Big Sean And Metro Boomin Lead New Top 10 Albums Behind Luke Bryan's No. 1

For the fourth time in his career, country superstar Luke Bryan is comfortable at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with his new album What Makes You Country. The record debuts at the top thanks to just over 100,000 equivalent units, which is a surprisingly low sum for this time of year, but thanks to little competition, the country musician is in charge once again. Behind Bryan, only two new titles begin their run on the all-genre chart, and both fit squarely in the hip-hop genre.Up to the second slot on the chart is Taylor Swift’s Reputation, which has now lived inside the top three positions for its entire life on the Billboard 200. It initially spent three turns at No. 1, and last week it was pushed down to No. 3. Just behind the former country singer comes her friend and frequent collaborator (including on her latest full-length) Ed Sheeran, whose ÷ (Divide) is back up to No. 3. Next up is a cappella group Pentatonix, whose 2016 album A Pentatonix Christmas is growing once again, rising to No. 4. 

The album hit the top of the tally late last year and continued to rule into 2017, and now, a year later, it’s back towards the top, though it’s tough to imagine it will make it back to No. 1.New at No. 5 is a compilation called Quality Control:Control the Streets, Vol. 1, which begins inside the top five thanks to 52,000 copies shifted, with the majority of those coming from streaming equivalents. The collection of 30 songs is produced by Quality Control Records, which is the label home to some of the hottest artists in hip-hop today. The record features many songs by Migos (and its members rapping separately) and Lil Yachty, as well as famous figures like Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Kodak Black and at least a dozen other acts stepping in to provide features or front just a track or two.

Just beyond that hip-hop record comes another, and it’s also a collaboration. Rapper Big Sean and producer Metro Boomin’s surprise collection Double or Nothingstarts at No. 6 with 50,000 units, granting both musicians another top 10 effort. For Sean, this is his sixth (including his solo work and a collaborative record with Jhene Aiko as Twenty88), while for Boomin, it’s his second to break into the highest region. Impressively, Metro Boomin scored his first top 10 album less than two months ago, when Without Warning, which he released alongside rappers 21 Savage and Offset, started at No. 4.The final four positions inside the top 10 are comprised of albums that have now spent at least two weeks inside the area, if not many more. The second edition of Chris Stapleton’s From A Room series is down to No. 7 (from the runner-up slot) in its second frame, while Sam Smith’s The Thrill of It All settles for No. 8 this week. Canadian crooner Michael Bublé sees his bestseller Christmas move to No. 9, just ahead of Post Malone’s Stoney, which finishes off the top 10 this week.

How Bad Bunny Became the Poster Boy of Trap en Español

One year ago, there were no rappers wearing yellow nail polish with high-water tuxedo pants at Premios Juventud, much less canary bike shorts in beachside glamour shots. But in the first half of 2016, the era of Bad Bunny had not yet begun. These days, it’s doubtful that there are many urbano fans unacquainted with the Puerto Rican trap en español singer’s pounding baritone, head of impressive shaved designs, and eclectic designer wardrobe that adds a distinctly “fashion” swerve on the genre’s traditional macho styling. Buoyed by DJ Luian and his powerhouse Puerto Rican label Hear This Music, plus a parade of high-ranking cosigners from Arcángel to J Balvin, Bad Bunny’s saturation of the scene in 2017 is startling for an artist who has yet to announce plans for a debut album. 

Most importantly, his particular brand of success is a strong omen of what the next years will bring for the Latin music industry.Bad Bunny’s (aka Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) story ignited last January with a “prende otro phillie bebé.” It was the first line of the 23-year-old vocalist’s track “Diles” which, according to DJ Luian, caught the attention of Hear This Music after it had already garnered a million plays on Ocasio’s SoundCloud page. “Dice que le gusta hacerlo con mis temas de trap,” he croons, an addictive beat cradling husky assertions of his sexual prowess. The DIY track’s success convinced Hear This Music that their young artist’s breakout moment had arrived. They stacked a “Diles” remix with multiple generations of urbano heavyweights — emergent reggaetonero Ozuna alongside established ones like Arcángel, Farruko, and Ñengo Flow. 

The broad show of force established Bad Bunny’s versatility; he had the blessing of giants, yet was himself part of el género’s new wave. Listeners fell hard, the lyric video for “Diles” alone racking up over 320 million YouTube views and anointing Bad Bunny as Latin trap’s new featured vocalist of choice.It was the start of a heavy run. Bad Bunny’s cutting, luxe-voiced lyrics — aided no doubt by his artful pout, video charisma, and parade of fanciful wardrobe choices — captured fans’ attention and even inspiredimpersonators. In the year after “Diles,” he’s churned out viral singles featuring a universe of hitmakers from Karol G to Nicky Jam on a near weekly basis. 

Bad Bunny currently clocks in at 5.7 million monthly Spotify listeners. He has over a billion views on YouTube, the latter of which has played an important role in distribution for many Puerto Rico’s trap artists, especially ones like Anuel AA, who have found their content banned from the radio for explicit lyrics.Bad Bunny’s second hit “Tu No Vive Así” paired him once again with Arcángel for a trap-slung anthem, which in turn set the stage for Bunny’s first massive solo moment, the pitch-black musing “Soy Peor.” That tale of love gone rancid reads as Bad Bunny’s trapero-player origin story, and helped fuel his reputation for heartfelt if twisted romanticism. It garnered a phalanx of response videos, including the clapback put out by vocalist Lady Lauudy. 

She was dubiously identified as Bunny’s ex in a thousand reaching YouTube comments — credit fans’ eager theories to the fact that actual details about Bunny’s personal life are kept on a tight leash.Ocasio grew up in the PR beach community of Vega Baja with his parents and two younger brothers. After receiving a Vico C album for Christmas in one of his earliest memories, he says he started singing, songwriting, and producing at 13, counting among his inspirations Héctor Lavoe and Michael Jordan. Bad Bunny reportedly came up with his artist name from a photo of him as a first grader on Easter, looking malevolent in a pair of bunny ears he had been forced to wear. 

The gag, as he told Keiry Narvaez in her En La Intimidad video interview series, is that “bunnies are sweet; I’m sweet.” Ocasio studied communications at the University of Puerto Rico’s Arecibo campus before getting his family’s blessings to focus on music. This pivot paid off — Ocasio reportedly first caught DJ Luian’s eye while he was still performing at small San Juan shows and posting videos of himself singing on Instagram. So fresh is Bad Bunny’s fame, he spent a few moments before performing at this year’s Premios Juventud reminiscing to fans that in 2016, he had to race home from his job at a grocery store to catch the televised awards show.

Bruno Mars Biography

American singer/songwriter Bruno Mars is a Grammy-winning artist who got his start crafting hits for other artists before taking off on his own highly successful trajectory. An all-around entertain er, he also plays multiple instruments, produces, and choreographs. His path to mainstream success was lengthy. After he worked a string of behind-the-scenes jobs -- including writing songs for Brandy, singing backup for Sugababes, and impersonating Elvis Presley -- he put his name on top of the Billboard Hot 100 by co-writing Flo Rida and Kesha's "Right Round." One year later, he collaborated with rapper B.o.B on "Nothin' on You" and co-wrote Travie McCoy's "Billionaire," both of which became Top Ten hits. 

Marsused that momentum to launch a solo career and became the first male vocalist in two decades to crack the Top Ten with his first four singles.Born Peter Hernandez in Honolulu, Hawaii, Mars kicked off his career at the age of four by fronting his uncle's band, becoming Oahu's youngest Elvis impersonator in the process. Ten years later, he was impersonating the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, as part of the Legends in Concert show. After graduating high school in 2003, he took his uncle's advice and moved to California to pursue a music career. He eventually met songwriter Phillip Lawrence, who convinced Mars to try his hand at writing songs for other artists. The two dubbed themselves the Smeezingtons and co-wrote Brandy's "Long Distance." The duo scored their first number one hit in 2009, when they co-authored Flo Rida's international smash "Right Round."

By 2010, Mars seemed to be everywhere: singing alongside B.o.B on the chart-topping "Nothin' on You," co-writing "Billionaire," and collaborating with Cee Lo Green on the Grammy-nominated hit "F*ck You!" He also began issuing his own material, starting with the May 2010 release of his first EP, It's Better If You Don't Understand. Doo-Wops & Hooligans, his full-length debut, appeared later that year and quickly produced a number one single, "Just the Way You Are." He hit number one again with "Grenade" and remained in the Top Four with "The Lazy Song" and "It Will Rain." In 2012, Mars both hosted and performed as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live, debuting tracks from his upcoming album.

That album, the genre-jumping effort Unorthodox Jukebox, was released later in the year and featured the chart-topping single "Locked Out of Heaven," along with production from Mark Ronson, Diplo, and others. "Locked Out of Heaven" topped the Hot 100, and the album reached number two in the U.S. The second single, "When I Was Your Man," also hit number one. All that success made Mars a natural for one of the world's most prestigious gigs, the half-time show for Super Bowl XLVIII, where he performed with Red Hot Chili Peppers. Unorthodox Jukebox later won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album.

The following year, Mars fronted Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk," a song he co-wrote that was among the most popular singles of that year. It topped charts around the globe (becoming Mars' sixth number one) and took home several Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year. In 2016, Marsreturned with another funk-flavored hit, "24K Magic," and its parent album of the same title. Influenced by soul, funk, and '90s R&B, 24K Magic peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 and produced Mars' seventh chart-topper, "That's What I Like," as well as "Versace on the Floor," which was remixed by David Guetta.

The Ten Best Reggaeton Songs of the Last Half Decade: A Survival Guide in the Age of Pitbull

Reggaeton is dead in the same way hip-hop is dead -- the popular stuff no longer resembles the gritty, lo-fi ups and downs of the working class, from whose beaters and back-alleys both genres were born.But a little spitshine isn't always a bad thing, especially on the big rubbery assbeat that defines reggaeton. (Dem Bow at its purest and most insatiable.) In 2005, after the brand-new genre was flown over from Puerto Rico, hip-hop heads fell prisoner to its crazy heat. "Oy, that beat," wrote a music critic turned rhythm victim for the Village Voice.One UCLA professor even devoted an entire book, this year, to graphing reggaeton's infiltration of the Top 40. (Watch him explain the world's sexiest genre in a dork voice that could deflate the heartiest Afro-Latin buttcheek, here.)

Of course, weak-souled U.S. radio couldn't withstand the pummel forever. Within a year or two, the wave of pop-up "Hurban" stations either died out or diluted themselves with Usher, Akon and the rest. But as Pitbull and his contemporaries have slowly (and skillfully) watered down the Latino presence on U.S. airways to fit the electro revolution, reggaeton -- the stubborn bastard -- kept right on folding in on itself. Here, in handy YouTube playlist form, is everything you've been missing while it pummeled through half a decade of Latin American all-nighters without you.

We admit: Making a list of the "10 Best Reggaeton Songs" is like making a list of the "10 Best Rap Songs." No one will agree with each other, and no one will ever be right. So for our limited purposes -- a beginner's guide, not some hot new mixtape out the Dominican Republic underground -- we'll set some priorities. a) When the choice must be made between hard/grimy and catchy/danceable, we're going with the latter. Reggaeton is for dancers; socially conscious Spanish-language rappers (and fluttery Aventuras, for that matter) can get their own list. Also, the newer the better, because reggaeton's heydey did last pretty deep into 2006 and 2007. b) Repetitive, nasally, shouty shit will be kept to a minimum. A reggaetonera loves bathing in it like a Southern-rap enthusiast loves to be deep-fried in Lil Jon's vault of YAYUHs and OKAYs; however, it's not for everybody. c) Mix up the roster a bit -- not all Wisin y Yandel. Rough, but everyone deserves a chance. d) No Pitbull. But you already knew that, didn't you.

So this list is now amended to be "The 10 Most Danceable, Least Annoying Reggaeton Songs of the Last Half Decade (in No Particular Order)." Best enjoyed with a few cocktails and a dance floor, or whatever takes you to that "fuck guilty pleasures" state of mind.

10. "El Ritmo No Perdona (Prende)" -- Daddy Yankee

(Song doesn't begin until 00:38, FYI.) This may come as a surprise to some, but Daddy Yankee is not Pitbull. And saying they're the same person because they're both light-skinned Latin American dudes in sunglasses is like saying Kanye West is P. Diddy.In fact, Daddy Yankee is the reigning king of reggaeton. Say what you will about his impish douche stance, bucket hat and Guido haircut -- dude started the revolution with "Gasolina" in early 2004, and on one solid album per year, he'll die trying to re-facilitate that first fix. 

Though it wasn't near as pretty/popular as she-catering hits "Que Tengo Que Hacer," "Oasis de Fantasia" and "Llamado de Emergencia" in 2008, the manic beat on "El Ritmo No Perdona (Prende)" one year later was the closest anyone has gotten to stretching the steadfast reggaeton bap into something even moredanceable. And through it all, those old-school Latin instruments on backup, tooting and chortling to hold the thing down. When you love this game as much as Daddy Yankee does, an unforgiving rhythm is the only way to work.

9. "Tocarte Toa" -- Big Yamo (featuring Natya)

Big Yamo was a bit of a one-hit wonder, but he did more for dramatic nightclub atmospherics with "Tocarte Toa" than most strobe lights/fog machines do in a lifetime.

Violins that echo through marble drug mansions! Girls who rap in ponchos and bikinis! What more could one want from the second generation of reggaeton? Well, now that you mention it, how about a verse from the inimitable Residente (one half of Calle 13; see page four) to smarten things up? Done, and done. There's no dance-party-quality version of the track with Residente's contributions on YouTube, but if you like it well enough without him, the remix is a must. (Added bonus: realizing that objectively awesome people like Residente are also suckers for violins on a reggaeton beat, and thus feeling a little better about your own guilty pleasures.)

8. "Los Maté" -- Tego CalderónBig Yamo was a bit of a one-hit wonder, but he did more for dramatic nightclub atmospherics with "Tocarte Toa" than most strobe lights/fog machines do in a lifetime.

Violins that echo through marble drug mansions! Girls who rap in ponchos and bikinis! What more could one want from the second generation of reggaeton? Well, now that you mention it, how about a verse from the inimitable Residente (one half of Calle 13; see page four) to smarten things up? Done, and done. There's no dance-party-quality version of the track with Residente's contributions on YouTube, but if you like it well enough without him, the remix is a must. (Added bonus: realizing that objectively awesome people like Residente are also suckers for violins on a reggaeton beat, and thus feeling a little better about your own guilty pleasures.)

7. "No Quiere Novio" -- Ñejo (featuring Tego Calderon)

A controversial choice, we know. This track went almost nowhere, compared to some of the stuff Ñejo has done with his main man Dalmata. (Such as the barebones "No Necesito" and "Algo Musical." And the excellent, but sadly not reggaeton and therefore non-listworthy, "Por Allá Por Donde Vivo." Solo, Dalmata peaked on his Wild West-meets-'90s strip club video for "Pasarela.") But they're new to the scene, and have yet to score the hit they're capable of.That doesn't change our feelings about Ñejo. (His verse starts at 1:30 above. If you want to hear him take over the whole track himself, here's the original Tego-free version.) He's got the fullest, most musical flow in Spanish-language rap, hands down, and it fits like the most enjoyable of ball gags into reggaeton's ready DSLs. Not the quickest bastard on the block (again, see page four), but no one captures the essence of a pair of hotpants like this chubby little fucker at 1:35.

6. Perdóname -- Eddy Lover (featuring La Factoria)

Eddy Lover represents reggaeton going soft, yes, but it's hard to care when he makes soft so attractive -- a velvet rope, a champagne bubble, a puppy from the ghetto. We've got a feeling even an OG like Tego would have few regrets spooning with his down comforter to that voice. Thank you, Eddy, from all the strippers of the Southern hemisphere, who can now pretend they're angels doing God's work while pole-ing to your dolled-up reggaeton.

5. "Ella Me Levantó" -- Daddy Yankee

Doesn't get more solid than this 2007 banger of a ballad -- an expressway to slutty mistakes in Vegas lounge areas, if memory serves. The competition for this spot on the list included newer, sweeter gems like "Mi Cama Huele a Ti" by Tito El Bambino -- so we could argue the genre was on the ups, or whatever -- but in the end, we always crawl back to "Ella Me Levantó." Damn you, Daddy Yankee!

4. "Atrevate Te Te" -- Calle 13

You may know Calle 13 (or, more specifically, frontman Residente) as the jerk who took home every single Latin Grammy this year. Though Residente, the lyrical half, mostly sticks to straight, sarcastic battle raps -- between, uh, him and the world -- and spastic ADD trips to the "Fiesta de Locos," he's never been one to deny his deep fondness of down-home reggaeton.

In fact, he's managed to weasel his way onto our list here by way of a single piece of fanboy imagery in "Atrevate Te Te": Residente watches as his regular target, the gringa wannabe, is hypnotized off her "pop-rock Latino" pedestal by a Dem Bow beat that travels up her skirt and through her intestines like a submarine (roughly translated). Yep. Sounds about right.

3. "Ayer La Vi" -- Don Omar

Don Omar, otherwise known as "El Rey," experienced somewhat of a fall from grace after being catapulted to stardom at the climax of the U.S. love affair with reggaeton -- including a desperate song about MySpace. (Hey, it happens to the best of us.) "Ayer La Vi" is the stuff of comebacks. Most attempts at slowing down the quick reggaeton clip come off as cheap, tinny and loveless. But Don Omar labors us through a thick gravel of blood and beat, forcing us to grind even harder than before. For the (almost as excellent) lighthearted version, see Don Omar's "Salió el Sol," a particular favorite of the study-abroad crowd. And watch him go even slower/harder, with Tego of course, on "Bandolero."

2. "Cinco Letras" -- Alexis y Fido

This duo was cut from the same cloth as the legendary Wisin y Yandel (don't worry, they're just around the corner), but never found the same success. That's probably because Alexis y Fido aren't as great; few are. Still, with the unexpected release of one frighteningly catchy "Cinco Letras" in late 2009, these understudies slid in for the save -- breaking a funky spell of bad reggaeton that was starting to jinx the era. Maybe now we can begin to forgive them for 2006's "Agarralé el Pantalon." (We'd link, but you're definitely better off in the dark.)

1. "Nadie Como Tu" -- Wisin y Yandel

Even more than Daddy Yankee, these prolific smooth-then-smack-talkers are leading reggaeton into the 2010s with subtle, effortless shifts in gate and aggression. Not sure how it's possible, but the drop on "Nadie Como Tu" seems to fall faster and deeper than any Dem Bow before or since; it might even bottom out at one point. They're romantic as hell (the finest chicks on Earth are flies to that greasy soul-patch look; it's inexplicable), and by some miracle, they can actually rap -- even if they do so only to tell inane stories about the V.I.P. booth and convince their prey to drop panty back at the suite.

You know "Give Me Everything," the ridiculously popular Pitbull song in which he hypnotizes half a clubful of bitches into going home with the nasty, cologney, entirely unloveable club rats who've been stuck to their rears all night? He learned that trick from Wisin y Yandel, original wingmen. Only with them, we wake up still believing the lies -- from dudes as sleazy as Enrique Iglesias -- all through the walk of shame and the hangover.

Watch and learn in "Ahora Es," our bonus-round finale.