Tekashi 6ix9ine‘s new album didn’t sell as many copies as the “GOOBA” artist had hoped, a fact many hip-hop fans are more than aware of. Unfortunately for 6ix9ine, the rapper released his latest project around the same time as Big Sean’s Detroit 2, with the latter earning around 103,000 units its first week.
Tattle Tales, on the other hand, charted at number 4 with just 53,000 units. Not long after the low numbers were revealed, DJ Akademiks came out to speculate that the reduced sales may have been due to Billboard’s disqualification of album bundles.
Billboard revealed earlier in the year that they would disqualify albums released as bundles from final sales, however, they didn’t plan on putting the new standard into practice until the following month.
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HipHopDX was the first to point out that Billboard’s counting of Tekashi 6ix9ine‘s record sales actually did include bundle sales. Reportedly, 32,000 of the 53,000 sales were pure album sales, and the rest were apart of bundles.
Although 6ix9ine didn’t make it to the top of the Billboard 200, he did manage to earn the number one position on the Top Album Sales Chart, meaning that he sold more than any other artist at least in terms of pure album units.
Explained in another way, it’s actually not that bad of a record for Tekashi 6ix9ine, but it may be an indication that the hype surrounding his music is starting to die down. However, other reports claim the performing artist is finding it challenging to get interviews.
The outlet claims the rapper has been reaching out to outlets and publications for interviews, but no one wants to grant them. In other words, it’s almost as if he’s been blackballed.
Tekashi 6ix9ine did manage to appear on Fox News as well as The Shade Room, but other more respected members of the community, including Joe Budden and Gillie Da King, denied his request. Budden recently explained that he felt as though his request for an interview was more of a “co-sign” than anything.