Music

The Contenders is 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 dated April 27), Future and Metro Boomin look to go two for two at No. 1 with their We Still Don’t Trust You album, following March’s chart-topping We Don’t Trust You team-up.  

Future & Metro Boomin, We Still Don’t Trust You (Freebandz/Boominati/Epic/Republic): Part of the reason that We Don’t Trust You generated the immediate excitement that it did – including a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 with a then-2024-best 251,000 first-week units – was because fans knew it was just part one of two for Future and Metro Boomin. The superstar hip-hop duo also promised a follow-up just a few weeks later, and as of last Friday, it is here: We Still Don’t Trust You, the big-budget sequel to their March blockbuster, featuring the same rapper-producer chemistry and the same stacked (though uncredited, at least initially) guest list as its predecessor.  

Still actually runs well longer than its earlier series installment, with an 18-song official tracklist and then a seven-track bonus set – like a deluxe edition that Future and Metro didn’t even wait to drop on fans. And the supporting cast is perhaps even stronger this time around, with the 25 total tracks boasting cameos from The Weeknd, Lil Baby, Chris Brown, A$AP Rocky, Ty Dolla $ign, and of course, J. Cole – whose appearance is particularly headline-making news, given his (brief) involvement with the ever-expanding hip-hop civil war kicked off by Kendrick Lamar’s pot-stirring verse on the prior Future/Metro set’s Billboard Hot 100-topping “Like That.”  

Despite the expanded tracklist and guest list, it seems unlikely that Still will debut with the same sort of robust first-week number as the original Trust. On DSPs, the set’s songs are not streaming quite as resoundingly – in fact, on the daily charts for both Spotify and Apple Music, the top two Future and Metro songs are currently “Like That” and “Type Shit,” both from their March release. Nonetheless, songs from Still are still scattered across both listings – led by the set’s pulsing neon title track, its leadoff cut – and with the whopping 25 tracks to rack up streams, it’s still in prime position to compete for the No. 1 spot on next week’s Billboard 200. (And with three different CD versions set for release this Friday – vinyl will follow in July – it may remain in the mix for the following week as well.)  

Linkin Park, Papercuts (Warner/Machine Shop): It’s been a big year already for Linkin Park, with their new-old single “Friendly Fire” topping the Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, and an upcoming biography on the band announced for October, written by Billboard’s own Jason Lipshutz. On Friday, they also released their first-ever hits compilation Papercuts, a 20-track set spanning the band’s 20-plus-year career — which still seems as relevant and vital as ever in 2024, even six years after the death of lead singer Chester Bennington.  

In addition to signature smashes like “In the End,” “Numb” and “What I’ve Done,” Papercuts includes “Friendly Fire” (originally recorded for 2017’s One More Light), as well as last year’s rock radio-dominating “Lost” (originally recorded for 2003’s Meteora), and the limitedly available “QWERTY” (previously released on 2006’s fan club-only LP Underground 6.0 EP). While racking up the usual streams for these metal and alternative classics, the set is also expected to post strong sales, thanks to the availability of eight different-colored vinyl variants, including exclusives for Target, Barnes & Noble, Walmart and the band’s official store, as well as CD and cassette options. 

Maggie Rogers, Don’t Forget Me (Debay Sounds/Capitol): Five years after her debut album Heard It in a Past Life turned heads with its No. 2 debut on the Billboard 200 – eventually leading to a best new artist Grammy nomination for the Maryland singer-songwriter – Maggie Rogers appears to be bigger than ever. Her recently announced Don’t Forget Me tour for the spring and summer will feature her first-ever arena shows in its second leg, including dates at New York’s Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Kia Forum.  

Those shows will, of course, come in support of her third album of the same name: Don’t Forget Me was released last Friday, and has been met with some of her best reviews yet. The set is not expected to stream in blockbuster numbers, but should sell well, with five different vinyl variants – including exclusives for Spotify and indie retailers, and a signed edition sold through her webstore, as well as a CD (also available in a signed webstore edition) and a cassette option.  

IN THE MIX 

Chris Brown, 11:11 (RCA/CBE): Brown’s late 2023 set 11:11 was already packed to the gills, with its title referencing the number of tracks on each of the album’s two streaming-divided halves, including minor Hot 100 hits like “Sensational” and “Summer Too Hot.” But the set’s new deluxe edition adds a new third stretch with 13 new cuts, taking the total from 22 to 35, including new collabs from recognizable names like Bryson Tiller, Lil Wayne and (again) Davido. (Neither the original nor deluxe edition is yet available for what would surely be an unwieldy physical release.)  

Lana Del Rey, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Polydor/Interscope): Seems like Lana Del Rey will never run out of vinyl reissues of her acclaimed 2023 set, and in this case the timing makes particular sense: She offered a new “festival orange” pressing of Ocean Blvd to go with her Friday night headlining slot at weekend one of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival over the weekend. The reissue should sell nicely, and the album will also be helped by the general boost in streaming her buzzy set has given her catalog for the days since – assisted by an appearance from fellow alt-pop superstar (and longtime LDR acolyte) Billie Eilish.  

Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up column, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. 
 
This week: The first weekend of Coachella spurs gains for a lot of the biggest and most ascendant names involved, while songs that soundtracked the biggest moments of Wrestlemania XL also see big bumps, a Cowboy Carter collaborator has his first solo breakout hit and more.

New Peaks in the Coachella Valley: Streaming Bumps for Lana Del Rey, No Doubt, Sabrina Carpenter & More Weekend One Performers

Coachella Season was once again upon us this past weekend, as hundreds of thousands of music fans flocked to the desert in Indio, Calif. to see many of the best and brightest performers in pop, rock, dance, hip-hop and more. While this year’s festival saw a little less hype (and was reported to have slower ticket sales) than some past incarnations, many of the key artists involved still saw big bumps in streaming consumption following their buzzed-about performances.

Friday (Apr. 12) headliner Lana Del Rey saw a 36% rise in official on-demand U.S. streams over the following Saturday to Monday compared to that period from the previous week, climbing from 19.4 million streams to 26.4 million, according to Luminate. Breakthrough hit “Video Games” was one of her biggest beneficiaries, rising 70% to nearly 1.2 million streams, thanks to Del Rey bringing out fellow alt-pop superstar Billie Eilish for her Coachella performance of it — then returning the favor by dueting with Eilish on her own breakout single, “Ocean Eyes” (up 21% to 1.5 million). Saturday headliner Tyler, the Creator also saw a Sunday-to-Monday bump from the prior week, with his catalog increasing 20% to 13.5 million streams. (Sunday headliner Doja Cat was down overall in streams, due to her having released her Scarlet 2: Claude deluxe edition the week before.)

In addition to those headliner bumps, a number of the reunited ’90s rock acts on the undercard for Saturday also saw major gains. Of those, No Doubt easily saw the biggest, with their overall catalog leaping 85% (from 1.4 million to 2.6 million) over Sunday and Monday from the previous week — with their “Bathwater,” performed with a special cameo from pop-rock superstar Olivia Rodrigo, seeing a particularly notable spike (up 450% to 113,000 streams). No Doubt’s ’90s ska-punk peers Sublime, who assembled on Saturday with late original lead singer Bradley Nowell’s son Jakob taking vocal duties for the first time, also saw a more modest bump for their catalog over that period (up 19% to 4.6 million streams), as did Britpop greats Blur (up 27% to 770,000).

It wasn’t just the established veterans seeing the catalog spikes for the weekend, though. Still-rising pop star Sabrina Carpenter had one of the best-received sets on Friday, not only helping her just-released single “Espresso” score her best numbers for a new song to date (9.9 million streams between Apr. 12-15), but also offering a major bump for the rest of her catalog — which was up 41% from the previous week to 10.4 million streams over the three days following her set, not counting the “Espresso” numbers. Meanwhile, Chappell Roan‘s breakout spring just kept rolling, with her catalog streams rising 52% to 14.6 million over Saturday to Monday from the previous week, following her Friday performance. And Reneé Rapp‘s headline-capturing Sunday set also resulted in a 33% bump from the prior week for her catalogue that Monday, climbing to 1.4 million streams. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

WrestleMania XL Lights Up Tracks from The Weeknd and Nothing More 

As wrestling fans continue to bask in the glow of WrestleMania XL (April 6-7), so do songs featured prominently at the blockbuster event. Both The Weeknd’s “Gasoline” and Nothing More’s “If It Doesn’t Hurt” posted impressive streaming gains during WrestleMania week. 

“Gasoline,” a single from the pop superstar’s 2022 Dawn FM album that peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100, pulled over 560,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of April 5-11, according to Luminate. That marks a 72% increase from just over 320,000 streams during March 29-April 4. “Gasoline” marks the fifth consecutive Weeknd song to be selected as the WrestleMania theme. Past Weeknd selections include “Less Than Zero” (2023), “Sacrifice” (2022), “Save Your Tears” (2021) and “Blinding Lights” (2020). 

At the top of the year (Jan. 19), Grammy-nominated hard rockers Nothing More launched “If It Doesn’t Hurt” as a standalone single. During the week of WrestleMania (April 5-11), where “Hurt” was used in a hype package video for the much-anticipated Rhea Ripley vs. Becky Lynch match, the song collected over 580,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, posting a whopping 132% gain from around 253,000 streams the week prior.   

According to Deadline, WrestleMania XL was Peacock’s most-streamed entertainment event ever, garnering jaw-dropping 1.3 billion live minutes across April 6 and 7. Clearly, some of those viewers made their way to favorite music streaming platforms after hearing those theme songs for two action-packed nights in a row. – KYLE DENIS

Shaboozey’s Boozy New Single Is Already a Breakout Hit

Along with the multiple country legends who swung by or got shouted out on Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé’s latest blockbuster also featured a handful of rising artists as collaborators, receiving the most coveted type of co-sign by popping up on a Queen Bey track list. Shaboozey arguably received the biggest showcase of any of the guest artists by appearing on two songs from the Billboard 200-topping set, as the rising country singer-songwriter swung by “Spaghettii” and “Sweet / Honey / Buckiin’” and quickly expanded his profile one decade into his recording career.

Not wanting to sacrifice any of the Cowboy Carter momentum, Shaboozey returned last Friday (Apr. 12) with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” a clap-along country anthem designed for bleary-eyed TouchTunes plays. The Beyoncé Bump helped the single score seven-figure streaming totals in its first four days of release, debuting with 1.63 million U.S. on-demand streams on Friday (according to Luminate), and racking up 5.66 million streams through Monday — along with nearly 6,000 in digital song sales, a tremendous number for a song by a newer artist over just for days.

Meanwhile, “Tipsy” — J-Kwon’s eternal 2004 hip-hop smash, which reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 — was revived in “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” via interpolation, and is enjoying a slight streaming bump of its own following the Shaboozey single release. “Tipsy” earned 413,000 streams from Apr. 12-15, up 8% from the same four-day period during the previous week (383,000 streams from Apr. 5-8), as listeners likely played it one time, then ran it back from the two to the three to the four times. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

GloRilla Guns for Third Concurrent Hit With Fast-Rising Big Boogie Collab “Bop” 

Between “Yeah Glo!” and the Megan Thee Stallion-assisted “Wanna Be,” GloRilla has the first half of the year on lock. Now, with her catchy Big Boogie collaboration “Bop,” she’s looking to add another 2024 hit to her arsenal. 

During the period of April 12-15, “Bop” earned slightly over one million official on-demand U.S. streams, ballooning 43% from just under 730,000 streams during April 5-8. The song’s growth has been spurred by a dance trend created by TikTok user @curvejso. The infectious choreography is set to the very end of GloRilla’s guest verse and the entirety of her hook.  

Although the sound that played in the video that kickstarted the trend is no longer available, several “Bop” sounds have found traction on TikTok. A fan-uploaded snippet of the sound boasts over 16,000 posts on the platform, and another user-uploaded snippet (which soundtracks a different dance trend) plays in over 4,000 posts. Should the dance trend continue to turn into streaming gains, Big Boogie could be in for his very first Hot 100 entry with “Bop.” — KD