#615-#611

#615. Chance The Rapper (feat Knox Fortune) - All Night (#18, 2016)

64th of 2016

It's difficult to figure out what was going on with the voting for this song. The voting list seems to suggest nothing untoward, but if you look up any social media posts including votes from back in 2016, you'll see that the song was credited as "All Night {Ft. Knox Fortune}/Kaytranada Extended Joint". The forward slash does a lot of work in hindsight, but I remember at the time thinking the song was doing surprisingly well, owing only to the explanation that the extended remix was more popular in its own right. Both versions got equal airplay at the time, although triple j had veered more to the remix later on. On the day, triple j played the original version and basically pretended this whole saga never happened. In the years that have followed, the original version of "All Night" has become one of Chance The Rapper's most popular songs, and triple j are far more likely to play it, but I wonder how many people felt robbed when their votes contributed to a version they were less interested in.

This is Chance The Rapper's only entry as a lead artist. It comes from his popular "Coloring Book" mixtape, and I think this voting result goes some ways to showing just how popular he was. It wasn't quite as obvious because he wasn't putting music out for sale, or even on all streaming platforms at once. He'd just built up a lot of good will that he'd cash in on later. Mostly in the form of hit songs alongside Justin Bieber, but he's still got a #1 hit now. Despite the success, he never troubled the Hottest 100 again after 2016. A lot of critics like to look back at this era with respect to presidential terms, and so you'll often see Chance The Rapper seen as a specific relic of the Obama era with just how quickly his prospects of being the next big thing fizzled out afterwards.

To date, Chance The Rapper has officially released one album in his career, 2019's "The Big Day". This album gained immediate infamy for how bad it was. A nearly 80 minute saga about his marriage. It's a reputation that's preceded things to the degree that 'I LOVE MY WIFE' has become a memetic phrase to mock the album, even though Chance never actually says that anywhere on the album. I just assumed he did until I finally made the grim decision to listen to it now just to put it all to bed.

I honestly don't think the album sounds anywhere near as bad as it's made out to be. I don't want to listen to it again because it's way too long, but I'm sure you could trim it down to a concise 45 minutes and salvage something of value on it. Everyone goes open season on Chance's bars for being corny, I won't disagree on that but I also think that it's something he'd been coasting on for all of his career. The difference between endearing & cringe is paper thin it seems. It all feels like a knee-jerk online reaction from fans, because a lot of critical reviews were relatively positive and more willing to go along with Chance's ambitious project. In any case, it's done largely irreparable damage to his brand that he's never recovered from. To make matters worse, he ended up getting divorced.

I was definitely more on board for the "Acid Rap" and "Coloring Book" years though. Nowhere near as much as the most ardent fans, but when he was on, he really could play a part. His verse on Action Bronson's "Baby Blue" is iconic, and if you disagree, I hope there's always snow on your driveway, and that you win the lottery and lose your ticket. There's another song I'm strongly thinking about too, but it's too early for that. Chance is allowed one victory lap.

To be fair, "All Night" immediate stood out as a highlight to me on "Coloring Book" when I first heard it. Not necessarily in the usual way as it wasn't really shocking or extravagant, but it did have an immediately catchy hook. Chance does feel a bit like a guest on his own song, and a little like he's stumbling through something he doesn't belong in. The song isn't long enough to drag on though, so it's suitable enough.

#614. St. Lucia - Elevate (#93, 2013)

65th of 2013

We've already had Panama (#856), so what's another Central American nation? This would actually be a lie, however. St. Lucia is the project of South African musician Jean-Philip Grobler, and he named himself after the small town of that name in South Africa. In case you were wondering, St. Vincent has never made the Hottest 100, but she also didn't take her name from the country in question. What a waste of good musical geography trivia.

I don't know if I have much else to say about this one. I've always liked this song, and it feels like a perfect culmination of what it's trying to be. Synth pop that just sounds enormous, and layers itself in a very tidy and pleasing way. No other St. Lucia song I've heard has ever gotten my attention the same way this one does. I think it's mainly just Grobler's vocals, that rest too far on the side of hammy, that it gets distracting. I hear a bit of it in this song as well, but I think he manages to get away with it for the most part.

#613. San Cisco - Hey, Did I Do You Wrong? (#79, 2017)

59th of 2017

It's been a long time since I can remember being excited for San Cisco to make the grade, so it's a solid credit to them that it's taken this long just to start looking at their original material. Maybe that bodes poorly on them and we're about to just run through an endless stampede of San Cisco. I don't study the upcoming portion of this list thoroughly so I couldn't tell you if that is or isn't the case. Makes it more fun for me when I see what's on the docket.

"Hey, Did I Do You Wrong?" comes from San Cisco's 3rd album "The Water". It was the first sign of real cracks in the process as lead single "SloMo" couldn't quite crack the list, landing at #121 in 2016. If they managed to get in with that, they'd have a consecutive run of 10 years in a row on the countdown from 2011 to 2020, matching The Living End's record.

I'm not sure if this is a significant step up to justify putting them back on the hit list, but it is solid cosy vibes. It's the kind of thing they've just always been good at, even on their debut album. I don't really have anything to add on this one but did you know that Scarlett had a child with James from Pond recently? That kid's surely going to grow up to be the greatest drummer in all of Western Australia.

#612. Hilltop Hoods (feat Illy & Ecca Vandal) - Exit Sign (#10, 2019)

56th of 2019

If you're remember when I was talking about "Painkiller" (#806), I mentioned a Hilltop Hoods song that was firmly released in 2019 but for lack of any arriving options, was nominated for Single Of The Year at the 2020 ARIA Awards. I say firmly 2019 and I mean it. This song debuted in the ARIA top 50 in March 2019, and left the chart in July 2019. Hilltop Hoods' next hit "I'm Good?" (#779) was released a fair bit later in the year in 2020, but wasn't able to repeat the feat of being nominated in 2021. They haven't had a major hit single since these two, so there might not be another chance for it.

I could say the same thing I said about "Rushing Back" (#619). This isn't a single that screams long term success, especially since Hilltop Hoods so often have short-lived singles that don't truly crossover. But on the other hand, Illy is a much more notable name to get than Hilltop Hoods had usually been working with, so it serves as a sorta last hurrah for this era of Australian hip-hop. The 2020s have been very different thus far. Maybe it doesn't feel like a major hit, but it really did hang around for a long time, accumulating 6xPlatinum figures in Australia.

It's not just Illy here though, I have to give a big shout out to Ecca Vandal. She belongs to a group of artists of whom I can only recall Sycco at the moment. Artists who I certainly noticed thanks to an early single on triple j that wasn't a hit by any stretch, but stuck out to me as aggressively annoying. When this happens, I often can't help but have them grow on me because it's basically a self-imposed character arc at this point, waging a war inside my own head. You know who had an arc? Noah.

It helped too that her music kept getting better after that. Her first single "White Flag" has its appeal centred on how well you can get down with her vocal inflections, but then a year later she released "Battle Royal", which just instantly asserts itself with huge rock energy. Is this the part of the blog where I endlessly spiel about the Japanese novel of nearly the same name? Absolutely not, there's a better opportunity later on if you can believe it. Ecca Vandal released her debut album a couple of years later in 2017, and it's a riot all the way through. My favourite song is "Broke Days, Party Nights" which once again sets a new standard for how hard one can rock. Truly she had no money and three parties with this one.

"Exit Sign" doesn't really play to those strengths but I'm still happy to see her here. Just one of the more unlikely artists to score a Hottest 100 top 10 finish, especially as she hasn't gotten remotely close otherwise. She sells her hook with all the necessary conviction though. She's like the audio equivalent of that one America's Next Top Model GIF where the contestant very enthusiastically enters the scene. Everybody say 'Hi!'.

Otherwise the song is mostly memorable for the occasional bizarre lyrics. You've got Pressure creating the mental image of your parents seeing your nudes, Illy getting over-invested in a '15 minutes of fame' bar, and then Suffa going on full old man rant about the way people use the word 'literally'. He's been doing this for so long, he just wants to be with his kids.

#611. Parkway Drive - Crushed (#48, 2015)

61st of 2015

'Crush' is such a vividly violent word. It probably has no real place in the world of pop music but I always found myself disappointed when I saw it in a song title and it didn't amount to the tough image I conjured in my head. That's right: Jennifer Paige, Mandy Moore, David Archuleta, all massive disappointments to me. On the other hand, earlier in 2025, Playboi Carti & Travis Scott released a song called "CRUSH" that does give me what I want. When they say it like that, it sounds absolutely rancid and unpleasant. Playboi Carti will eventually appear on this list in an uncredited role. Anyway, Parkway Drive did this thing a decade ago and didn't make it sound gross, just aggressive in a way that only Winston can pull off.

Compared to the other Parkway Drive entries I've had here, this feels more naturally within their area of expertise. It's not all serious, there's some silly energy that comes about from screaming 'BANG, BANG, BANG!', and even the titular phrase, 'crushed by the fists of God' feels absurdly melodramatic. It sufficiently gets my attention though, and I'm pleasantly lacking in things to critique about it. Their first Hottest 100 entry, "Sleepwalker", still clears this but it's a good substitute for this era.