New Year, New Tracks.
For the new readers, TTOTW is our weekly rundown of what's new and notable at the top of our charts.
Please keep in mind that Top Tracks highlights a hand-picked assortment of the most popular songs on our charts, including the Top 100. These are songs that generated a lot of interest and still deserve a second look or a deeper consideration. For tracks that deserve more love than they got, go check out Underrated Audio.
This week features a number of excellent tracks from Nipsey Hussle, Kanye West and Usher to start 2015 off right. Take a look at the list and feel free to suggest your own top tracks in the comments
Kanye West & Paul McCartney – Only One
This song has controlled the new year, and with good reason. It’s the work of a musical legend who has single-handedly changed the sound of pop music (and some dude named Paul McCartney is on there, too).
The song was largely overshadowed by the surrounding “nontroversy” with Twitter users possibly not knowing who Macca is. Of course, if the journalists writing the stories had taken a half second to think before posting, they would have realized that many of these tweets were written in jest.
(If they had taken an even longer breath, they might have stumbled upon the idea that the current generation needs to know who Paul McCartney is about as much as they needed to know the bio of Bing Crosby when hearing the Beatles in their heyday. But we think that’s asking too much.)
The controversy is a shame because it masked a seriously great and tender song from Yeezus, who appears to be back on a pop kick like we haven’t seen since the College Trilogy. Leave it to the poppiest Beatle to get Yeezy to stop screaming.
A$AP Rocky – Pretty Flacko 2
Rocky must be hearing footsteps. Instead of letting his protégé overtake him, the pretty motherfucker has dropped two straight singles that beat A$AP Ferg at his own hard-hitting game.
On “Pretty Flacko 2” (aka “Lord Pretty Flacko Joyde 2”), Rocky runs with that SPACEGHOSTPURRP beat we heard in the middle of “Multiply” and the world is a better, more turnt place for it.
Rich Homie Quan – Flex
This beat sounds like the ringtone rap version of something they would play at a limbo competition. And Rich Homie Quan uses the DJ Spinz & Nitti Beat track to showcase how much he has learned from his collaborations with Young Thug. This is easily the loosest and most vocal-trick heavy track we’ve heard from Quan, which is by no means a bad thing.
Unfortunately, an even more lax RHQ means many of you couldn’t understand the rapper who is already known for mumbling. But does it matter? That melody, y’all.
Master P & Lil Wayne – Power
That muffled booming is the sound of 100,000 New Orleanians’ heads exploding.
The face of Cash Money Records and the head of No Limit in a studio together? In the ‘90s and early ‘00s, that would’ve ended with a police report.
Instead we get a middling trap track with a few nods to the John Carpenter sounds of the Mannie Fresh and Beats by The Pound days. Oh, and the required “Free C-Murder.”
Usher & Migos – Still Got It
Though Kanye West & Paul McCartney has a bit more shock value, it’s fair to say that a collaboration between Migos and Ursher baby wasn’t on anyone’s radar.
Even in the ultra-collaborative New Atlanta, there are some lines you don’t expect to be crossed, and the one dividing the singer of “My Way” from the madmen behind Rich Nigga Timeline is one of those.
Judging by the HNHH readership reaction, y’all think that Usher rode a Zaytoven beat just fine.
Nipsey Hussle – Choke (Feat. Young Thug & Rich Homie Quan)
Oof. Nipsey Hussle released his excellent new mixtape Mailbox Money this week and this track featuring Rich Gang rode the Nipseymania wave to the top of our charts.
This track isn’t on the new mixtape and for good reason; Nipsey barely appears at all in this song. Still it’s an excellent showcase for Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan and it helped to build excitement for the tape, which provides plenty of moments for Nipsey to shine.