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In The Quantity Ones, I’m reviewing each single #1 single within the historical past of the Billboard Sizzling 100, beginning with the chart’s starting, in 1958, and dealing my manner up into the current. E-book Bonus Beat: The Quantity Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the Historical past of Pop Music.
My job was completed. Summer time 2008, I used to be about to go away the Village Voice, the mythic and now-defunct alt-weekly that employed me three years earlier. It was my first job writing about music, and I’d already given discover after being provided a job at a startup web site that paid considerably higher. The Voice was in a state of fixed bedlam as a result of the brand new homeowners have been howlingly incompetent, and my union was on the verge of placing that week. (We acquired a greater contract on the eleventh hour, so the strike by no means occurred.)
A lot of my buddies had already been let go, and there was a bunker mentality amongst those that remained. I felt bizarre leaving. The Voice music part was the gold customary for my whole lifetime. The paper’s troubles have been not less than acquainted, and my new job was a complete unknown. Because it turned out, I used to be proper to be nervous. The brand new web site was shut down earlier than launch, a casualty of the 2008 market crash, and all of us have been laid off. The Voice died a a lot slower dying. Anyway, that afternoon, I went to the pizza joint throughout the road, and I noticed a face that was each acquainted and stunning.
Anytime I see a celeb in public, I handle to persuade myself that it’s not really the individual in query. I nearly bodily crashed into Dave Matthews whereas turning into an aisle in Wegman’s a few years in the past — had a full second of eye contact and every thing — and I nonetheless walked away pondering, “Wow, that man regarded quite a bit like Dave Matthews.” (Everybody else within the retailer acknowledged him quickly sufficient.) On this case, although, there was no mistaking it. That was Juicy J, one half of the group behind my favourite rap group of all time. No person else appears like Juicy, and I might’ve identified him even not for the shirt that learn, in big letters, “I LOVE HAVING SEX” throughout the entrance and “BUT I’D RATHER GET SOME HEAD” throughout the again. (Three 6 Mafia’s 2008 single “I’d Quite” was a complete flop that missed the Sizzling 100.)
At that second, Juicy’s group Three 6 Mafia have been on their final legs. A couple of years earlier, they’d made their largest hit ever, after which they’d randomly gained the Finest Unique Track Oscar in an excellent freak prevalence that raised their mainstream visibility to unusual new heights. However Three 6 tried to capitalize on these successes by making some horrible pop-adjacent strikes and a nearly-unwatchable MTV actuality present. Already, they have been in steep decline. I nonetheless freaked out. I’d interviewed Juicy not less than as soon as, nevertheless it was a phoner, and there was no purpose that he’d bear in mind me. So I simply requested for a selfie, my first, and took a flip-phone image that managed to chop off each of our faces and render us unrecognizable. (You’ll be able to see the image deep within the physique of this piece, however you gained’t get something out of it.) The interplay solely lasted for a few minutes, however I took it as an indication of hope. I met Juicy J, so I used to be doing one thing proper.
That day in 2008, “I Kissed A Lady,” the debut single from a brand new singer named Katy Perry, was the #1 music in America. Six years later, Juicy J popped up on Katy Perry’s final #1 hit. You by no means know with these items.
“Darkish Horse” was huge — diamond gross sales, practically 4 billion YouTube views. The music is clearly vital in the entire story of Katy Perry, and it additionally assist mark the shift away from the Dr. Luke-style turbo-pop that made Katy Perry well-known within the first place. However in the event you suspect that I’m principally going to make use of this column to speak about Juicy J and Three 6 Mafia, you’re completely goddamn proper. Juicy J isn’t even on “Darkish Horse” that a lot, however his presence signifies a shift within the cultural winds. In addition to, I’ll take any excuse to speak in regards to the Triple Six. Get snug. We’re going to be right here for some time.
Three 6 Mafia have been vital. They’re nonetheless vital. The music that they made, each as a shadowy underground collective within the ’90s and as persistently underestimated major-label B-listers within the ’00s, stays a touchpoint. Memphis’ violent, flickering underground rap sound helped pave the way in which for the success of the concurrent syllable-twisters in Bone Thugs-N-Concord and for the crunk explosion of the ’00s. I nonetheless hear echoes of it in every single place — within the swirling crunch that is still well-liked within the extra attention-grabbing corners of the underground and within the arena-goth increase that reverberates on the style’s highest stage. Affect apart, Three 6 Mafia simply made good music. For years, I saved shopping for new CDs from Memphis rappers I’d by no means heard of simply because I knew I’d get to listen to some new Paul and Juicy Beats.
Jordan Michael Houston III comes from North Memphis, which isn’t a straightforward place to be from. (When Juicy J was born, Minnie Riperton’s “Lovin’ You” was the #1 music in America.) His older brother is Challenge Pat, a longtime Three 6 affiliate who by no means formally joined the group for no matter purpose. Pat is likely one of the best rappers of all time, a panting ghoul who turns his personal voice right into a cartoonish echo. Pat finds new hooks and patterns in each beat. He hears currents which can be inaudible to everybody else, and finds methods to sound ghostly and menacing and humorous and absurd unexpectedly. A lot of individuals attempt to rap like Pat, and everybody fails. (Pat’s solely Sizzling 100 hit as lead artist is “Hen Head,” which peaked at #87 in 2001. However Pat can also be featured on Drake and 21 Savage’s “Knife Speak,” which reached #4 in 2021, 20 years after that one crossover hit. It’s a 9.)
As a rapper, Juicy J has loads of Challenge Pat’s impeccably bizarre timing. He’s acquired a cool baritone, a historically commanding rap voice, however he not often performs the lead on tracks as a result of there’s one thing essentially foolish about his playfully behind-the-beat bounce. Juicy fell in love with rap as a child, and he realized to DJ earlier than he realized to rap. Within the late ’80s, Juicy and his good friend DJ Paul performed home events collectively, after which they began making beats. They assembled a crew of younger and hungry native rappers, together with Paul’s brother Lord Notorious, they usually made tapes that flirted with darkish themes and horror-movie sounds.
The early Three 6 tapes are heavy and murky — gothed-out cult shit that appears to exist off in its personal world. Immediately, $uicideboy$ are touring arenas by doing a face-tatted emo-punk white-dirtbag tribute to these early tapes. The sound nonetheless resonates. Because the group’s regional rep grew, Paul and Juicy began their very own Hypnotize Minds label, they usually launched Three 6’s debut album Mystic Stylez in 1995. They acquired nationwide distribution and went gold with 1997’s Chapter 2: World Domination, after which they acquired a major-label deal and went platinum with 2000’s When The Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1. That album had the basic UGK collab “Sippin’ On Some Syrup,” a blinking and twinkling ode to codeine cough syrup that caught loads of nationwide consideration with out ever reaching the Sizzling 100.
When The Smoke Clears was the place I jumped on board. I purchased a bootleg copy of that CD after studying one thing that Kelefa Sanneh wrote about them within the Village Voice, and I wore that motherfucker out. The group’s sound was so thick and heavy. Its construction was chaotic, filled with heavy-accented voices who all had their very own twists and personalities. Even past the six members of the ungainly group, there have been all these undefined allies — Challenge Pat, La Chat, Indo G — who turned out to have their very own albums filled with DJ Paul and Juicy J beats. For years, I saved shopping for albums from any rapper with a Three 6 affiliation: Lil Wyte, Frayser Boy, Chrome, the Decisions II soundtrack that got here with a DVD copy of the horrible film that the Three 6 guys made. These albums all kicked ass, they usually have been all produced solely by DJ Paul and Juicy J. Each CD ended with a full-crew posse minimize, they usually have been all the time wonderful. These guys labored arduous.
Early within the ’00s, one rapper after one other break up away from Three 6 Mafia and acquired into particular, difficult-to-parse feuds with the remaining group members. Now, half of the unique group is gone; Lord Notorious, Koopsta Knicca, and the nice Gangsta Boo all died younger due to some well being downside or different. Ultimately, after parting methods with magnetic wheezy-voiced hypeman Crunchy Black, DJ Paul and Juicy J have been the one members of Three 6 Mafia left. Earlier than that occurred, although, they rode the tide of the Southern rap increase they’d helped encourage and scored an always-elusive crossover hit.
In 2005, Three 6 Mafia made it to #13 with “Keep Fly,” a Willie Hutch-sampling Tennessee pleasure posse minimize with 8Ball, MJG, and Younger Buck. That very same yr, they did some music for Hustle & Circulate, an unbiased movie a few Memphis pimp making an attempt to turn out to be a rapper. A yr later, Paul, Juicy, and Frayser Boy have been onstage on the Oscars, accepting the Finest Unique Track award for “It’s Exhausting Out Right here For A Pimp.”
After that, Three 6 Mafia landed a couple of extra minor Sizzling 100 hits, however they didn’t appear to know what to do with the eye that got here with “Keep Fly” and the Oscar win. Three 6 went dormant someday round 2010, and Juicy J made a few mixtapes with Lex Luger, a younger Virginia producer who was having a giant second with an over-the-top churn that owed its existence to Paul and Juicy’s sound. These tapes had bangers, they usually got here out simply as Three 6 have been changing into a cool affect for flashy younger rappers like Drake and A$AP Rocky to reference. Juicy J joined Wiz Khalifa’s Taylor Gang crew, signed a cope with Dr. Luke’s Kemosabe label, and landed a giant solo hit of his personal when “Bandz A Make Her Dance,” a attractive and humorous strip-club anthem with Lil Wayne and a couple of Chainz, reached #29. Juicy J was again.
I don’t know what to make of the Dr. Luke connection. Luke was as soon as loosely concerned within the New York backpack-rap world, however his personal maximal thump had not one of the area and syncopation of precise rap music. At any time when Luke labored with rappers, it appeared like he was dragging them into his personal shiny four-four world, and it by no means labored for me. His music simply wasn’t funky. However Luke should’ve seen the rise of the Atlanta lure sound that will finally knock his personal turbo-pop out of its central chart place. Juicy wasn’t an Atlanta lure man, however he was snug with that sound, and star Atlanta producer Mike Will Made-It made the “Bandz A Make Her Dance” beat. Juicy, who’d already got here near falling off as soon as, was glad to play the sport, doing his horny-uncle routine on tracks with individuals like Mike Will’s little buddy Miley Cyrus. In a 2013 New Yorker profile, Luke referred to Juicy as “my rapper.”
When Dr. Luke and his collaborators made the beat that Katy Perry used for “E.T.,” Luke initially had Three 6 Mafia in thoughts for the observe. “Darkish Horse” is Katy Perry and her group’s effort to make a brand new spin on that music, although I feel “Darkish Horse” is quite a bit higher than “E.T.”
“Darkish Horse” got here out of a writing session that Katy Perry did along with her good friend Sarah Hudson in Perry’s Santa Barbara hometown. Katy Perry’s actual identify is Hudson, however she’s not associated to Sarah Hudson. Perry needed to change her stage identify as a result of “Katy Hudson” sounded too near Kate Hudson, the film star, and Sarah Hudson is associated to Kate Hudson. They’re cousins. Sarah’s father Mark wrote songs for bands like Aerosmith. Sarah launched a failed major-label album in 2004 after which began a club-pop group referred to as Ultraviolet Sound and eased right into a profession as a behind-the-scenes songwriter. “Darkish Horse” is her first massive credit score, however she went on to jot down on hits for individuals like Iggy Azalea and Dua Lipa.
As soon as that they had the tough concept for “Darkish Horse,” Katy Perry took the music to Dr. Luke, who co-produced the observe with Max Martin and Cirkut. Their beat has what Perry diplomatically referred to as “a bit little bit of an city form of hip-hop-flavored background.” Principally, it’s Dr. Luke trying to do lure, a sound that must be far exterior his wheelhouse. Luke is a maximalist, and lure is determined by the empty area that you actually need in order that these trunk-rattle bass hits can correctly buzz and hum. However the “Darkish Horse” beat works. It’s simply pop sufficient and simply lure sufficient.
I really like the eerie synth that runs all via “Darkish Horse” — nattering evilly on the intro after which breaking down into the “Moments In Love” gasp-stomp of the verses. The bass-booms and fingersnaps hit on the proper time, and the beat doesn’t even get too busy when it blows out into a giant arena-goth refrain with echoing chants and EDM ramp-ups. Juicy J didn’t assist make the beat, however the slowed-down voices and militaristic hey chants present that Luke and his collaborators have been not less than paying consideration.
“Darkish Horse” isn’t actually about something. I’m undecided what the title even has something to do with the remainder of the music. Katy Perry doesn’t appear to be singing a few darkish horse in the way in which that we typically use the time period — a stealthy and sudden candidate getting into a contest. As an alternative, it’s altogether potential that she means an precise horse. She later mentioned that the music was impressed by The Craft, the enjoyable and dumb 1996 teenage-witch film. Perry is meant to be a witch in the identical manner that she’s purported to be an alien on “E.T.” She’s saying that you just higher imply it in the event you fall in love along with her as a result of she’ll curse you, or one thing, in the event you betray her. In case you’re gonna play with magic, it is best to know what you’re combating for. Are you prepared for prepared for? An ideal storm good storm? No matter. Doesn’t matter. It’s nonsense, nevertheless it’s the proper of nonsense.
The hooks hit arduous. You’d hope so, proper? Given the individuals concerned, it will be bizarre if the hooks didn’t hit arduous. Max Martin is nice at his job. His profession has saved thriving even because the Dr. Luke turbo-pop fashion light from the highlight. At this level, he’s co-written extra #1 hits than anybody who wasn’t a Beatle. On “Darkish Horse,” you’ll be able to hear the icily exact Max Martin melodic-math fashion utilized to lure, a sound that has nothing to do with icily exact melodic math. However a hook is a hook, and “Darkish Horse” is filled with them.
Katy Perry sings the verses in a cool, menacing goth-purr after which goes into arena-overdrive mode on the refrain, and she or he hits all these tiny melodic turns that worm their manner into my head. It’s all pressure, no launch. At any time when the music looks like it’s about to burst into EDM catharsis, the pitched-down satan voice is available in and says that there’s no going again, and all of the extraneous stuff instantly disappears, as if by magic.
Katy Perry informed Dr. Luke that she wished Juicy J on the music. Perhaps it was a make-good for taking “E.T.” away from Three 6. Perhaps Juicy J was the one rapper that Katy Perry knew nicely sufficient to ask. Juicy was stunned on the invitation, however he got here in and knocked out three totally different variations of his “Darkish Horse” verse. He later talked about how impressively in-control {and professional} she was within the studio. Within the model of the verse that Perry used, Juicy raps about how Katy Perry is each attractive and harmful, and he sounds superior.
The Juicy J of “Darkish Horse” is the ultra-sanitized model of Juicy J, however he comes off like he’s simply teetering on the verge of claiming some nasty shit anyway. In case you’ve spent sufficient time with Three 6’s music, you’ll be able to’t hear Juicy’s “Darkish Horse” verse and neglect that he’s the man who wrote “Slob On My Knob.” Juicy rhymes “karma” with “Jeffrey Dahmer,” talks a few witchy girl using him like a curler coaster and turning his love into a good, and customarily offers the music a way of dramatic stakes simply with the grain of his voice. He indicators off like this: “Her love is sort of a drug, I used to be tryna hit it and stop it/ However lil mama so dope, I messed round and acquired addictedddddd.” The best way he stretches out that final syllable is pure Challenge Pat.
Katy Perry didn’t know what she had with “Darkish Horse.” Her Prism album is filled with one-off style experiments, however many of the songs are far more apparent and overwhelming. After the preliminary success of “Roar,” most of them weren’t hitting. Perry adopted that single with “Unconditionally,” a giant ballad that I feel is fairly good. It peaked at #14, which should’ve been a disappointment after all of the Teenage Dream singles that went all the way in which to #1. Earlier than Prism got here out, Perry requested her followers, in a Pepsi-sponsored Twitter ballot, which of two songs she ought to drop earlier than the LP. “Darkish Horse” gained that ballot, and it reached #17 on downloads alone. As “Unconditionally” underperformed, the “Darkish Horse” obtain saved promoting, so Perry’s label determined to make it the subsequent single.
Capitol began pushing “Darkish Horse” to radio in December 2013. A month later, Katy Perry and Juicy J carried out the music on the Grammys, giving it an over-the-top goth drama-nerd manufacturing with an onstage graveyard and a giant, red-eyed puppet-horse factor. The subsequent week, “Darkish Horse” made it to #1. The video wasn’t even out but.
That video arrived whereas “Darkish Horse” sat at #1, and it’s completely fucking ridiculous. Matthew Cullen, Perry’s “California Gurls” director, made a CGI slopfest that tries to go for a “Keep in mind The Time” factor and fails. In “Memphis, Egypt a loopy very long time in the past,” Perry’s sorcerer-queen woman turns a sequence of central-casting suitors into sand. It’s ugly and silly. If Perry wasn’t already going full cultural-appropriation making “Darkish Horse” within the first place, then she actually walked into it with all of the Egyptian imagery. Even in 2014, individuals weren’t able to ignore all that. Muslim teams objected after they seen that considered one of Perry’s victims wore jewellery within the form of the Arabic phrase for “Allah,” however that bit was digitally eliminated, and the video remained. It’s not an excellent video, however I just like the bit the place Juicy J pops out of a sarcophagus.
“Darkish Horse” caught round. It stayed within the high 10 for months and on the Sizzling 100 for greater than a yr. Two years after its launch, it went diamond; it’s now 11 occasions platinum. A couple of months after the music hit #1, the Christian rapper Flame and his producers sued Katy Perry for copyright infringement. Flame’s competition was that “Darkish Horse” ripped off his personal generic 2008 gospel-track music “Joyful Noise.” He mentioned that his popularity had been damage by any affiliation with the “witchcraft, paganism, black magic, and Illuminati imagery” of the “Darkish Horse” clip. Lecrae, the far more profitable Christian rapper featured on “Joyful Noise,” bowed out of the lawsuit, signing all rights to the observe over to Flame.
After the “Blurred Traces” verdict, there have been loads of lawsuits like this. Perry and her collaborators opted to battle the case, which was nearly extraordinarily costly for them. I’m positive it was costly, what with all of the attorneys concerned, nevertheless it was nearly a lot worse. The trial dragged for years. In 2019, a federal jury discovered in opposition to Perry. Flame and his collaborators have been owed $2.78 million for the incidental similarities between the 2 songs, and Perry herself was on the hook for $550,000. Dr. Luke and his collaborators testified that they’d by no means heard “Joyful Noise,” nevertheless it didn’t matter. Juries, man. Perry appealed the case, and the decision was overturned in 2020. She didn’t should pay in any case.
It’s an excellent factor that Katy Perry acquired to carry onto “Darkish Horse,” since she by no means made successful that massive once more. The opposite singles from Prism all fell quick, with Perry’s quick follow-up, the buoyantly funky new wave pastiche “Birthday,” peaking at #17. The album nonetheless went quintuple platinum, which wasn’t that far in need of Teenage Dream. A yr after “Darkish Horse” reached #1, Perry performed the Tremendous Bowl Halftime Present, giving an engagingly absurd efficiency that briefly turned considered one of her shark-costumed backup dancers into an web star. Naturally, “Darkish Horse” made the setlist. That night time actually put the exclamation mark on Katy Perry’s dominant run. It was all downhill from there.
Katy Perry’s profession downturn has been dramatic and plain, and there’s not less than one fairly clear purpose for it. When Kesha sued Dr. Luke later in 2014, Katy Perry was one of many artists who stopped working with Luke. Perry made nearly all her hits with Luke, and she or he by no means discovered one other collaborator who may lock in along with her the identical manner. She nonetheless had entry to all the very best individuals working in pop, however she couldn’t recapture that spark. I’m completely in favor of Perry’s resolution to separate herself from Luke, however the outcomes converse for themselves. I don’t suppose that’s the solely purpose that she fell off, nevertheless it’s undoubtedly an element.
In 2016, Perry launched “Rise,” a one-off single that had one thing to do with that yr’s Olympics. It was going for a “Roar” factor, however individuals weren’t on the lookout for a “Roar” factor then, and the music peaked at #11. Perry additionally stumped arduous for Hillary Clinton, and we noticed how that turned out. When she rolled out her Witness album a yr later, she made a giant level about the way it was “purposeful pop” — music that tried to reply to a fraught historic second by vaguely gesturing in political instructions. Perry recorded the robotically reggae-adjacent lead single “Chained To The Rhythm” with Skip Marley, Bob’s grandson, and it reached #4. (It’s a 6. I bear in mind pondering that music sucked on the time, nevertheless it’s not so dangerous. Perhaps I used to be simply too used to Katy Perry albums with world-obliterating lead singles.)
Katy Perry hasn’t been again within the high 10 since. Witness limped its method to gold standing, and the album is mostly thought of a complete embarrassment today. The opposite singles all flopped resoundingly. Perry presumably tried to recapture a few of the trap-adjacent “Darkish Horse” taste by teaming up with the Migos, a gaggle that’ll finally seem on this column, on “Bon Appétit.” It did not work, and the music peaked at #59. That was a tough yr for Katy Perry, and the one vibrant spot wasn’t even a music on her album. As an alternative, she sang the hook on “Feels,” a reasonably good Calvin Harris observe that additionally featured Pharrell and Huge Sean. That music made it to #20 and went double platinum, and I nonetheless hear it each occasionally, just like the final time I acquired a haircut.
In 2018, Katy Perry turned a decide on the post-peak model of American Idol, and she or he nonetheless holds that place, although she says she’s completed after this season. She began courting Orlando Bloom in 2016, they usually acquired engaged in 2019. She’s dwelling out the childhood dream of my little sister, who as soon as had a life-size Legolas cutout in her room. Perry turned a mom in 2020. Two days after her daughter’s start, she launched the pandemic-cursed album Smile, which disappeared with barely a ripple. The early single “By no means Actually Over” made it to #15 in 2019. Nice music. That was it for hits, although.
Katy Perry has launched a few nonstarter one-off tracks since Smile, however there’s nothing that you want to fear about. She began up a profitable Las Vegas residency in 2021, and the movies from that present look enjoyable. For the previous few years, she’s existed firmly within the cloistered celebrity-weirdo zone. She sang on the Biden inauguration and the Charles coronation. She backed bloodsucking billionaire Rick Caruso’s unsuccessful try to purchase his manner into changing into Los Angeles mayor. She purchased a former convent and acquired right into a authorized battle with the nuns who’d lived there, considered one of whom collapsed and died in courtroom. Then she acquired into one other lawsuit after allegedly pressuring one other octogenarian into promoting her his home. Final yr, a proposed California legislation shielding seniors from monetary exploitation turned often known as the “Katy PERRY Act,” with the “PERRY” supposedly standing for “Defending Elder Realty for Retirement Years.” Wild shit.
Juicy J rapped on a couple of extra minor hits after “Darkish Horse.” The largest of them was Usher’s 2014 observe “I Don’t Thoughts,” which peaked at #11. Three 6 Mafia acquired again collectively, they usually play music festivals generally. In 2021, they did a Verzuz occasion with their previous rivals, former Quantity Ones artists Bone Thugs-N-Concord. Early within the night time, Bizzy Bone threw a water bottle at Gangsta Boo, and the stay broadcast shortly minimize out as a shoving match broke out. When issues settled down, although, it was a really enjoyable night time on the late-pandemic web. Tons of company confirmed up: Lil Wayne, Chamillionaire, Lil Jon, Terrence Howard. For a second, I questioned whether or not Katy Perry would come out to sing “Darkish Horse.” She didn’t, however Juicy J rapped his verse anyway. I really like any present the place a efficiency of a diamond single follows an onstage fistfight.
No person anticipated Juicy J to make one other “Darkish Horse.” Individuals most likely did count on Katy Perry to make one, however she didn’t, and she or he gained’t. Perry will certainly make extra music, and she or he would possibly even rating extra hits, however she’ll by no means have that aura of inevitability once more. Perry’s six-year run is the stuff of legend, however the world is totally different now, and I can’t think about her holding that very same maintain over the zeitgeist once more. She’ll all the time be well-known, however her second as an unstoppable pop power is over. That’s tremendous. Individuals can’t preserve successful without end. In addition to, Katy Perry met Juicy J, so she did one thing proper.
GRADE: 8/10
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