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\n\tThe Contenders<\/a> is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the <\/em>Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. Next week (for the upcoming <\/em>Billboard Hot 100<\/em><\/a> dated June 15), a return to form a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rapper looks to interfere with some of the more explicitly 2024 hits vying for the top of the Hot 100. <\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tEminem, \u201cHoudini\u201d (Shady\/Aftermath\/Interscope)<\/strong>: <\/strong>In April, Eminem<\/a> began teasing the upcoming release of his 12th studio album, The Death of Slim Shady<\/em>. Whether the album title foreshadows Em\u2019s official retirement from music \u2013 a full 25 years after first announcing his name to the world in 1999 \u2013 or just a new phase in the rapper\u2019s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career, the album is sure to be one of the summer\u2019s most anticipated. And now, it has an already-minted hit as the official lead single: \u201cHoudini,\u201d released on Friday (May 31). \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe new single, co-produced by Eminem with longtime Detroit-based collaborator Luis Resto, calls back to the MC\u2019s 2002 megahit \u201cWithout Me\u201d \u2014 with its \u201cguess who\u2019s back, back again\u201d intro and its superhero-themed music video \u2013 and heavily interpolates both the instrumental backing and chorus hook from Steve Miller Band\u2019s 1982 Hot 100-topping smash \u201cAbracadabra.\u201d The song also has gained a great deal of attention for its inflammatory lyrics, which see Em back to several of his old tricks \u2013 trying to bait critics with bars that at least verge on the homophobic, transphobic and misogynistic, as well as with one couplet<\/a> making a bad pun about Megan Thee Stallion\u2019s recent shooting at the hands of Tory Lanez. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tDespite the controversy \u2013 or more likely, partly because of it \u2014 \u201cHoudini\u201d has gotten off to an excellent start in consumption. It debuted in the top five on both the daily charts on Spotify and Apple Music and is still hanging around there at mid-week with barely any drop-off, while remaining YouTube\u2019s top-trending music video. Perhaps even more importantly for its chart fortunes, it has held all week at No. 1 on the iTunes sales chart, with Eminem having the advantage of having ruled in the era when digital song sales were still a more central part of the musical economy. He will need some pretty mighty numbers there to have a chance of scoring a No. 1 debut on the Hot 100 \u2014 which would make his first chart-topper since \u201cThe Monster\u201d in 2013, and sixth overall \u2014 but when it comes one of the best-selling artists of the past quarter-century, you never want to proclaim their demise prematurely.<\/p>\n \n\tPost Malone feat. Morgan Wallen, \u201cI Had Some Help\u201d (Mercury\/Republic\/Big Loud)<\/strong>: Three weeks after debuting at No. 1 on the Hot 100, the star team-up between Posty<\/a> and Wallen<\/a> shows no real signs of slowing down: It\u2019s still holding in the top three on both the regular Spotify and Apple Music charts, and is just a couple spots below \u201cHoudini\u201d on the iTunes chart as well. But radio is where the song is really starting to create some distance from the competition: It has already moved into the top five on Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Radio Songs chart over four weeks \u2013 tying for the fastest rise to the region since Miley Cyrus\u2019 four-quadrant smash \u201cFlowers\u201d last year \u2014\u00a0while surging on the country, mainstream pop and adult pop radio formats. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRadio is likely to make the difference for \u201cHelp\u201d in the race for No. 1 next week, unless Eminem\u2019s latest \u2014 which has earned 2 million in all-format radio airplay audience as of June 3, according to Luminate \u2014 grows there at a spectacular rate, while selling digital downloads like it\u2019s 2010 all over again. (If \u201cHelp\u201d holds at No. 1 for a fourth frame, it\u2019ll be the first song to reign for that many weeks consecutively since Wallen\u2019s own \u201cLast Night\u201d a year ago.)\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIN THE MIX<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tShaboozey, \u201cA Bar Song (Tipsy)\u201d (American Dogwood\/EMPIRE\/Magnolia Music)<\/strong>: Shaboozey<\/a>\u2019s solo breakthrough smash has been hanging around the Hot 100\u2019s top five for about a month now \u2013 and it might be due for something of a boost next week, with the release of the country singer-songwriter\u2019s full Where I\u2019ve Been, Isn\u2019t Where I\u2019m Going<\/em> album. The song has also been finding its footing on radio, catapulting from 37 to 22 on Radio Songs<\/a> in just its second week on the chart (dated June 8), and even finally catching on in Nashville, jumping 31-24 on Country Airplay<\/a> as well. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tBillie Eilish, \u201cBirds of a Feather\u201d (Darkroom\/Interscope\/ICLG)<\/strong>:\u00a0\u201cLunch\u201d was tabbed as the focus track from Billie Eilish<\/a>\u2019s Hit Me Hard and Soft<\/em> \u2013 along with a music video and an early radio push \u2013 and it also earned the album\u2019s biggest Hot 100 debut, bowing at No. 5 and holding in the top 10 for a second week this week. But\u00a0this love song may end up being the album\u2019s biggest breakout hit, as the TikTok-approved \u201cBirds\u201d has passed \u201cLunch\u201d on both the updating Spotify and Apple Music charts, and even on iTunes as well. \u201cLunch\u201d will likely continue to have the radio advantage, but \u201cBirds\u201d (up 13-12 this week) may fly past it and into the top 10 on the Hot 100 in the next week or two. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tCentral Cee & Lil Baby, \u201cBAND4BAND\u201d (CC4L\/Columbia)<\/strong>: This Atlantic-crossing collab from London\u2019s Central Cee<\/a> and Atlanta\u2019s Lil Baby<\/a> debuted just outside the top 20 on the Hot 100 this week, and looks to only be gaining in its second week on streaming. Cee, one of the U.K.\u2019s biggest breakout artists of the decade, has long been bubbling just under the mainstream in the U.S. \u2014 and now that he\u2019s got a full-on crossover hit (with a proven American hitmaker as a co-star), there may be no ceiling for his stateside breakthrough. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n