Week 12 of the Fall ’16 season is dominated by Rae Sremmurd and Bon Jovi, who take respective #1 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200. Alicia Keys is also back with a new album.
Billboard Artist Top 10
For the magazine dated November 26, 2016
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 | Bon Jovi | 1 | – | |
| 2 | Drake | 8 | 6 | 14: Used To This |
| 3 | Twenty One Pilots | 15 | 2 | 4: Heathens |
| 4 | Chainsmokers | 6 | 4 | 2: Closer |
| 5 | Rae Sremmurd | 5 | 2 | 1: Black Beatles |
| 6 | Pentatonix | 4 | 1 | 1: Hallelujah |
| 7 | Weeknd | 43 | 1 | 3: Starboy |
| 8 | Bruno Mars | 165 | 1 | 6: 24K Magic |
| 9 | Ariana Grande | 17 | 1 | 7: Side To Side |
| 10 | Rihanna | 22 | 4 | 27: This Is What You Came For |
The fall means high turnover at the top of the Billboard charts and this week there is a seventh #1 debut album on the Billboard 200 for the seventh week in a row. Bon Jovi go to #1 on the Artist 100 and on the Billboad 200 with This House Is Not For Sale following #1 albums by fellow rock acts Green Day and Kings Of Leon. There is also finally a change at #1 on the Hot 100 as Rae Sremmurd take the Mannequin Challenge and Gucci Mane to the top, knocking off The Chainsmokers and “Closer” (ft. Halsey), which spent 12 weeks at #1.
Gucci Mane got of federal prison earlier this year and is now featured on the Billboard #1 single
Rae Sremmurd Take #1 On The Hot 100
Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi are brothers from Tupelo, Mississippi, whose hip-hop duo name is Rae Sremmurd, which is the name of their label, Ear Drummers, spelled backwards. Mike Will Made It founded the label back in 2006 and the brothers joined in 2014, achieving chart success with top 40 hits “No Flex Zone” and “No Type.” The Southern trap sound is back on the second @raesremmurd album SremmLife 2 that came out in August. “Black Beatles,” the third single from the album, picked up traction this fall entering the Hot 100’s Top 40 in the magazine dated October 23, 2016. A mere month later the song has taken #1 on the Hot 100, driven by its use in The Mannequin Challenge, a social media video challenge in which video participants resemble mannequins because they are not moving. Initial videos of the challenge were silent, but @raesremmurd were one of the first to use their own song in the Challenge and it became the default music used in the Challenge, with even Paul McCartney getting in the spirit. These web crazes have taken songs to #1 before (see: Baauer‘s “Harlem Shake” from 2013), but this one also took Gucci Mane to #1. “Harlem Shake” ended up spending five weeks at #1 at the Hot 100, check in on the Scoreboard to see if “Black Beatles” can match the feat and make Paul McCartney proud.
That time Rae Sremmurd did the Mannequin Challenge to their song, and within 2 weeks it became #1 in America
Bon Jovi’s House Is Not For Sale
Jon Bon Jovi and his bandmates first reached the pinnacle of the Billboard 200 in early 1987 and nearly 30 years later they are back on top for the sixth time in 13 albums. The New Jersey rockers have settled into a mature yet resilient rock sound that has not changed much since 2000’s Crush. Title track “This House Is Not For Sale” appears to be a sequel to similar statements such as “It’s My Life” and “Who Says You Can’t Go Home.” On the Hot 100, the band last appeared in 2013 when “Livin’ On A Prayer” recharted following an HD posting of a 2009 viral video of a Boston Celtics fan dancing to the song. Because Internet. @bonjovi are content to not chart on the Hot 100 but still be one of the biggest touring bands in the world. Their latest tour tickets were bundled with the new album and that business move helped them reach the top this week. With a new clothing line called Hart N Dagger, Jon Bon Jovi is positioned to continue making bank and at age 54 there are a lot more @bonjovi tickets and albums that are for sale.
The house may not be for sale, but Bon Jovi’s sweater is
Alicia Keys Goes From The Personal To The Political
Over the last 15 years Alicia Keys had tremendous success. All five of her albums sold over a million copies and she has collected 15 Grammy awards. Her new release, Here, is a departure from the romantic sound that made her famous and an assertion of Keys’s mature independence. The album, which comes in at #2 on the Billboard 200 this week and puts Keys at #12 on the Artist 100, is partly motivated by a Nina Simone quote that “the artist’s duty is to speak the truth (about) what’s happening around us.” On the new release, Keys puts politics first and interweaves personal stories throughout. It has been a year of strong artistic statements on the African-American experience, with albums from Frank Ocean and sisters Beyonce and Solange speaking the truth about the racial divide that appears to grow daily in America. On Here, Keys’s centerpiece is “The Gospel” in which she sings about how “now we doin’ life like Eddie Murphy and Martin / On the chain gang, I was singing into the coffin.” The accompanying video is a 22-minute black-and-white film that features other songs from Here and captures moments from Keys’s New York, from the triumphant to the brutal. Check out the video for “The Gospel” below and you can also see Keys on this season of The Voice on NBC, where she has made a different political statement by not wearing make-up.