This week “Bad And Boujee” replaces “Black Beatles” at the top of the Hot 100 and Scoreboard spotlights Adele’s bid to win five Grammys.
Billboard Artist Top 10
For the magazine dated January 21, 2017
See the full chart at http://www.billboard.com/charts/artist-100
| Billboard Artist Top 10 | Name | Billboard 200 Album Rank | Billboard Hot 100 Singles | Highest Charting Single |
| 1 | Weeknd | 1 | 3 | 4: Starboy |
| 2 | Drake | 4 | 4 | 9: Fake Love |
| 3 | Bruno Mars | 3 | 1 | 5: 24K Magic |
| 4 | Twenty One Pilots | 7 | 1 | 13: Heathens |
| 5 | Shawn Mendes | 12 | 2 | 19: Mercy |
| 6 | Ariana Grande | 13 | 1 | 6: Side To Side |
| 7 | J. Cole | 5 | 3 | 47: Deja Vu |
| 8 | Rihanna | 16 | 2 | 21: Love On The Brain |
| 9 | Chainsmokers | 11 | 3 | 3: Closer |
| 10 | Adele | 20 | 2 | 38: Water Under The Bridge |
It is a quiet week coming out of the holidays. Pentatonix drop from #1 to #41 on the Billboard 200 with A Pentatonix Christmas and also fall from #2 to #23 on the Artist 100. Five of the top 10 albums in America are soundtracks and Broadway recordings. The Weeknd maintains his #1 hold on the Artist 100 and returns to the top of the Billboard 200 with Starboy. However, there is a big change at #1 on the Hot 100, as predicted last week.
Cleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly enters the Billboard Top 10 this week with “Bad Things” ft. Fifth Harmony’s Camila Cabello
Migos Reach The Top of The Hot 100
Rap trio Migos consists of Georgia relatives Quavo, Takeoff, and Offset, who range in age from 22 to 25. They first broke out with 2013’s “Versace” that benefited from a Drake remix. Since “Versace” Migos have continued to rap about status symbols and the track “Spray The Champagne,” off their 2015 debut album Yung Rich Nation, was featured in Donald Glover‘s Golden Globe-winning Atlanta this fall. To be a member of Yung Rich Nation you are required to be “Bad And Boujee,” the new #1 hit in America. On it, Migos are joined by Lil Uzi Vert, who hails from Philadelphia and made a splash in 2016 with “Money Longer.”
With “Bad And Boujee” taking over at #1 from “Black Beatles,” the Hot 100 is in a midst of an unexpected streak of Southern Rap dominance. The hits are no longer beneficiaries of crunk rap that took Usher to #1 with Lil Jon, Ludacris, and “Yeah.” Instead, Migos rap style could be defined as “skittering” and Rae Sremmurd’s success is attributable to Mike Will Made‘s Atlanta trap. Glover, whose rap name is Childish Gambino, has built Atlanta around the city’s hip-hop scene and between his Golden Globes and the “Bad And Boujee” ascendancy to #1, Atlanta’s hip-hop relevance is unquestionable in 2017, a year in which money is indeed longer for Migos and Lil Uzi Vert.
Liz Uzi Vert strikes a #badandboujee pose
Grammys Preview: Adele
In a few weeks the 59th Grammy Awards will crown the music winners of 2016 and this week’s Album Of The Year spotlight is on the untouchable Adele Adkins. Her Grammy scoreboard is for the ages – she has won 9 of 13 awards for which she has been nominated and has not lost a Grammy since 2010. As a comparison, David Bowie and Prince combined for 8 Grammys over the course of their Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame careers (they are also nominated for 5 Grammys in this go-round). Her Billboard successes are also unmatched – 21, from 2011, sold over 30 million albums worldwide and is the best selling album of the Millennium.
It took Adele nearly five years to release 25, the follow-up to 21, it is now nominated for Album Of The Year. Lead single “Hello” rocketed to #1 on the Hot 100 in November 2015 and although follow-up singles did not reach #1, 25 has sold over 9 million albums in the U.S. and nearly 20 million globally. That puts Adele in a league of her own. 25 is already the sixth best-selling album of the Millennium and it made Adele Billboard’s #1 Artist of 2016. In the U.S., 25 more than doubled the sales of the #2 album of the year, Drake’s Views, which is also nominated for Album of the Year. Adele also took 25 on the road and had 2016’s fourth biggest tour, grossing $159 million over 100+ concerts.
@adele achieved all that by sticking to a winning formula – powerful ballads that demonstrate Adele’s singular range and lyrics about relationships that are wayy more dramatic than yours. Perhaps the biggest risk she took on 25 was going to Max Martin for a bit of pop on “Send My Love (To Your New Lover).” It worked as the third single, peaking at #8 on the Hot 100. Adele is also not done: “Water Under The Bridge,” the fourth single, just cracked the top 40 of the Hot 100 and if she performs it at the Grammys, it will likely get the boost up the chart. With five Grammy nominations this time around, @adele is a shoo-in for Pop Solo Performance and Pop Album (sorry, Ariana Grande). Her massive commercial success may also get her the Record and Song Grammys for “Hello” and the Album prize for 25. If she sweeps, the water under the bridge will separate Adele from the rest of today’s stars even further.
Adele has completed 107 shows since the release of 25, and now she’s resting up for the Grammys