WHAT makes a hit? Is it the lyrics, the artiste, the hype at the time? Is it “something special” about the voice or rhythm?

The TEENage Hitlist pinpoints the hits and the misses as soon as we hear both local and international releases.

Local Hit Of The Week – Facebook Love by Eva Hype

Eva Hype’s Facebook Love is the opening number and stand-out track on his mixtape Music & Her. It is a slow tempo R&B track that could have easily been found on Drake’s So Far Gone. This comparison is a noteworthy one for the upcoming fusion artiste, who is multi-faceted in the fields of dancehall, hip-hop/rap, and R&B.

Facebook Love is a song narrating a tale of courtship to relationship by a moderately auto-tuned crooning Eva Hype.

The song’s subject matter was articulately delivered by Eva Hype, whose vivid analogy between the popular social network Facebook and that of a relationship makes this song the standout that it is, and can be seen as the Usher’s Dot Com of this generation.

Mario Dunwell, the man behind the boards for Facebook Love, must be commended for the song’s production that created the perfect setting for Eva Hype’s lyrics with its slow-paced instrumentation consisting of a compelling keyboard and guitar arrangement, electronic synths, and light drums.

TEENage Hitlist believes that Eva Hype’s Facebook Love has a very good chance of crossover success not only locally, but internationally, especially with the social network buzz currently taking place globally, and hopes that the team behind this upcoming artiste doesn’t waste any time in giving this song the promotion it deserves.

International Hit Of The Week – Roll Up by Wiz Khalifa

Whenever an artiste, whose fan base began at the grassroots, builds his or her way up from above the underground to that of crossover success, this transition is never a smooth one. This is currently the predicament that one-time indie rapper and now Billboard Top 100 pole-position-holder Wiz Khalifa is now facing. His grassroots fan base isn’t happy about the route that he has taken to crossover since his breakout single Black & Yellow, and Roll Up will be no different.

Despite what the song’s title suggests, Roll Up is about Wiz Khalifa’s attempt to mend a friend’s broken heart that is in a tumultuous relationship, and be seen as the suitable alternative for her.

Wiz Khalifa was never a rapper known for lyrical verbosity, but his verses and chorus in Roll Up are below expectations for a rapper who is the current talk of the town. This, though, can be because of the song’s attempt to reach a wide array of listeners, which can be achieved due to the clarity and melodiousness in Wiz Khalifa’s delivery.

The song is produced by Norwegian production outfit Stargate, whose production here could have easily been mistaken for any of their Rihanna or Ne-Yo numbers, thus perfect for this pop-oriented attempt.

TEENage Hitlist believes that Wiz Khalifa has hit the point of no return during the saga of his crossover success, and Roll Up is a single befitting of his new fan base but a let-down to his underground loyalists.