Scoreboard: Trey Songz a.k.a. ‘Tremaine’ and ‘iSpy’

Trey Songz has the biggest new album this week; Scoreboard spotlights Lil Yachty & Kyle.

Billboard Artist Top 10

For the magazine dated April 15, 2017

See the full chart at http://www.billboard.com/charts/artist-100

Last week,  Drake set a number of records with new “playlist” album More Life. This week, @champagnepapi maintains his hold at #1 on both the Artist 100 and the Billboard 200. On the Hot 100 Ed Sheeran is #1 for the tenth straight week with “Shape Of You,” which is shaping up to be the biggest hit of 2017 thus far. Adele sneaks back in the Top 10 of the Artist 100 this week while also setting a remarkable record on the Billboard 200 as her 2011 album 21 passes Carole King‘s Tapestry for longest-charted album on the Billboard 200 by a female artist. Nonetheless, @adele still has 11 and a half years to go before reaching the all-time record set by Pink Floyd‘s Dark Side Of The Moon.

@adele was on tour in New Zealand the week she passed Carole King on the Billboard 200

Trey Songz is Tremaine on Album Seven

Trey Songz has been a consistent, though never transformative, R&B singer over the last 12 years. Tremaine Neverson started recording while still in high school in Virginia and had his first single chart on the Hot 100 in 2005. Over the next 12 years and six albums, Songz notched two top 10 hits on that chart – the boozy “Say Aah” ft. Fabolous in 2009 and the equally boozy “Bottoms Up” ft. Nicki Minaj in 2010. This week, Songz finally uses his government name on his seventh album Tremaine, which comes in at #3 on the Billboard 200 and puts him at #7 on this week’s Artist 100.

On his albums, Tremaine has consistently shifted between PG-rated love songs and R-rated material. In this regard, Tremaine is Trey Songz same as he ever was. On team PG is “Nobody Else But You,” on which he tells his woman “I don’t want nobody else but you.” Perhaps that should NOT have been the first single – the platitude-filled jam missed the Hot 100 entirely after its February release. Team R features “Animal,” on which Tremaine quickly establishes that he is not playing. “I’ma bring my anaconda,” @treysongz promises on the first verse. He brings it and continues the sexual zoo analogies that include Tarzan, the National Geographic, the donkey, the obligatory monkey, and a few references to the kitty and the pussy cat. And it would be funny except that R. Kelly already won the lifetime achievement award in that category on 2007’s “The Zoo” on which he sang “like Jurassic Park / except I’m your sex-a-saurus.” Tremaine is enjoyable, but ultimately generic and does not match the peaks of @treysongz’s career.

Indeed, @treysongz’s tour is called Beats Between The Sheets

Singles Watch: Kyle ft. Lil Yachty

Lil Yachty, the 20-year-old rapper born Miles McCollum, made his first marks on the Hot 100 last year with “One Night” and with his guest rap on D.R.A.M.‘s “Broccoli.” @lilyachty describes his style as “bubblegum trap” and has sampled music from video games and Pixar films. The success of “Broccoli” last year is partially owed to its comic seriousness about the favorite vegetable D.R.A.M. and King Boat like to smoke. Now, he is back with Kyle Harvey, a 24-year-old from Los Angeles who has spent the last four years in hip-hop obscurity. Their single “iSpy” has shot to #5 on the Hot 100 and serves as an unofficial sequel to “Broccoli.” “iSpy” is all about good times – getting high, creeping on Instagram, and getting selfies with Oprah Winfrey. Given its momentum on the charts, bubblegum trap may become the EDM of 2017, and with the summer around the corner, “iSpy” may be making a move to take the top of the Hot 100. Check out the lyric video below and follow Scoreboard to see how high Kyle and Lil Yachty can take their hit: