The first weekend of the Christmas month brings with it many gifts for the prospective artists that find themselves doing the numbers in this week’s chart. It’s obviously a little too premature to start making claims about who will land the Christmas number one, although for the gamblers amongst us; there are certainly a few strong candidates! Let’s take a look at some of them in this week’s chart roundup.
Michael Daapah’s global phenomenon Big Shaq continues to do the unthinkable with his viral hit “Mans Not Hot” now sitting in the upper echelons of the charts, now just four places away from the top spot; certainly shaping up to be one of the aforementioned strong candidates for the Christmas number one. Grime’s Man of the year Stormzy is hot on the heels of Big Shaq, slipping one place and finding himself at number eight, with his sobering grime gospel concoction “Blinded By Your Grace Pt 2” currently statistics have it moving just under the quarter million mark; with the album itself Gang Signs & Prayer still well inside the top 40 at number 34, where it’s pretty much been since its release and looks set to stay there for the rest of the year at least. Again the growth that the scene has experienced over the last two years is simply incredible, in the past getting a song on the chart was seen as an incredible feat, now artists are not merely scraping onto the chart, they’re dominating it.
“Finders Keepers” by Mabel and Kojo Funds, still finds itself flying high on the charts. Placing just one place lower than last week they bring it in at number 13. Kojo Funds has quickly become renowned for lacing tracks with his own unique brand of Afro Bashment rap that is undeniably infectious, arguably the only way you can fault this track is the fact that we don’t get more of an input from Kojo himself, still definitely one of the waviest tracks of the year.
Dave and Mo Stack hold onto the number 23 spot with their massive banger “No Words”, currently on a sold out Game Over tour it’s going to be exciting to watch what Dave has in store for us over the next 12 months. Stefflon Don and French Montana’s “Hurtin Me” still just hangs onto the number 37 position after a good month of chart domination with their insanely catchy collaboration.
Not3s’s wavey track “My Lover” has just dropped out of the top 40, although this takes nothing away from the incredible year that Not3s has had, and 2018 will no doubt be another massive year for him, we wait with baited breathe for the next chapter in the saga to begin. If you get Mo Stack on a feature you already know he’s going to deliver the goods. His most recent feature of the year with Yungen and Rated Awards producer of the year Steel Banglez on “Bad” enters at number 53, but with the video already doing crazy numbers, it’s certain to higher up the chart next week. Check back next week for another definitive roundup of the charts!