Soul Sweep: December 12, 2015...

We're at the "hump" of today's "music sweeps", sampling the songs making their way on to the charts in Billboard magazine this week. This time out I'm serving up the latest hits on R&B radio...

On their main R&B/Hip Hop Airplay chart, Drake is on top for a eighth week with "Hotline Bling"...

Atlanta hip-hop duo TK-N-Cash make their debut at #45 with "3 Times In A Row", a combo of Autotune, lurid sexual come-ons repeated over and over again, and standard emo-hop keyboards. Meh.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Curren$y, a rapper from New Orleans, returns at #48 with "Bottom Of The Bottle" featuring Lil' Wayne and singer August Alsina. While is sports the Auto-tuney Alsina chorus and banal lyrics about alcohol and lazy delivery from Curren$y (Weezy is a little more involved), the production is a bit more interesting and the strum-soul sound improves it a bit.

The third single from K Camp's Only Way Is Up album, "1 Hunnid" featuring hot-for-now rapper Fetty Wap, lands at #50. It follows "Comfortable", which peaked at #7. This monotonous drone with the weed-infused video actually serves Fetty since his high-pitched whine wakes you up in the middle...

Meanwhile, on the older-skewing Adult-R&B radio panel, Tyrese spends a sixth non-consecutive week at #1 with "Shame"...

While R.Kelly's "Backyard Party" holds at #7, his new song "Wake Up Everybody", which previews his forthcoming The Buffet album, arises to #27. You got to hand it to him, Kelly knows how to make a smooth yet danceable jam which makes you forget that it's essentially about gettin' some...

Finally, on the Rhythmic format, whose stations include more dance-pop music in their playlists, "Hotline Bling" hangs in on top for an eighth week...

Singer Adrian Marcel, who was mentored by retro-soul master Raphael Saadiq, sees his cover of country crossover artist Sam Hunt's "Take Your Time" reach the chart at #37 and nab my "Soul Pick Of The Week". Since the song is almost like an homage to Drake with its talk-sung lyrics and rock-solid chorus, it's only a natch that this version works, in a different way than Hunt's brooding original does. Traces of 1989 Stevie B pop up in my mind on this...

DJ duo the Chainsmokers return at #38 with "Roses" featuring vocalist ROZES. Last year they made it to #22 with the novelty clubfiller "#SELFIE". This is miles apart from what they're normally known for (high-BPM rave tracks), and the sound is fantastic, though with her laissez-faire delivery of lyrics about lovin' on weed, this is more akin to the above hip-hop releases from K Camp and such than the 80s new wave this begins to sound like. It'll be interesting to see if this left-field single will be the one to "break" the Chainsmokers as a legitimate pop act.

Newcomer Colonel Loud marches in at #39 with "California" featuring rappers T.I., Young Dolph, and Ricco Barrino. Although Loud seems like a featured artist on his own debut, this sonic tribute to 90s west coast hip-hop rolls in the ear pretty well, though again it's all about the weed, and the army of dead-eyed girls in the video make this almost like an anti-trafficking clip...

At #40 is Bryson Tiller with his top-10 R&B Airplay hit "Don't". He definitely draws a lot from Drake on this "trap" track, which is refreshingly low-key enough to catch on to make the pop top-40 as well...

I'll return with the latest on country radio...