the clubs and the culture on the level just below the mainstream.
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For a few of these breakout artists, the success has been a long time coming. Sexyy Redd built up momentum for most of 2023 with viral hits “Pound Town” and “SkeeYee” — culminating in a feature appearance on Drake’s For All the Dogs No. 11 hit “Rich Baby Daddy” — but she’s taken it to a new level this year with her first solo top 20 hit, the dancefloor shout-along “Get It Sexyy.” Glorilla has taken a similar path to solo success with her own self-referencing smash “Yeah Glo!,” while also joining forces with Megan Thee Stallion for the chart-storming “Wanna Be.” Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan were pop favorites with critical acclaim disproportionate to their actual top 40 presence — but following opening slots on Taylor Swift’s and Olivia Rodrigo’s recent tours, they’ve both seen raised profiles and higher levels of crossover stardom with new singles “Espresso,” and “Good Luck Babe!,” respectively, both all but sure to keep growing into the warm-weather months.
The sheer volume of impressive hits so far this year can be seen in the amount of turnover on the Hot 100 — particularly in the top spot, where no one song has reigned for more than three consecutive weeks (“Like That,” again). We’ve already seen 11 different songs top the Hot 100 across the first 19 chart weeks, compared to seven last year and just six in 2022. Both of those years saw a No. 1 hit reign for 15+ weeks seemingly almost by default: “As It Was” and Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” didn’t dominate because they kept finding new ways to infiltrate pop culture (a la Lil Nas X with “Old Town Road”), but simply because the competition usually just wasn’t strong enough across the board to consistently threaten their supremacy. This year, with everything that’s been happening, it seems unlikely that either song would even get to double-digit weeks on top.
It’s hard to say why so much is happening right now, as the reasons behind nearly every breakout story are different. And it’d probably be facile to simply attribute it to pop music once again being Fully Outside, breaking out of its post-shutdown slump and roaring back with a number of artists who were hesitant to rejoin a compromised music world now once again fully engaged. But certainly, it feels like the 2020s are discovering their own distinct musical identity a little — after a first few year largely filled with callback hits and sonic leftovers from past eras — and 2024 is arguably the first year of the decade that feels entirely like its own thing, without being stuck in the hangover of the first major streaming boom of the 2010s, or still mired in the COVID quicksand. TikTok is still the greatest promotional accelerant in music, but increasingly it feels like the app is pouring gasoline on fires that artists have already started, simply offering well-liked songs additional exposure through word-of-mouth spreading, rather than spawning self-made hits through viral dance challenges and influencer button-pushing. For lack of a better word, all the hits feel real.
Regardless of the reasons, it’s been a transfixing start to the year in popular music, with major contributions seemingly coming from all different corners of the music world, and from all different levels of artists. And what’s more, it doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon: This Friday brings with it a new album from Gunna, a new mixtape from Future and a new single from Post Malone and Morgan Wallen, the latter being arguably the biggest remaining recording artist in contemporary music who we haven’t heard much new from this year. And then the week after, it’s time for Billie Eilish’s much-hyped Hit Me Hard and Soft album, her first full-length set to arrive with no advance singles. Get your rest days in where you can and maybe hope for a bit of a summer vacation in a couple months, because it doesn’t look like pop is going to be taking it easy on us anytime in the near future — we’re exhausted, but elated.
With the shots fired by Kendrick Lamar on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” helping the song debut atop the Hot 100, a rundown of all its spite-filled predecessors at the chart’s apex.
The hip-hop world has been in flames since the Friday (Mar. 22) release of Future & Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” featuring an incendiary Kendrick Lamar verse taking thinly veiled shots at “First Person Shooter” co-stars J. Cole and Drake. Rap traditionalists are unsurprisingly clamoring for a response record from both MCs — but which of the two has the most to gain by jumping into the fray, or the most to lose by staying out of it?
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Below, two Billboard Hip-Hop writers present the case for each artist being the one who most needs to get in the game ASAP.
WHY DRAKE MOST NEEDS TO RESPOND
When Drake graced the cover of Billboard in August 2013 ahead of his acclaimed Nothing Was the Same album, he brushed off Kendrick Lamar’s genre-shaking “Control” verse, referring to the atomic bomb Lamar dropped on rap as an “ambitious thought.”
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“That’s all it was,” he said dismissively. “I know good and well that Kendrick’s not murdering me, at all, in any platform. So when that day presents itself, I guess we can revisit the topic.”
Just over a decade later, that day has presented itself. Lamar has dropped the gloves and scorched Drizzy and J. Cole, with a scathing verse aiming at his supposed “Big Three” running mates on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” (“Think I won’t drop the location? I still got PTSD/ Motherf–k the Big Three, n—a, it’s just big me”), which had hip-hop in a tizzy over the weekend.
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Actually, it extended well beyond the rap world: debates about the simmering feud between Drake, Kendrick and Cole extended far outside the genre, with even the likes of ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith spitting bars from Eminem’s final 8 Mile battle on his show while discussing the potential clash of the “Big Three.”
Drake has scoffed in the past at disses from rappers whom he didn’t deem worthy of his time. Some he’d address with subliminal jabs when he felt suitable, on his terms, while others beneath him on the food chain never even got half an OVO bar. It’s an opportunity he’s earned, as one of hip-hop’s titans with a battle-tested past where he’s repeatedly proven to be a formidable opponent – including battles with Joe Budden, Diddy and most notably Meek Mill in 2015, when he ethered the Philly rapper with “Back to Back” and put the ghostwriting claims to rest. After most battles, Drizzy has emerged stronger from his battle scars.
However, there’s always going to be a stain on Drake’s decorated resume that no record amount of Hot 100 hits could remove when it comes to his 2018 feud with Pusha T. Drizzy backed down following Pusha’s scintillating “Story of Adidon” exposing his child, Adonis, at the advice of Rap-A-Lot co-founder and consigliere J. Prince – who claimed his response would have “hurt families.”
This isn’t a situation Drake can rightly shrug off as beneath him, though. While Kendrick Lamar only stands at 5’5”, the West Coast legend sees eye-to-eye with the 6 God – one of his few true peers in rap, with comparable levels of commercial appeal, critical acclaim and years in the game.
With all that Drake has accomplished in his Hall-of-Fame career, it’s rare for an artist of his caliber to have an opportunity to elevate their legacy and wipe away some of the years-old stench leftover from the botched Pusha T feud that OVO detractors still bring up to this day.
Rising to Lamar’s challenge — and potentially emerging victorious — could wash out the bad taste Drake opting out of that beef left in fans’ mouths a half-decade ago.
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The “Poetic Justice” collaborators have been entrenched in a Cold War of digs since “Control” and K. Dot’s BET Hip-Hop Awards cypher dissing the “sensitive” Toronto star months later. Drake has jabbed back on records like Future’s “Sh!t” remix and “The Language,” but they’ve never met head-on for a collision on the throne.
Showing out in such a showdown could have a profound effect on Drake’s legacy. To spell it out in sports terms Drake would appreciate, longtime New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady didn’t cement his GOAT case until completing the 28-3 comeback at Super Bowl LI in 2017 against the Atlanta Falcons. Similarly, many already labeled LeBron James as the best player of the 21st century, but pulling off the improbable 3-1 comeback against the 73-win Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals launched his legacy into the same stratosphere as Michael Jordan.
Both were undoubtedly seminal moments in the careers of those all-time legends, and took place well over a decade after they entered the league. A line could be drawn to Drake possibly getting the best of Lamar in this rap version of the ultimate game.
While “Like That” is a response to Cole and Drake’s “First Person Shooter,” it’s Drake that most of Dot’s smoke is specifically directed at. After dismantling the “Big Three” argument, Kendrick takes aim at Drake with a For All the Dogs reference, and snarlingly compares their relationship to iconic rivals Michael Jackson and Prince: “And your best work is a light pack/ N—a, Prince outlived Mike Jack’/ N—a, bum/ ‘Fore all your dogs gettin’ buried/ That’s a K with all these nines, he gon’ see Pet Sematary.”
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With Kendrick and Drake’s icy relationship taking shots at one another dating back to 2013’s “Control,” it’s imperative for the 6 God to step up and be first in line rather than J. Cole, who has had an admirable relationship with Lamar from a distance over the years. There’s been way less friction between the Dreamville boss and Compton native, as they were even rumored to be working on a joint project at one point.
All that said, Drake could end up falling back and avoiding the fray, maybe addressing K. Dot down the line with a series of jabs after he goes on hiatus following his Big As the What? Tour wrapping next month. He’s already allegedly liked a comment saying he’s not taking K. Dot’s threats “seriously,” and is still posting selfies to his IG Story in an unbothered fashion.
Not all hope is lost for a quicker response, though, as Drizzy appeared to respond to Lamar’s threats sweeping the rap world with a chest-puffed rant during a recent tour date. “I’m 10 f–king toes down in Florida or anywhere else I go – and I know that no matter what, there’s not a n—a on this earth that could ever f–k with me in my life,” Drake confidently told a Florida crowd while on stage over the weekend.
In a genre with a dwindling number of A-list stars, the Drake-Kendrick Lamar tussle gives rap a rare monocultural moment, and a chance for the 6 God to etch another chapter in the hip-hop history books. The ball’s bouncing inside Drake’s home court – but will he put a shot up or leave the gym and retreat to the wine cellar of his Toronto estate? — MICHAEL SAPONARA
WHY COLE MOST NEEDS TO RESPOND
Let’s keep it all the way honest: It’s scary hours. The rap civil war is upon us, and the best man to spar with Kung Fu Kenny is his one-time brother-in-arms, Jermaine Lamarr Cole.
This part of rap is largely unfamiliar territory for Cole: though he’s had words for 6ix9ine, Lil Pump, and the Soundcloud generation, he’s never engaged in true one-on-one combat, making this potential battle with Kendrick Lamar an even more important one. Rather than let Drake stand ten toes down and attempt to get the pinfall on K. Dot, Cole needs to tag in, earn the W to get out of the shadows of both men, and show why he’s indeed not the two or the three when speaking on this rap hierarchy.
In truth, there hasn’t been a time in Cole’s career when he was undoubtedly “the one.” When Cole entered the fray in the late 2000s, fans immediately pitted him against Drake because both were spry and capable lyricists with booming potential to push the genre forward. Going into it, Drake had the leg up after his seismic mixtape So Far Gone rocketed him to the moon in 2009. The following year, he instantly became the go-to guy with debut album Thank Me Later, netting close to 500,000 units sold during its opening week.
Cole’s road to success was more arduous, as he struggled to put together a favorable single to please radio and his boom-bap audience. “Who Dat” failed to catch traction, and though “Work Out” became his first breakout hit, peaking at No. 13 on the Hot 100, skepticism surfaced because Cole had to dumb down its lyrics a little and rely on a borrowed Paula Abdul hook and Ye sample for radio approval. He later admitted to his missteps on the 2013 Born Sinner standout song “Let Nas Down” when he revealed Nas’ displeasure over the record. Still, Cole notched his first No. 1 album and mostly evaded further criticism until the mainstream arrival of Kendrick Lamar.
Cole and Kendrick’s friendship goes back to the days before the Compton rapper was signed. “Before my album was even out, before he even had a deal, I was making sure to stamp him,” Cole told Elliott Wilson during his CRWN interview in 2014. “Kendrick was one I saw right away and said, ‘This kid is special.’” Cole even entertained the idea of wanting to sign Kendrick to Dreamville. That’s how real the brotherhood was.
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Lamar’s ascension into Rap God status wasn’t an overnight success. Like Cole, he played the long game, releasing mixtapes and EPs. While Section 80 was lauded in the underground as a classic, it wasn’t until his 2012 major label debut, good kid, m.A.A.d city, that he was dubbed as a generational talent. By then, Lamar also received an extended Drake co-sign, as he worked with the 6 God on Take Care for his “Buried Alive Interlude,” opened up for him during his Club Paradise tour, and collaborated on “Poetic Justice.”
Kendrick’s career crescendoed from there with classic album after classic album, spanning from good kid, m.A.A.d city to To Pimp a Butterfly, to his game-changing opus, 2017’s DAMN. Suddenly, most conversations about the best MC weren’t between Drake and Cole anymore. The narrative shifted to Drizzy and Kenny, with Cole sliding to third. Despite his superstar growth, Kendrick and Cole remained allies, with rumbles of a collaborative album brewing after they freestyled on each other’s tracks in 2016.
During this time, Kendrick and Drake have sent shots at each other for title contention – most notably Kendrick’s “Control” verse and his BET Cypher freestyle in 2013 – while again, Cole quietly chipped away with No. 1 album after No. 1 album. The Cole and Kendrick joint album never happened, with the two’s lone team-up on record remaining their Born Sinner collab “Chaining Day.” And then, last year, Cole and Drake — who were once pitted against each other at the early stages of their careers – unleashed their For All the Dogs Hot 100-topper “First Person Shooter.” They would up the ante by teaming up again for Drake’s indelible gem “Evil Ways” on his Scary Hours Edition of Dogs and later going on tour together, where the love fest was inescapable.
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Was this a case of sour grapes for Kendrick? Of course. His old buddy is siding with the opps. So because of his allegiance to Drake, Dot brought the Uzi out on Cole and had no issues hosing him down. Now, even though Cole shouted Kendrick out on “First Person Shooter,” rhyming “Love when they argue the hardest MC Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?” – realistically, in Kendrick’s mind, he consistently lapped Cole. And for quite some time, Cole believed it too, rapping on “Heavens EP” about how “They threw the bronze at me/ Behind Drake and Dot, yeah, them n—as is superstars to me/ Maybe deep down, I’m afraid of my luminosity.” But those words pierce harder when heard aloud from Cole’s competition. Kendrick essentially said it’s never been us; it’s always been me against me.
Cole, who has cemented himself as one of the best feature artists of all time after constructing two hellacious runs in 2018 and 2023 – even being named Complex’s Rapper of the Year for ’23 without releasing any new music of his own – boasted about being on top of his game. If you’re feeling that froggy, then Cole, you have to leap – and do it over the biggest amphibian in the pond? If you’re tired of being the little bro, being told you’re not top-10 all-time material, a win against Lamar at your lyrical peak could shift your story considerably. The narrative wouldn’t be about you being the third-best; it’d be about the quiet giant who chose violence and defeated the Boogey Man when no one else could.
All the rap greats have beefed at one time or another. A heavyweight battle between Cole and Kendrick would be must-watch material and could alter Cole’s all-time ranking. For many, he’s currently just outside that all-time top 10. Having a memorable feud and outlasting Kendrick could change his trajectory because he already has the stats of an all-world performer. Now, as the underdog, if he could slay the beast and be the last man standing, then he could finally be the No. 1 we all knew he was capable of being. — CARL LAMARRE
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