Travis Scott’s re-release of Days Before Rodeo was a huge success, selling 361,000 copies in its first week. However, this result was only enough to reach No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. Topping the list is Sabrina Capenter’s Short n’ Sweet album, which narrowly beats out La Flame, selling around 600 copies. The close contest left the rapper’s team questioning the integrity of unit counting service Luminate.
Travis Scott’s team calls out Luminate
It’s clear that Travis’ goal is to get to No. 1, and as evidenced by the fact that Travis released six Days Before Rodeo deluxe albums on the final day of August 29th, the Houston rapper and his team are clearly excited to get the no. Second place was disappointing. However, that disappointment has turned into accusations of malicious number crunching, with Travis’ team claiming that 1,300 units were not counted.
A rep for Travis Scott told Rolling Stone in a September 6 letter: “This was never about Travis vs. Sabrina; Regarding the integrity of the entire process and the questionable tactics used in the US charts,” Travis Scott’s rep told Rolling Stone in a September 6 letter. “
The letter continues: “With the race so close – within 1,000 units – we implore the organizations responsible for reporting data fairly and transparently to give this set of facts a final thought and reconsider your calculation of the 1,291 verified units. position.
The letter also states that after Travis’ team saw that the numbers were not being counted, they contacted Luminate, the company from which the Billboard chart sales and streaming data are obtained, but Luminate “has not responded or confirmed Data received”.
Travis’ team also questioned Luminate’s “indie retail ‘weight'” and accused the company of a conflict of interest, reporting that one of their employees worked at Sabrina Carpenter’s label Island Records.
A representative for Luminate issued the following statement to XXL on the matter: “We believe our data is correct based on our processes and methodology.”
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Sabrina Carpenter takes on Travis in personal sales battle
Sabrina Carpenter is well aware of her sales battle with Travis Scott. “This one’s for Nicki,” the pop star tweeted on the last day of the week to tally sales figures after Travis’ last-ditch luxury release effort, referring to the post. Travis’ Astroworld album, which prevented Nicki Minaj’s Queen LP from debuting at No. 1 in 2018. Bundle packages to unfairly increase sales.
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XXL has reached out to Travis Scott’s team for comment.
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