Madden NFL 25 officially released on Friday, as fans got their hands on the new edition of the EA Sports NFL franchise, just in time to get excited about the upcoming NFL season. The game features some new elements and gameplay changes that EA Sports hopes fans will see as major upgrades, headlined by BoomTech, their new tackling and ball-carrying engine.
The game’s release also gives us our first look at the full ratings for every player, as the EA Sports team teased out the top players in the game in recent weeks — headlined by the five players to make it into the 99 Club — but we can now see how every player graded out ahead of the season. Here, we wanted to look at the top 100 players (101, to be exact with ties) in the game as it stands with the preseason just underway. As always, the ratings team will be adjusting players up and down all season, but for launch day, these are the 101 best players, stretching from 99 OVR to 89 OVR.
99 OVR
Trent Williams
Travis Kelce
Christian McCaffrey
Patrick Mahomes
Tyreek Hill
98 OVR
Myles Garrett
Lamar Jackson
Justin Jefferson
Micah Parsons
Maxx Crosby
97 OVR
Chris Jones
Zack Martin
TJ Watt
Fred Warner
George Kittle
Jessie Bates III
Sauce Gardner
96 OVR
CeeDee Lamb
Nick Chubb
Penei Sewell
Amon-Ra St. Brown
Patrick Surtain II
Jalen Ramsey
Nick Bosa
95 OVR
Tyron Smith
Dexter Lawrence II
Lane Johnson
AJ Brown
Roquan Smith
94 OVR
Laremy Tunsil
Mark Andrews
Davante Adams
Minkah Fitzpatrick
Derrick Henry
Antoine Winfield Jr.
Chris Lindstrom
Quinnen Williams
Tristan Wirfs
93 OVR
Jaire Alexander
Frank Ragnow
Josh Allen
Joe Burrow
91 OVR
TJ Hockenson
Derwin James Jr.
Tyrann Mathieu
DeMarcus Lawrence
Mike Evans
Marlon Humphrey
Brandon Aiyuk
Joe Mixon
Marshon Lattimore
Joe Thuney
Josh Hines-Allen
Christian Darrisaw
90 OVR
Vita Vea
Cameron Heyward
Travis Etienne Jr.
Rashawn Slater
Trevon Diggs
Terry McLaurin
Derrick Brown
Keenan Allen
Budda Baker
Amari Cooper
Denzel Ward
Trent McDuffie
Khalil Mack
Darius Slay Jr.
Lavonte David
CJ Mosley
Trey Smith
Dak Prescott
David Njoku
89 OVR
Alex Highsmith
Talanoa Hufanga
Jaylon Johnson
Andrew Thomas
Foyesade Oluokun
Kyle Hamilton
Kevin Byard III
Trey Hendrickson
Quenton Nelson
DeAndre Hopkins
Jordan Mailata
AJ Terrell Jr
Tyler Smith
Jonathan Allen
Joshua Jacobs
DaRon Bland
DJ Moore
Trent Brown
Evan Engram
It’s been two years since Alabama rapper NoCap dropped his debut album Mr. Crawford, a project that debuted in the top-10 of the Billboard 200 chart and ensured he’d be a mainstay in the hip-hop community. NoCap’s The Main Bird EP arrived to close 2022, but what came next was a period of silence that only recently came to an end thanks to the long-awaited release of his sophomore album Before I Disappear Again.
“Some people feel like they find themselves when they turn 18 or something, but I don’t think that,” NoCap tells Uproxx as he reflects on his quiet 2023 year. “I’m 25 and I’m still finding myself. I’ve just been working on myself as far as being a father. Even with this cup, I’ve been trying to put that down [and] get better with that. I’ve just been having some me time, but I’m ready to get back to it.”
Before I Disappear Again arrives to add on to what’s been a special year for NoCap. Two months ago, the rapper and his girlfriend gave birth to their first son, Grenayde. “It’s new for me, it’s my first kid, it’s my girl’s first kid too, so it’s new to both of us,” Still, some things have been an easy adjustment for the “Very Special” rapper. “I been not getting no sleep, so it’s cool,” he says with a laugh. “Sometimes, you just got to wake up, do what you got to do, but it’s been smooth overall.”
Together with the release of Before I Disappear Again, Uproxx caught up with NoCap to talk about the new album, his support from fans, music with longtime collaborator Rylo Rodriguez, and why he’s happy to make up for lost time with his fans.
What’s the meaning behind this album’s title, Before I Disappear Again?
Like you said, I’ve been gone for two, three years working on myself [laughs]. Ain’t no telling when I might have to do that again. Hopefully, I don’t disappear again too soon, but ain’t no telling when I have to go back and work on myself again. Yeah, we artists, but at the same time, we live real life. We’re human, we’re not robots. I just get back in that work mode, sometimes I’m worried about myself. That’s all that’s about really.
On “Far From Nigeria,” you say, “Nigeria’s so far from Alabama I swear, but I would visit just to have a talk with Mohbad.” What’s inspired your interest in the country and have you been able to visit?
I ain’t been able to visit because I don’t have my passport due to jail and sh*t. I can get my passport, I’m able to get it, I just ain’t took the time out. We were DMing and sh*t probably like a couple days before that sh*t even happened. When I heard his music, it’s crazy how you can understand somebody way on the other side of the country.
I always wanted to visit Nigeria, because I can run through my comments and DMs all day, and that’s all I see like, “Come to Nigeria, come to Nigeria.” I can’t wait to do that, and I really wanted to talk to Mohbad on some one-on-one time and we were gonna do music together, that’s a true statement. I would have visited to holla at him for sure, and I said that because in our last couple of DMs, he was like, “Hey, give me a call. We need to talk.” So, that’s why I said in that song, “I’ll visit just to talk to Mohbad.”
You remixed D’Yani’s “Feelings” on your album. How did you come across that song and what made you want to put out your own version of it?
I remember a nail got in my tire. I remember being at the tire shop, I had just got my tire done and sh*t, and my girl was on the Bluetooth. The song was playing, I never heard the song, but I was vibing to the song. So she looked at me and laughed like I was joking. I’m like, nah, I really f*ck with this song. I just heard him, his vocals, and sh*t, and how the song was vibing. Jada Kingdom, she’s on the original version, so I had DM’ed him ASAP like, bro, I love this song, send me the open verse [and] let me replace Jada verse. Jada verse hard, but I heard myself on it too. He sent it to me, I knocked it out, sent it back to him, and I told him I’ll put it on the album. He said it’s a go.
I really think it’s different because the song is already out, usually people don’t do that. I just felt like I could add some more to it [and] get a US fan base on it. Jada, she’s from out the country too, so I just felt like it’ll put a street-slash-US fan base on it. I never had that international verse, so I needed that. Shoutout D’Yani for sure.
There’s a funny clip at the end of “Judge The Jury” with a fan voicing their support for you, going as far as to say they’d go broke to see you. What do die-hard fans like this mean to you on your journey as an artist?
It mean everything, bro. I remember when it was a time when nobody gave a f*ck. So no matter how far I get, I always take myself out them shoes and realize my music really helps people, it really heals people. That’s why I be rushing to get this music out, too. I usually don’t do too much promo and no interviews, none of that, because I really just be so focused on the music bro, and trying to feed my fans with the music because I feel like there’s certain sh*t they never gave a damn about. They just want to hear me rapping. So when fans do stuff like that, it mean everything to me. To walk in these venues and sell these venues out alone on my own tour, I don’t have to be on nobody tour — it’s good for me to be on other people tour — but even when I’m alone, without dropping music, I can still go sell these venues out. My fans, that’s who pay me, and I pay them back.
You have two songs with Rylo on this project, which adds to a long list of collabs you have together. What makes it so easy with between y’all when it comes to making it music and could we see another project from you two in the future?
You gonna see Rogerville 2 from us, for sure. We’ve been doing it before anything. We was locking in every night with Gino. Ain’t too much going on in the city, we really ain’t got nothing else to do but hit the studio six, seven at night to 10 in the morning. We sleeping on the floor in the studio, like this was around them times, we waking up recording. We just locked in all night.
I always knew we had the vision, I ain’t gonna say I knew how big it would get, but I always knew we had the vision. Sometimes, I just be wanting our respect. The stamp we put on this game, I don’t feel like we get the [respect] that we should get. We been locked in, so every time we do lock in now, it’s still the same — it ain’t nothing different. That’s still my brother, it’s love. He working, I’m working, but when we link up, we still coming. Rogerville every time.
What would you say is the biggest difference in the experience you had crafting Mr. Crawford versus the experience you had making Before I Disappear Again?
That was the beginning stage of me trying to turn into a business. That’s why I named that Mr. Crawford. That was the beginning stage of that. Now, I’m to the point where I feel like I’ve handled a small portion of that, so now I can really focus back on this music.
I just feel like it’s for everybody bro. I got four trap songs, I got four acoustic songs, I got four girl songs spaced out for everybody. I feel like whoever clicks on this album will be able to at least like four songs if you don’t like certain types of genres. It’s all types of genres on there, there’s something everybody can get with.
Through the highs and lows of being an artist, what keeps you going and wanting to continue making music and project after project?
Really because at this point, besides my son bro, music is the only thing a n**** got. That’s why I put my heart into it so much. I just appreciate my fans so much, that’s why I gotta keep going. I done seen n****s get in this game [and then] two, three years [later], you never hear from them again. For me to still be lasting without dropping music, it let me know it’s destined for me. Some fans wouldn’t give a f*ck about another artist not dropping. The comments, it be a little discouraging sometimes, but at the same time, I always look at them like they still waiting on me. It’s a lot of people who they not waiting on. That’s really what keeps me going.
What’s up next for you now that this album is finally coming out into the world?
For sure, touring out the gate, gotta go see the world again. Gotta go see the people who love me. If I don’t do my tour first, I might jump on Rod Wave’s tour and then come back and do my own tour.
Before I Disappear Again is out now via Atlantic Records. Find out more information here.
Lil Yacthy has taken a hiatus from social media, but not from the booth. Today (August 16), two of the “Hate Me” rapper’s latest collaborations hit streaming platforms.
As an added bonus, Lil Yachty’s joint track with Veeze, “Sorry Not Sorry,” arrived with an official video presented by Lyrical Lemonade.
The moody visual — co-directed by AMD and Little Miles — has one purpose: to show both recording artists in their elements. As Veeze enjoys a double-cup drink, he lists off what he’s being able to accomplish with his fame.
“I done popped out, feelin’ like Odd Future, Tyler, the Creator my Luis / Them boys ain’t smoked like five opps, that’s a whole pack of loose-leaf / This eighth came straight from auntie / We pink slip boys, no car lease / My cup all pink like a Barbie / I’m sorry, not sorry like Beyoncé,” raps Veeze.
In his verse, Lil Yachty puts up what Veeze laid down in the record’s opening. “I got seven homes filled with clothes, Sauce on the way in this b*tch / I ain’t talkin’ ’bout no TV shows, but I still got Bear in this bitch / I had to figure it out the hard way, no, I don’t care, lil’ b*tch / I never talk sh*t online, but check it in real life, I’ll never struggle again / I done helped out my mans / I put my mom in a brand new Benz,” raps Yachty.
He makes it clear that he hears on the online chatter, but frankly he just doesn’t care.
Watch Lil Yachty and Veeze’s official video for “Sorry Not Sorry” above.
The sexual assault case against LA Reid may move forward after a judge denied his motion to have the lawsuit dismissed. According to Vibe, Reid’s attorney argued that according to several sections of New York’s Penal Law, the case ought to be thrown out, claiming that plaintiff Drew Dixon was using the Adult Survivors Act to blame Reid for her own recent career downturn. However, Dixon’s lawyers successfully argued that the claims were “inappropriate” and “a waste of the court’s time,” with Judge Valerie Caproni denying the motion to dismiss.
“It is difficult to understand any prejudice caused by additional citations to other portions of Article 130,” she said. “Because Defendant has not met his burden, his Motion to Strike is denied.” Article 130 is the section of the New York Penal Law dealing with sexual assault cases.
Shaquille O’Neal is one of the greatest basketball players of all time, which is inarguable. Also inarguable: Shaq has used the platform he built up as a basketball player to show off one of the most unique personalities we have ever seen. There are stories of charity, of empathy, of all these things that make Shaq sound like someone who is larger than life.
He’s also great at popping up in things, as he’s remarkably comfortable being Shaq all the time. This manifests in a number of different ways, whether that’s his seemingly endless array of brand deals or that time he made fun of himself at the beginning of Scary Movie 4. His love of music is well-documented, too, and today, we wanted to take a look of one specific way Shaq has used his fame to cross over into the music world: His frequent cameos in music videos, which really are all over the place.
The gravity that Shaq brings to just about anything applies to music videos, and the funny thing here is that he popped up in some truly wild ones over the years — of course, his music career meant that he has appeared in plenty of them, but we have a number of examples of him making a cameo as one of the most famous people on earth. Here, we are going to dive into all of them, and try to determine how necessary it was for Shaq to provide his presence.
(Note: We used Shaq’s IMDb page as the primary source for this one, so while his Wikipedia page and this site both say that he appeared in the music video for “Still D.R.E.” by Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg, we left that off because you never see him in it — the IMDb page for the song doesn’t include Shaq, either. However, “Still D.R.E.” is a legendary music video, so if you would like to watch it despite the fact that Shaq does not appear in it, you can do that here.)
“Make ‘Em Say Uhh!” by Master P featuring Fiend, Silkk the Shocker, Mia X & Mystikal
The video for “Make ‘Em Say Uhh!” is iconic, and leans heavily into Master P’s well-documented basketball career by taking place on a court. While a number of performers are playing basketball and celebrating on the floor, Shaq repeatedly pops up sitting courtside and loses his mind over what’s happening in front of him. Having an NBA player in the video, which came out in 1998, made a ton of sense, but no one would have had as much fun in this as Shaq did.
“That’s How I Beat Shaq” by Aaron Carter
Well, seeing as how this song is all about playing a game of 1-on-1 against Shaquille O’Neal, he kinda had to appear in it, ya know? Anyway, Shaq seems like he had the time of his life playing basketball against a 13-year-old Aaron Carter, and years later, the two linked up again to play 1-on-1 for the show Upload with Shaquille O’Neal, where he says nothing in his career hurt more than losing to Carter a decade-plus earlier.
“You Wouldn’t Believe” by 311
Shaq’s cameo here is fun, because it seems like a pretty generic music video where a band is performing a song in a big room, and there is no indication that Shaq is going to show up for literally any reason. And then, 311 start playing basketball, and Shaq pulls up and just plays with them for a bit. The music video ends with him picking up 311’s Nick Hexum so he can dunk. Years later, Hexum explained how they got Shaq in the video here.
“Bad Boy for Life” by P. Diddy, Black Rob, and Mark Curry
There are a ton of celebrities in this one, with names like Ben Stiller and Mike Tyson popping up in it. Shaq enters a little later in the video, as he plays basketball with Diddy while Diddy is wearing his jersey. Funny enough, Shaq is the second basketball player to make a cameo in here, behind Baron Davis.
“Dance with My Father” by Luther Vandross
Once again, the video for the famous tear-jerker by Luther Vandross features a collection of celebrities. While Shaq did not physically appear in this one, he’s one of several people who are pictured with a loved one — in his case, it’s Shaq holding one of his children. And again, he’s not the only NBA player in this, as we also get photos of Jason Kidd and his son.
“Vanilla Twilight” by Owl City
This is a guilty pleasure song for me, but until Thursday, I had never watched the music video. As you can guess, when I saw Shaq was in it, I nearly fell off of my couch. Anyway, the video features Shaq staring into the sky a few times, and him breaking the fourth wall and smiling is one of the last things you see. If anyone involved in this would like to hop on a call and tell me how this came about, please reach out.
“Don’t Wanna Know” by Maroon 5
There are a ton of costumes in this video, and Shaq’s involves him dressing in a purple and yellow get up while jumping around in a bedroom during a house party. Adam Levine, who is also wearing a costume, joins him. My hunch is that this is the first time Shaq ever wore this costume, and I hope it was not the last.
“Todo de Ti” by Rauw Alejandro
Most of the music video takes place at a roller rink, so as you can guess, when Shaq appears about two-thirds of the way through things, he is, indeed, on roller skates. He doesn’t look super comfortable moving around on them, but eventually gets going and hits the deck at one point. Whether he did that as part of a bit or he legitimately couldn’t stay upright because he is one of the largest people on the planet, well, who’s to say?
Earlier today, Post Malone released his latest album, F-1 Trillion. Typically, artists wait more than a few hours before dropping their next album. Then there’s Post Malone: He just released F-1 Trillion: Long Bed, a deluxe edition of the album that basically adds another completely new album to the tracklist with nine fresh songs.
While the base F-1 Trillion album is focused on collaborations, the Long Bed tracks are all solo tunes. The expanded album now spans 27 tracks and runs for just shy of 90 minutes.
Listen to one of the new songs, “Fallin’ In Love,” above. Check out the F-1 Trillion: Long Bed cover art and tracklist below.
Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion: Long Bed Album Cover Artwork
Republic
Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion: Long Bed Tracklist
1. “Wrong Ones” Feat. Tim McGraw
2. “Finer Things” Feat. Hank Williams Jr.
3. “I Had Some Help” Feat. Morgan Wallen
4. “Pour Me A Drink” Feat. Blake Shelton
5. “Have The Heart” Feat. Dolly Parton
6. “What Don’t Belong To Me”
7. “Goes Without Saying” Feat. Brad Paisley
8. “Guy For That” Feat. Luke Combs
9. “Nosedive” Feat. Lainey Wilson
10. “Losers” Feat. Jelly Roll
11. “Devil I’ve Been” Feat. Ernest
12. “Never Love You Again” Feat. Sierra Ferrell
13. “Missin’ You Like This” Feat. Luke Combs
14. “California Sober” Feat. Chris Stapleton
15. “Hide My Gun” Feat. Hardy
16. “Right About You”
17. “M-E-X-I-C-O” Feat. Billy Strings
18. “Yours”
19. “Fallin’ In Love”
20. “Dead At The Honky Tonk”
21. “Killed A Man”
22. “Ain’t How It Ends”
23. “Hey Mercedes”
24. “Go To Hell”
25. “Two Hearts”
26. “Who Needs You”
27. “Back To Texas”
F-1 Trillion: Long Bed is out 8/16 via Republic. Find more information here.
Madden NFL 25 officially released on Friday, as fans got their hands on the new edition of the EA Sports NFL franchise, just in time to get excited about the upcoming NFL season. The game features some new elements and gameplay changes that EA Sports hopes fans will see as major upgrades, headlined by BoomTech, their new tackling and ball-carrying engine.
The game’s release also gives us our first look at the full ratings for every player, as the EA Sports team teased out the top players in the game in recent weeks, but we can now see how every player graded out ahead of the season. In video game football, speed is king, and just like in the college football game, people want to play with fast players on their team. In Madden this year, that means the Dolphins, who have four of the eight fastest players in the league on their offense, as Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, De’Von Achane, and Raheem Mostert all boast a 95 speed rating or higher. The next fastest squad is in Seattle, which has three players in the top-12 fastest in the game. Below, you can see the 46 fastest players in Madden, from Hill as the lone 99 to a large group with a 92 speed.
99 Speed
Tyreek Hill
97 Speed
Jaylen Waddle
Tariq Woolen
96 Speed
De’Von Achane
DK Metcalf
95 Speed
L’Jarius Sneed
Raheem Mostert
Lamar Jackson
94 Speed
Jahmyr Gibbs
Ja’Marr Chase
Denzel Ward
Kenneth Walker III
93 Speed
Jonathan Taylor
Isiah Pacheco
Derek Stingley Jr.
Greg Newsome II
Zay Flowers
Travis Etienne Jr.
Terry McLaurin
Sauce Gardner
Puka Nacua
Chris Olave
Breece Hall
Brandin Cooks
Patrick Surtain II
92 Speed
Justin Jefferson
Markquese Bell
Deebo Samuel
Tank Dell
James Cook
Andre Cisco
Trevon Diggs
Tony Pollard
Tyson Campbell
Jaycee Horn
Jalen Ramsey
Asante Samuel Jr.
DJ Moore
Saquon Barkley
Jaire Alexander
Jonathan Jones
Stefon Diggs
Garrett Wilson
Nico Collins
Calvin Ridley
AJ Terrell Jr.
Mike Evans
Fans who have been wondering about the exact nature of Sexyy Red and Chief Keef’s relationship got some juicy red meat for gossip (or maybe red wine?) when the St. Louis star went on the Thoughts In A Culli podcast on Wednesday (August 14). After being asked about Chief Keef, Sexyy joked that the Chicago rapper “might be my third baby daddy” after detailing their interactions over the past few months.
“That’s my dog,” she said of Keef. “I don’t got too many homeboys that I can sit on the phone with. And I’m not even saying that’s my homeboy ‘cause I don’t know what we got going on. We like each other. But we can sit on the phone, we can be around each other and act like we been knew each other all these years… That’s my n****!”
The first time the two rappers were linked was when they teamed up to record “Bow Bow Bow (F My Baby Dad),” which was released last December. Keef appears in the video for the song, which features selfies of the two engaged in some cozy PDA. Sexyy had posted those selfies before the release of the video, which first sparked the rumors, but it sounds like things have progressed quite a bit since then. Sexyy recently appeared to confirm that the two were also working on a joint album together, so there’s a chance that their association could wind up being very productive, indeed.
You can watch the full interview with Sexyy Red for Thoughts In A Culli above.
In the 1994 movie Airheads, Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, and Adam Sandler play members of a rock band with big dreams. The story of the film is that the three decide to hijack a radio station in an effort to get their demo played on the air.
The idea was that fame and riches would follow, presumably. To be frank, I haven’t seen the film (sorry not sorry, my movie backlog is packed and Airheads is not above Air). I’m just aware of the general premise. Regardless, it sets up the point I’m about to get to: That movie synopsis reads as very ’90s and alien in relation to the music industry in 2024. Things are different now, both in terms of music itself and the ecosystem that surrounds it.
In times of change, it’s important to self-reflect and reconsider the things we value, what’s working and what isn’t. As I’ve aged, I’ve come to realize that one serving of vegetables per week isn’t part of a successful plan to remain alive, for example. I’ve also reached this question: Is landing a No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart today going the way of getting a demo on the radio in 1994?
My answer, to an extent, is yes: Getting a No. 1 single doesn’t matter like it used to. That’s a big-sounding claim and I don’t want to present it without nuance, so let’s look at some information.
In 2023, 19 songs were No. 1 on the Hot 100. In 2013, that number was only 12. The figures are shaping up similarly for this year, too: We already have 15 chart-toppers so far in 2024 with so much time left, versus just 10 in 2014.
A simple lesson in supply and demand: The more there is of something, the less valuable it is. Please indulge me briefly as we go back to 1953, when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first two people to summit Mount Everest. It was a big deal! Since then, over 6,000 other people have done it, too. Climbing Everest is still a noteworthy challenge, especially when you consider the 200 or so people who didn’t make it and whose bodies are still frozen on the mountain right now. But, the gravity of the feat is definitely diminished. That chilling detour was to illustrate that as the distinction of having a No. 1 single becomes less rare, it becomes less impressive.
There are some external factors that impact the perceived value of a Hot 100 No. 1, too, that have nothing to do with the Billboard charts themselves (or Mount Everest).
For one, more ways of measuring a song’s success are available to us now, and these metrics can have different significance to different audiences. For example, perhaps fans who live their musical lives on Spotify care less about chart placement and more about streaming numbers, which have increasingly come to indicate the music many people most spend their time with.
Well, according to data from Luminate (as shared by Billboard), the most-streamed song in the US of the first half of 2024 was Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things,” with 448.7 million plays. Yet, despite being early 2024’s most popular song by a widely valued and impactful metric, “Beautiful Things” never wore the Hot 100 crown. It spent many weeks in the top 10 and even some time at No. 2, but never in the captain’s seat.
More anecdotally speaking, Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” is a contender for the 2024 song of the summer. But, it never hit No. 1, despite consistently out-performing, for example, Taylor Swift and Post Malone’s No. 1 hit “Fortnight” on the weekly US Spotify charts after the collaboration’s first week (half-fortnight, if you will). It could be the year’s biggest song so far, but it’s not a No. 1 single in the US.
Then there’s TikTok. That’s a world that’s beyond me (aside from seeing viral TikToks on Instagram three weeks after they’ve already blown up), but I won’t diminish the impact it has on music culture and the value of musical success on the platform. Songs like Tinashe’s “Nasty,” Artemas’ “I Like The Way You Kiss Me,” and, somehow, Pharrell’s Despicable Me 4 song “Double Life” have all gotten major attention on one of the internet’s most-trafficked spaces. None of them have hit even the top 10 on the Hot 100.
To music fans who are mostly on TikTok and aren’t paying attention to the big Spotify favorites (a valid type of person that I’m guessing isn’t uncommon among the app’s users), those are the biggest songs, not some Hot 100 hit they stopped listening a hundred trends ago.
To be clear, this isn’t Billboard‘s fault. They haven’t passively rotted away as the world blooms around them. They regularly tweak the Hot 100 rules as they deem necessary, like they did with major changes in 2013 and 2018. But, it’s seemingly just impossible to keep up, to perfectly quantify and represent how consumers interact with the always-changing music industry.
I don’t mean to diminish the value of a No. 1 single. It’s still a tremendous achievement: Of the thousands and thousands of songs that have been released this year, only 15 of them have gone No. 1. 15! My point is more so that with how diverse and splintered the infrastructure around music consumption has become, the Hot 100 is no longer the singular, be-all-end-all authority on what the biggest songs are. It’s not the metric anymore.
Like getting a demo on the radio, it doesn’t mean what it used to.
The USA-Serbia semifinal showdown in Paris will go down as one of the greatest Olympics basketball games of all time, as Team USA erased a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter to rip Serbia’s hearts out and advance to the gold medal game.
The Americans were led by their veteran star trio, as Stephen Curry erupted for 36 points, LeBron James posted a triple-double, and Kevin Durant buried the dagger with a cold pull-up jumper with 30 seconds to play. Serbia nearly pulled off the upset thanks to their two stars, as Nikola Jokic had 17 points and 11 assists, while Bogdan Bogdanovic led the team with 20 points including some tough jumpers that had the building rocking.
Sitting courtside was Carmelo Anthony, as the USA Basketball legend enjoyed the opportunity to watch Team USA chase a gold medal in Paris, and his presence seemed to inspire Bogdanovic to break out Melo’s three to the dome celebration after his threes. That became quite the storyline, with many thinking Bogi was showing up Melo, but Bogdanovic insisted it was all in love. On his podcast, 7PM in Brooklyn, Anthony confirmed it was all love with him and Bogi, calling him “my son” and noting that he had to force himself not to celebrate Bogdanovic’s threes cause, on the inside, he was hype watching him hit those shots.
I do love that Melo had to actively keep himself from getting too caught up in the moment and accidentally get caught cheering courtside for a Bogi three against Team USA. The atmosphere in the building was incredible and there was a stretch where it looked like Serbia really might get that W, but ultimately didn’t quite have enough firepower down the stretch to keep up with Team USA. Still, Bogi earned himself some fans with his performance, and Melo certainly appreciated him paying homage with the three to the dome.
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