6.18.23 Adam News and Info

This Rolling Stone article is mainly about rap but there are some interesting comments about the industry that are depressing if true. Tho we knew there were ways that certain artists always remain at the top while others go no place.

Rap Artists Haven’t Topped the Charts This Year. Does It Really Matter?

On Tuesday, Billboard published a piece speculating on why hip-hop hasn’t had a Number One album or single within the first half of 2023. The report set off a flurry of chatter from industry observers and rap fans drawing their own conclusions as to what the answer might be. Is the dearth of rap hits this year a matter of market share, artist deaths, incarceration, or stagnant charts?

Beyond the gloomier aspects of rap fandom, others have fixated on the general stagnation of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2023. There have only been five singles to top the Billboard Hot 100 all year: The Weeknd and Ariana Grande’s “Die With You,” Jimin’s “Like Crazy,” and SZA’s “Kill Bill,” as well as Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” and Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night.” The last two songs alone have collectively taken four of the six months.  

There are others who couldn’t care less about any of the industrial permutations chart performance indicates. We can endlessly speculate why there hasn’t been a Number One rap single this year, or we could ask the more pressing question: Do rap artists’ absence from the charts actually matter? Does anyone need to clamor to go somewhere Wallen has been? The music industry has been exposed for numerous underhanded ploys for chart-topping over the years: merch bundles, YouTube clips that looped hooks, and other schemes yet to be discovered. Streaming farms are so recognized that J. Cole rapped about them on the 21 Savage track “A Lot,” where he pointedly asks, “How many faking they streams?/Getting they plays from machines?” The charts have long been a charade where labels make themselves feel better about the bankability of their big-money investments by investing more money into the illusion of dominance. We clamor and stew over dignifications that don’t even cover enough of hip-hop’s vastness to be legitimate indicators of success. Topping the charts isn’t about a song’s mass appeal as much as it is about a corporation’s ability to engineer the optic of consumption.

www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/rap-artists-havent-topped-the-charts-this-year-does-it-really-matter/ar-AA1cDZfK?li=BBnbfcL

Includes 3 songs from Adam.. You Make Me Feel, IIHY, Holding Out For A Hero.

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