The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2018

The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2018

In the following few paragraphs, I take a look at one of the worst years of the 2010s for the Hot 100 and tear into the songs that really made it that bad.

(this list was originally created on July 23, 2021)

Well, scratch what I said at the end of my 2019 lists, it looks like I’m actually about to get this out before I leave!! Anyway hi guys, welcome back to Fire's Flaming Hot Takes, it’s time for another list!! Today we’re tearing into the top 10 worst hit songs of 2018!

2018 has developed a reputation of being one of the worst, if not the worst, year of the 2010s for the Hot 100 by many music critics, with some of the worst hit songs of the 2010s being on this year end. And having listened to this list, well...

Okay I knew this list was gonna suck even before I started checking it out. And yeah, that assertion was fully solidified after this relisten, 2018 was a terrible year for the Hot 100. But why is for different reasons than you’d expect. But first, what did 2018 give us? Well, I’ll say this, for Hot AC music, 2018 was actually pretty damn great for that format - it was finally churning out some Hot AC-exclusive hits and wasn’t just a slower rate Pop format. But we’re not here to talk about the Hot AC charts, we’re here to talk about the Hot 100, so what did we get? Well, trap was still in full dominance on the Hot 100, however it’s not the fantastic trap that 2017 offered us, it was instead trap that was outright atrocious and genuinely offensive. This is all while pop was still pretty damn strong and country was beginning to make its comeback after practically disappearing for 2 years. Honestly, in a way, the 2018 year-end was better than I expected it to be. So this is one of the worst years of the 2010s for the Hot 100 because multiple of its lows are “worst of the decade tier” atrocious, and that really weighs down an otherwise average and quite boring year for the charts. I said in my 2019 lists that that year was a reverse 2018, and for the most part, that is true. Pop had an equal amount of dominance this year as it did in 2019, but it had more quality this year. Trap had a great year in 2019 but a very poor year in 2018. Country was making its comeback in the mainstream both years, with 2018 notching some genuine quality, while 2019’s country was quite mediocre.

Overall, there were 31 songs on this year-end list - including 2017 repeats - that fell into my “mediocre” tier or lower, which is honestly fewer than I initially expected. I don’t really have the same anger towards this year than I do in 2019, but its worst hits are undeniably way worse, honestly my #1 worst pick for 2019 probably wouldn’t have even made my top 3 worst on this list, yeah that’s how egregious the lows were this year. Anyway, enough rambling, as always, the song must have had to debut on the year-end Hot 100 list in 2018 in order to qualify, so time to take a look at some truly offensive garbage towards the top of this list, but for now we’re sticking with normal “bad” with our dishonorable mentions.

DM #1: Migos f/Drake - Walk It Talk It (YE: #43, PEAK: #10)

I honestly like Migos more than pretty much everyone else says, but what is this? Who told Migos that Quavo rapping an insanely repetitive chorus in a staccato flow across a painfully stiff trap beat was a good idea? Really, in a year with a bunch of trap slog, if you weren’t offending me, the worst you could do was bore me, which this did, next!

DM #2: XXXTENTACION - SAD! (YE: #17, PEAK: #1)

Honestly, on a musical level, this is probably the “best” of XXXTENTACION’s songs on the year-end list - seriously the other two only barely missed the list - but this song is here based on its message which is utterly despicable. The song is essentially guilt tripping an ex into staying with him by threatening suicide. All with an emotionless rapper and a production that’s just strings and a trap beat that feel so clumsily blended together, yeah this is pretty damn bad.

DM #3: BlocBoy JB f/Drake - Look Alive (YE: #23, PEAK: #5)

Alright, Drake had a massive year in 2018, with 8 songs of his making the Hot 100 year-end. It’s a shame that none of them are really all that good - barring a few exceptions. If anything it exposed that at this point, Drake is just not even trying anymore. His rapping is ridiculously lifeless, the piano line mixed with the trap beat gets old quickly, and BlocBoy JB sounds terrible. Like “Walk It Talk It”, this song just bored me.

DM #4: Kenny Chesney - Get Along (YE: #87, PEAK: #22)

I said that most of the country this year was actually pretty strong, but there are a few notable exceptions, one of them being this. This is down here for much of the same reasons “American Kids” made my worst list in 2014, it’s too generic! To be fair to this song, the percussion is a bit heavier giving this song more weight than “American Kids”, but “Get Along” is just incredibly faceless all the way through, and as I said, if you weren’t actively offending me, the worst thing you could do this year was bore me. But let’s go back to Drake for a moment.

DM #5: Lil Baby & Drake - Yes Indeed (YE: #25, PEAK: #6)

I can just say the same stuff about Drake here that I said for “Look Alive”. It’s a generic trap song otherwise, and then we got Lil Baby, giving off one of the worst first impressions I’ve ever heard in a song. He gives off a ridiculously lazy performance and his voice is just terrible. And then we got that one line - “wah wah wah, bitch I’m Lil Baby” - yeah I think that should be where you scrap the song entirely. Lil Baby, you may have made something that’s genuinely great like “The Bigger Picture”, but just one bit of advice, first impressions are lasting impressions, and you’ll always be getting a bit of side-eye for this catastrophe of a song.

DM #6: Zedd, Maren Morris, & Grey - The Middle (YE: #8, PEAK: #5)

This was the point where Zedd severely declined as a producer, resorting to reusing the same ticking clock beat in pretty much all of his songs. And unlike Kygo, who is able to recycle his tropical house drop and still make it sound fresh, Zedd’s ticking clock got stale fast. It worked on “Stay” because it was the first time they became prominent, but by that point the general public had already gotten slightly sick of “Stay”, so obviously the best thing to do is just remake “Stay” again and do it this time with a producer apart of the worst aspects of “Starving” - even if I do like that song - and a country singer that doesn’t sound nearly as good on this as Alessia Cara did on “Stay”. And somehow, this song ended up becoming bigger than “Stay”. Look, I have a lot of great things to say about “Stay”, but “The Middle” is absolutely terrible, next!

DM #7: Bebe Rexha f/Florida Georgia Line - Meant To Be (YE: #3, PEAK: #2)

Ladies and gentlemen, here we got the biggest “country” song of 2018 and the #1 country song of the entire decade. Yet it’s a song that has aged extremely poorly to the point it’s finished lower than multiple songs that I’d consider easier picks for this list. Bebe Rexha sounds fine on this admittedly, but Florida-Georgia Line sounds absolutely awful on this, and then we got a repetitive and annoying chorus, this was only a thing because country radio was - and still is, for that matter - doing everything in its power to revive bro-country which had already died back in 2015. Then the production, just a piano line and trap beats, it’s practically just an annoying pop song! Seriously, Florida Georgia Line had “Let Me Go” with Hailee Steinfeld, Alesso, and Watt charting this year, probably the best song they have ever released, yet while that song tanked America let this lame excuse of “country music” become a monster hit, just fuck everything.

Alright all of those were pretty damn bad, but now for the list proper!

10...If I did this back in 2018, “New Rules” would’ve probably been a dishonorable mention. I always found it to be one of the most overrated songs of the 2010s, and while I still don’t like it, I’ve warmed up to it a bit. This one, on the other hand, has stayed just as terrible as it was back in 2018...

10. Dua Lipa - IDGAF (YE: #98, PEAK: #49)

This song only reminds me of Pink’s generic 2010s material. The guitars in the verses aren’t distinctive, the song is so awkwardly midtempo, and it’s just flat out boring all around. Now, I’ll give Dua Lipa a bit of credit here, she can actually sell the anger really damn well, if only the production was able to match it, like my god! The guitars I mentioned earlier are gutless and soulless, the percussion doesn’t add any tension, and again, this tempo is so awkward. It’s not an upbeat kiss off, it’s not a slow-tempo “moving on” song, it’s not even in the healthy medium, it’s just so awkward all the way through. Dua Lipa’s personality was able to keep this song from landing higher on this list, but that said this song is still terrible, thank god she improved with Future Nostalgia.

9...Let me talk about another song that would’ve landed on this list if I did this back in 2018, “I Like It”. That said, it’s still pretty damn mediocre, and just very annoying all the way through, but I hate it less today. But this song, I never liked even back in 2018, and yet I only think it’s aged really badly...

9. Cardi B - Be Careful (YE: #59, PEAK: #11)

If we can’t choose Drake, I’d say Cardi B is the next bet as the artist with the best year in 2018, notching 8 songs on the year-end as well, however not all of them are her as a lead artist. On some level, I get the appeal of this. Cardi is just laying out all her anger at Offset for cheating on her. But god, the implications of this song are genuinely awful. This is implicating an abusive relationship from Cardi. In a way, neither side in this relationship is totally innocent. And those abusive implications really drag the song down, and it’s not like it was even good in the first place. The beat is oddly stiff and blocky and tries to be laid-back, which not only doesn’t match the vibe the song is trying to go for, it just sounds very unpleasant. Look, Cardi’s material as a lead artist is usually pretty terrible outside of “Up”, “Drip”, and “Ring”, and this isn’t any exception.

8...I have no idea how Jason Aldean has become such a huge artist in country...

8. Jason Aldean - You Made It Easy (YE: #70, PEAK: #28)

I only recently found out that Morgan Wallen and Florida Georgia Line wrote this song and it all makes too much sense. Granted, this is no bro-country song, and Jason Aldean doesn’t sound miserable on this. But still this is generic, faceless, and painfully basic. Even though Jason Aldean doesn’t sound miserable on this, he doesn’t sound all that excited either - he kinda just doesn’t show any emotion in his voice at all. And that’s what really puts this song on this list. When you don’t add the charisma or excitement in a song that’s otherwise very generic - the guitars and the snaps are blended together in the most basic way possible and the melody isn’t really all that memorable or distinct either - it becomes lifeless and hurts your song badly. It’s what made “Perfect” and “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran work, Ed had that charisma and lovestruck tone in his voice to make those songs work. This isn’t Jason Aldean’s worst song, by any means, but it feels like he was trying to recreate “Don’t You Wanna Stay”, an already aggressively mediocre song, and just ended up doing it worse.

7...I think it’s safe to say that this song was the point where reggaeton artists just stopped trying...

7. Nicky Jam & J Balvin - X (YE: #90, PEAK: #41)

How is it possible that these lazy and annoying reggaeton songs always manage to get a billion YouTube views? That may be why the reggaeton artists just stopped trying, anything they put out would get a billion views, reminds me of Maroon 5 and their hit or miss 2010s, knowing that whatever they put out the radio would just jump on it immediately and bam, they got another top 10 hit on their hands. The biggest reason “X” is on this list is because of that terrible synth, it’s so weak, basic, lazy, and annoying, and it only gets worse when they decide to actually increase its pitch. And even beyond that, the beat is stiff and neither act sounds interested on this song - at least Daddy Yankee brought in some charisma on “Dura” - this is just so awkward, stiff, and annoying. And one more thing, apparently this song is supposed to be focused more on the production, but how does one do that with this song exactly? This is just lazy, grating, and highly incompetent. I’m just glad we’re not seeing any more of this on the Hot 100 in 2021.

6...And you know what, on the topic of points where artists just stopped trying with their music...

6. Drake - I’m Upset (YE: #86, PEAK: #7)

Look, I’ll admit, I’ll stand up for “God’s Plan” and “In My Feelings”, but I genuinely can’t stand up for “I’m Upset”, one of the biggest missteps of Drake’s career. The whole song’s central idea is about being upset, and Drake as always is just emotionless and can’t sell that idea of being “upset” at all. The production just drones on, it’s so minmal and repetitive and when you have someone with no personality like Drake, it just makes the whole song a thousand times worse. Half of Drake’s entries on this year-end make this list, and this is easily one of the worst. He might be seeing chart success with those songs, but this really can’t be good for your long-term career, and I have a feeling that when the general public realizes that these lifeless non-efforts of songs are not worth their time at all and stop streaming them, Drake is really gonna be upset.

5...As I said, 2018’s lows were absolutely atrocious and potentially among the worst of the decade. Now we’re about to dig into the truly offensive garbage this year, starting with a song that...okay, is there a worst of 2018 list where this song does not appear?

5. Lil Dicky f/Chris Brown - Freaky Friday (YE: #55, PEAK: #8)

This song becoming a hit was really one of the many indicators that 2018 was an utter trash year for not just music, but society in general. The only reason this song isn’t higher on this list is the production, but even then it’s only barely better than your average 2014 DJ Mustard production. The song is centered around the idea of Lil Dicky and Chris Brown switching bodies. And I can’t be the only one thinking who the hell would want to be Chris Brown in 2018? Lil Dicky, while supposedly in Chris Brown’s body, claims that he can sing so well, while managing to slog through excessive levels of autotune. And again, why would you want to be Chris Brown? Just to say the n word? Just to admire your big dick? And Chris Brown, supposedly in Lil Dicky’s body in this song, is enjoying no paparazzi. But what really kills this song is that outro. Where Lil Dicky ends up in Kendall Jenner’s body, and then proceeds to explore her genetalia without her consent. And I’m left thinking what the hell is the joke in this song? I get it, it’s a comedy song that’s not supposed to be taken seriously, but if you can’t even be funny, then there’s no point in even ignoring everything else. This song is utter hot garbage, and given how Lil Dicky’s career was basically euthanized thanks to the release of “Earth” - a song that I honestly don’t hate nearly as much as everyone else does even if it isn’t good by any means - no one seems to be missing him. And somehow, this is only #5 on the list.

4...Well that last one was pretty damn heavy, how about a song that just sounds like utter crap from the get go as a breather?

4. Lil Pump - Gucci Gang (YE: #44, PEAK: #3)

To this day, it still utterly astonishes and confuses me as to how this song managed to climb all the way up to #3 on the Hot 100. This is probably the laziest song of the 2010s. Lil Pump just repeats the title line until the two words sound like mush in your head, and the song overall is just utterly asinine. As I’ve said before, if you’re gonna make a stupid song, at least bring in charisma and energy. Lil Pump doesn’t have any energy or charisma, he sounds super bored on this production which despite admittedly nailing that eerie atmosphere it just can’t support Lil Pump’s lifeless rapping at all. It might’ve been big at the time, but “Gucci Gang” has basically just become a punchline, and is easily one of the most embarrassingly and laughably bad songs of the 2010s.

3...In some twisted way, I kinda see the appeal in this song. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less atrocious.

3. 6ix9ine - GUMMO (YE: #56, PEAK: #12)

And here, we got the song that managed to make 6ix9ine a thing, even though he's a ridiculously one-dimensional troll, and yet somehow this isn’t the worst song I’ve heard from him, but make no mistake, “GUMMO” is still absolutely horrendous. Remember when I said that personality is usually what makes a trap song? Well, 6ix9ine manages to somehow add too much personality in “GUMMO”, as he just screams for 2 and a half minutes across a beat that is eerie yet also very annoying - those synths present in the background are just an absolute earsore. And that screaming gets ridiculously annoying very quickly, as at points he ends up going off the beat, and then he proceeds to yell the n word after pretty much every line...keep in mind that this dude is white. Then there’s that one line, “I don’t fuck with no old hoes, only new hoes” - this dude was arrested for distribution of child pornography, which all of a sudden makes this lyric more troubling. Yet in some weird way, I get why someone would like this. It’s obnoxious and blaring, and I know there’s an audience when it comes to that sort of thing. But for me, this is atrocious and paved the way for an artist completely unlikeable and an utter hack to score more hits. And we’re not done with him just yet!

2...Taking a break from that annoying earsore of a song and that absolute hack of an artist, here we got a song that’s emblematic of the worst parts of reggaeton and is just utterly insufferable the entire way through...

2. Casper Magico, Nio Garcia, & Darell f/Bad Bunny, Nicky Jam, & Ozuna - Te Bote (YE: #81, PEAK: #36)

Did anyone even ask for this song? Did anyone actually ask for 6 of the most forgettable and interchangeable reggaeton artists to collaborate together to make a 7 minute long break up song that has a production no different than any other reggaeton song I’ve heard? The vocals are all excessively autotuned, the production is so sour - which may have been the intent but doesn’t make this listenable - and the lyrics are beyond misogynistic. The production has no energy or flare. All 6 performers are so interchangeable, the only one that stands out is Ozuna and not in a good way, because he opens the song by screeching in such a bad voice that bats would go deaf. Then the lyrics, pulling up an English translation, would it be enough for me to just say that the title of this song translates to “I dumped you”? This song is just 6 random dudes complaining and moaning about how they all dumped their girls. And did I mention that some of these lyrics are misogynistic? I’ll just share a few of the translated lyrics “I have a new ass that gives me a lot of affection and fucks me real good”, “I no longer suffer for love, I now break hearts”, “With you I’m obligated to wear a condom today” - now maybe these lyrics might’ve just been translated terribly through Google Translate, but even if you disregard all that, let’s not forget to mention that this worthless pile of garbage is 7 minutes long. This is so dull and monotonous, and I genuinely don’t see how someone could ever possibly enjoy this trash.

1...So remember when I was talking about “GUMMO” and how in some twisted way I can kinda see the appeal in it? It’s blaring and obnoxious and 6ix9ine’s rapping, if nothing else, is at least interesting? So what happens when you strip away any potential appeal or “redeeming” qualities that 6ix9ine could have? Well...

1. 6ix9ine f/Nicki Minaj & Murda Beatz - FEFE (YE: #31, PEAK: #3)

There are two types of “no redeeming qualities” levels I have. One of them is “there’s nothing here I enjoy at all, but I see how someone might like this”, the other is “how in the world does someone enjoy this?”. “FEFE” falls into the latter category for me quite easily, which very few songs manage to do, so this song is getting a very high dishonor. 6ix9ine and Nicki don’t have any chemistry on this song, and overall this is just very unsettling. I’ll deal with the production quickly, the two-note beat is super stiff, and it’s overall very eerie and quite headache inducing. And somehow it strips the personality away from both 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj. Who told 6ix9ine that autotune would flatter his voice, he has no energy or charisma at all, and neither does Nicki honestly, who just sounds like she’d rather be anywhere else. The lyrics are a bunch of absolute nonsense, where in order to fill time 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj resort to repeating words. And when the lyrics are not a bunch of nonsense you are forced to picture the most unsettling and disturbing “sexual” encounter you could probably think of. In fact, this song is so embarrassing that Nicki actually took it off her album. And despite all of this, this was a top 3 hit, and finished in the top 40 on the 2018 year-end chart. And if anything, this proved that 6ix9ine was sticking around. And as such “FEFE” by 6ix9ine, Nicki Minaj, and Murda Beatz is the worst hit song of 2018. And given how 6ix9ine’s success is starting to dry up rapidly, I think it’s for the better. No one seems to be returning to “FEFE” these days, let’s keep it that way.

So yeah, 2018’s lows are absolutely execrable and offensive. But like I said in the intro, 2018 was slightly better than I had expected it to be. There are actually quite a lot of gems. My best list will be up in a bit.