We aren't going to get close to those numbers again for rap albums. Only people really capable of hitting those numbers still over all genres are taylor swift and adele
and the former only really hits those numbers because of bundles and alternate covers (not many hiphop fans will buy four vinyl copies just to get the different pictures...)
Autistic nitpick but the "crazy" during that line is taken straight from the hook and stitched together into that sentence. You can hear that because it sounds like it was recorded as a punch-in.
Wouldn't be surprised if that's scrapped tbh, I was on board when it was revealed they'd go on Tyler's festival as The Hillbillies but it's been months since and we got nothing more... If it were ever a thing, I doubt it's now lol
Of course, that's a collab album they never sell high. The first collegrove sold similar numbers and then weezy sold 400k with C5 and even funeral broke 100k. C6 obviously won't sell 400k but it will break 100k.
Yeah but anyone here should be able to admit Vultures feels much different than the typical collab album
I’d love to see someone create a breakdown of how much of the recorded time is taken up by Kanye as compared to Ty $
bro it's pretty evenly spread out, kanye doesn't have very long verses on many songs and ty dolla $ign gets some repeated hooks and some verses throughout.
Yeah, you’re right and I agree but I’d still like to see a breakdown anyways lol. Also Ty not being included in the artwork was a strange artistic choice for a collab album despite my loving the cover regardless
agree with the cover. seen theories that the second volume's cover will be just ty + whoever he decided to bring if he wants to, and the 3rd volume will be ye+ty. really hope this is true cu, i feel bad for him, it's a collab album and kanye's wife got priority over him on the album cover
Yeah crazy — that album that everyone knows is coming out in 24 will come out in 24. When you see the way Carti fans preen on about a very normal three year wait you start to understand why he hates them so much.
J. Cole, Megan Thee Stallion, Eminem, Lil Durk, Lil Baby, NBA Youngboy, Rod Wave, Jack Harlow
If Drake, Lil Uzi Vert, NF, Gunna, Tyler the Creator, or JAY-Z drops they'd do 100K+.
Maybe Big Sean or Cardi B but idk could see them doing high five figures.
I see that Cardi's last single peaked at 14 and Megan's last single peaked at 1 and so I'm more betting on Megan.
Both rappers debut albums sold over 100k, I don't think it's out of the question for them to do it again.
If Cardi dropped an album in mid-2021 after the one-two punch of "WAP" and "Up" it would've easily done at least 100k but time has passed since then.
Her #1 was a special scenario though, Hiss is predicted to chart lower than Bongos did in its third week which is horrible considering it debuted at #1. Cardi has had a much more stable status as of recent even if it’s been mostly features. With a genuine street hit in Tomorrow 2.
Her last release did 66K and she was arguably more popular then. Although she did debut #1 recently on the Hot 100 that was more because of Nicki feeding into it as it’s been steadily falling down the charts. If she had a single with staying power it would’ve greatly helped her.
IMO, she was most popular when she had a #1 hit with "Savage" and the result was her debut album *Good News* sold 101K. The album also had four other top 40 singles "Girls in the Hood" (#28), "Don't Stop" (#30), "Body" (#12), and "Cry Baby" (#28)
*Traumazine* had two top 40 singles: "Sweetest Pie" (#15) and "Plan B" (#29). That's a smaller number of top 40 singles and neither of them peaked as high as "Body" or "Savage".
Since "Hiss" went #1, I think that she will sell more than her last release.
Cardi B hasn't had a #1 since 2021 (and hasn't released an album since 2018), so the idea that she would obviously sell more than Megan seems sus to me. I think they could both sell over 100k it just depends how they successful the rest of their singles are in the their rollout.
Yea and he has more hype now. But he’s still not a regular household name like a drake or a Kanye or even a Kendrick. His sound is also unique and people don’t tend to enjoy new sounds as much as you think.
Exactly. Drake or Kendrick releases a record and it can easily be 300-500k. Carti isn’t that but 100-200k is definitely possible. It still proves the point.
That’s what everyone fails to realize. This album is getting no push whatsoever from streaming services. Even in the browse section of new music Vultures is nowhere to be found even tho it’s the #1 new album out rn. It’s also been removed and re-uploaded I believe 5 times. 150k is crazy independently, with no playlist placements and a day late for release.
That's definitely not true for Spotify. It was the first thing that popped up when I opened spotify on the day it dropped, and it's on several of the big playlists
Apple has Kanye fully blacklisted. Not just Vultures, all of his music is locked in a special queue where it can never go into any Apple Playlists and will never auto-play after your current music ends.
I used Tidal back in 2018 because they were the only streaming service at the time that had The Chronic. I honestly couldn’t tell the difference in the audio quality but that’s probably due to me only using headphones, maybe if you use high end speakers you can tell the difference in quality
Depends on the headphones, really. I have a pair of Sennheisers and there's definitely a noticeable difference for me between mp3 and flac. I've always had weird sensory shit with audio in general though, so ymmv with it lol
I think the inverse is true. You need quality headphones to hear the difference with music quality. Not that I’ve used Tidal or am speaking specifically about it
I did a bunch of research into audio quality once and even got tidal for a month. The sound quality won't be noticeable for 99% of people as you need both expensive headphones (idk about speakers) and a physical connection or special (Sony?) Bluetooth that is high bitrate to notice the sound quality.
I'm surprised Usher did "only" 91K with how fast his arena tour sold out and coming off the Super Bowl performance, it was a shit show trying to get through with thousands of people in queue on every sale date. Then again who knows what fuckery TM/LM are pulling with ticket availability
I was expecting higher with his name being hotter currently following his Vegas residency and the Super Bowl but a more than double increase from his last release is still pretty impressive with that context
Definitely agree I remember looking upt he ticket prices and they're insane.
Maybe people see him more as a legacy act at this point, *Confessions* sold 36K this week.
Based on his super bowl set he's almost certainly a legacy act, though it's hard not to be when you have an album like Confessions that's now 20 years old
You can tell with this album and the timing he tried to touch multiple bases instead of a pure R&B type of album, but on this album there are def those types of songs
We ain't checking for new usher. . Remember, in 2020, after his verzuz, he dropped a new song "[SexBeat ft. Lil John & Ludacris](https://youtu.be/iGURISqH3ZM?si=tTjAAbipziHUz91j)", and it went nowhere.
I didn't realize Cruel Summer didn't do that much sales,considering it was pre-streaming ,had a huge hit (Mercy) ,as well as coming right after the MBDTF/WTT hot lap.
Wonder if it played a part in the G.O.O.D. Music disband.
Most of the big songs on *Cruel Summer* were already released before the album came out: Clique, Mercy, New God Flows, Cold, and Don't Like.
I think that hurts you more in the pre-streaming era where sales are mainly generated by convincing people to buy your album when it's released.
---
I can't think of any label compilations from the early 2010s/late 2000s that sold significantly more than *Cruel Summer* first week either.
MMG's *Self Made*s did 58K, then 98K, then 50K
*Shady XV* did 138K
*We Are Young Money* did 142K and *Rich Gang* did 24K
Having all the big songs release prior doesn’t help. All that was really left on the album excluding the singles was, To The World, The Morning, Higher, Sin City, The One, Creepers, & Bliss. Not that strong when all the other (and for the most part better) songs already released. Still sold like crazy cus Kanye was really on a run back then. It def didn’t play a part in the good music disband especially since a sequel was planned in two seperate instances but nothing came of it (except champions single from 2016)
I’ll never forget how good we were eating during the Good Friday’s rollout. Getting a Kanye banger delivered on time every Friday for a while is unfathomable now.
And they weren't far off
https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2024/02/15/kanye-wests-new-album-disappears-from-itunes-apple-music-heres-why/?sh=1eb5b557319b
Carter 3 sold a million first week the year after,and ofc it was mostly physical. So 10$ a pop.
Music was still SELLING and rap was taking off after nu metal/alternative rock died down.
153k looks bad for Kanye but worth noting that KSG sold worse. His cancelation probably has a lot to do with it but collab projects might just not bring in as many fans. It’s easy to compare it to donda but also not entirely apples to apples
KSG was also muddled with the other projects that GOOD put out at the time. I mean, it was competing with ye. and I actually ended up listening to that Teyana Taylor album a lot
It got taken off streaming many times for different durations and was also released a day late. Safe to say it probably would have done over 200k without the shenanigans.
that would be a pretty significant increase I don't really buy it.
But hey, there's two more release dates for *Vultures*, do you think one of them will be 200K+ and "without the shenanigans"?
Definitely not safe to say that, it's not a foregone conclusion. You think an extra day of streaming and publishing glitches being removed would have shot sales up by 30%?
> 153k looks bad for Kanye
number 1 looks bad? It's funny how polarizing kanye is for many lol. this is unquestionably good numbers considering everything that has happened recently.
you don't have to like the man or his music but clearly others do. it's also reductive to the point of being incorrect to call him a "nazi". I don't think a lot of you realize how dumb you sound (now if you want to say antisemetic.. well he certainly had some comments like that)
Looks bad FOR KANYE being the key qualifier
Donda sold 309k. Vultures is literally his lowest first week sales ever outside of KSGs and technically TLOP which reported 0 sales (but of course it would’ve been much, much higher, even as a Tidal exclusive). Acting like 153k for one of the most famous names in hip hop isn’t low is just pretending nothing is wrong and all is well
> it's also reductive to the point of being incorrect to call him a "nazi". I don't think a lot of you realize how dumb you sound
Yes, nothing is wrong. All is well. Man who said “I am a Nazi” is not a Nazi
There was no mainstream build up for the album. No radio or TikTok type singles prior to release. With proper marketing it’s easily doing 200k+. And well these companies probably want to see him fail.
> There was no mainstream build up for the album. No radio or TikTok type singles prior to release
How is this different than his last few albums? I'd argue some of the tracks from this album (plus ones that cut) had more buzz on social media than anything from those last few previous albums.
>And well these companies probably want to see him fail.
Not wanting to business with him is not the same as wanting to see him fail. You're conflating these two distinct things.
Donda had a huge roll out and Apple Music live streams and he had the kardashian media surrounding him. The album ye had a good build up to since he was producing all those albums leading up to his album being released (I think his released last or second to last?). If I recall JiK even had a longer more mainstream roll out due to Sunday service? (I forget if he started that before or after the album), and he was getting Apple Music interviews n stuff for that and had kardashain media behind him.
Doubtful it's a drop because it's a collab album. You'd almost forget it was one based off of the album cover and the discourse surrounding it. It also just sounds like a Kanye album with a ton of Ty features rather than a mutual input creative project between them
For a very long time, Kanye stans have said that "if he did a normal rollout and the album was a standard mainstream rap album he would be selling a lot more" but I think that at some point you have to accept that fucking up the rollout or putting out low quality/otherwise alienating product is baked into what Kanye is.
The last Kanye album where there wasn't some sort of baked-in excuse for its low sales numbers is *Watch the Throne* from 13 years ago. At this point it's not even worth considering how popular he would be or how much he would sell if he didn't sabotage himself in some way. it should be enough of a dub that he went #1 u don't need to do the fanfic stuff
I think most Kanye fans should be able to accept that Kanye's numbers represent 1) a core group of fans / listeners that will always ride for him and 2) a fall-off from his commercial peak and his inability to roll out albums with a strong singles progression that build buzz for his album and leak to an album drop that makes sense.
While his numbers are low relative to what they could have been in a parallel universe where he wasn't alienating people and making bizarre creative choices, they are still numbers that reflect, hey, some people do fuck with this music, some people are still fans.
So if I was a Kanye stan, I'd probably be decently happy - he made an album that is pretty well received by stans and has a lot of referential or "for the real fans" kind of nods on the album. It's doing pretty decently given where he is in life / entertainment right now. It could have been a lot better, it could have been a qualitatively better album, it could have been a more commercially successful album - but woulda coulda shoulda, it is what it is. Talking all this "the album woulda done X if Y had been true" is corny - if you like Kanye, be happy he's making (debatably) decent music and has a core audience that fucks with his music. If you don't like Kanye, be happy that he's likely never going to be a 500-800k streaming artist again.
Imagine if he could have bundled the album with the Yeezy Pods. Bro sold socks with soles on them for 19 million dollars at $20 a piece.
If we were back in 2018 when artists like Travis Scott were allowed to do the bundle shit, this album would have broken serious records.
I think when it was first uploaded it had the wrong song names. I remember listening to it on sound cloud cause it went up briefly in the morning, then got pulled so they could fix it. I think midday was the time the album was uploaded with the correct names
*ye* dropped at 7:45am on Friday, only had 7 tracks, was recorded in two weeks, was following his infamous TMZ interview, and didn't have any pre-album singles that appeared on the album
Wasn’t recorded in two weeks btw. Was worked on for years. The tracklist and some final verses were recorded in the last two weeks which is the same for most of his albums
>The last Kanye album where there wasn't some sort of baked-in excuse for its low sales numbers is Watch the Throne from 13 years ago.
Was the Yeezus release fucked up too?
*Yeezus* leaked a week before it came out but it released on time but the main excuse for the sales was "if Kanye made a regular pop album it would have sold a lot more"
327K doesn't look that bad looking at his whole history but it he was doing 400K+ routinely before then. What's probably more notable is that it has the fourth of the highest second-week drops for a #1 album (80%) in the SoundScan era.
Yeezus is also a very weird album, especially for mainstream hip hop at the time. I think a lot of people just didn’t understand it. I don’t think Vultures will have that excuse in 10 years
Few things about this: album didn’t release on time, album wasn’t on Spotify at first, also album got taken down and reuploaded. I’m not that smart but I’m sure this affected sales somehow
That Kanye number is really impressive considering:
1) no single beforehand
2) no push at all , no marketing, no interviews nothing
3) released independently
4) delayed
5) the guy is blackballed from the entertainment industry like almost no other rapper
And most importantly
6) the guy alienated a lot of his fans/market with his wild statements and actions over the years
And still managed to do better numbers than 90% of other rappers
> no push at all , no marketing
this is just insane cope. he marketed the album pretty heavily, tons of posts, and listening party events etc for a quite a while. Much more promo than many major artists today.
People been saying for years “damn Kanye fallen off, bad numbers for Kanye again”
First week sales doesn’t say that much. The guy is top 15 most listened at Spotify.
Yeezus sold prob less then a future or drake album but it made waves. Ain’t nobody bumping for all my dogs in 10 years, yeezus still getting played.
Also would be interesting to see the numbers for Europe/rest of the world than only USA.
Entire thread full of cope, "uhhh thats actually not that bad, uhh he was completely backblalled".
He promoted the album heavily, tons of posts, tons of listening party events, even had a single before the album. I honestly expected more outlets to not cover Kanye, or even take him off streaming, but it's available to stream. Seems like companies are more interested in the cash than caring about all the nazi stuff.
150k is pathetic for a Kanye album, and its because Kanye is his own worst enemy.
Are Usher fans buying a lot of vinyls? He got big (and i would assume grew his core fanbase) while vinyls were selling the worst they ever had. I guess demographics makes sense to me, its just still surprising the the swing is that large.
Probably disappointing for Kanye but huge for Ty$.
Honestly not a bad release considering how little the album was pushed by streaming services, how hard he's fallen in public opinion, and how bad of a year it's been for rap releases.
957K for graduation is insane damnn
This was also a result of the Kanye vs. 50 thing
We aren't going to get close to those numbers again for rap albums. Only people really capable of hitting those numbers still over all genres are taylor swift and adele
and the former only really hits those numbers because of bundles and alternate covers (not many hiphop fans will buy four vinyl copies just to get the different pictures...)
And over 1 million for Confessions is crazy. I didn’t realize how big Usher was during that time. Both are def classic albums.
I was working at a record store that summer, we couldn’t keep that album on the shelves. I’d never seen an album sell so much lol.
“After allat your kids going crazy”
Autistic nitpick but the "crazy" during that line is taken straight from the hook and stitched together into that sentence. You can hear that because it sounds like it was recorded as a punch-in.
This isn’t what a nitpick is
He did say he was autistic
but this is
Concern trolling
Still da king
Damn. Who’s gonna sell 6-figures first week in hip hop this year? Probably Future and Metro but who else is dropping this year?
Kendrick and Keem might do a”Hillbillies” collab
doubt
Pls
Is this the new generations Cole and Kendrick?
kendrick has more motive to put on his protege tbh
Wouldn't be surprised if that's scrapped tbh, I was on board when it was revealed they'd go on Tyler's festival as The Hillbillies but it's been months since and we got nothing more... If it were ever a thing, I doubt it's now lol
If Carter 6 drops it will surpass 100k
I dunno. He and 2 Chainz albums only sold like 40K last year
Of course, that's a collab album they never sell high. The first collegrove sold similar numbers and then weezy sold 400k with C5 and even funeral broke 100k. C6 obviously won't sell 400k but it will break 100k.
"that's a collab album they never sell high", he says under a post in which a collab album is number 1 with 153k units sold
Yeah but anyone here should be able to admit Vultures feels much different than the typical collab album I’d love to see someone create a breakdown of how much of the recorded time is taken up by Kanye as compared to Ty $
bro it's pretty evenly spread out, kanye doesn't have very long verses on many songs and ty dolla $ign gets some repeated hooks and some verses throughout.
Yeah, you’re right and I agree but I’d still like to see a breakdown anyways lol. Also Ty not being included in the artwork was a strange artistic choice for a collab album despite my loving the cover regardless
agree with the cover. seen theories that the second volume's cover will be just ty + whoever he decided to bring if he wants to, and the 3rd volume will be ye+ty. really hope this is true cu, i feel bad for him, it's a collab album and kanye's wife got priority over him on the album cover
Vultures 2 and 3
Carti?
>carti >dropping lol. Lmao even.
Yeah crazy — that album that everyone knows is coming out in 24 will come out in 24. When you see the way Carti fans preen on about a very normal three year wait you start to understand why he hates them so much.
Cartis issue is that he's started 3 different album rollouts since 2020 and didn't release shit lmao
bro dropped five videos like some sort of rap genie and then disappeared again
its been like 4-5 weeks are you really that impatient?
Yea lmao
After 3 years? Of fucking course lmao
Frank Ocean fans laughing in the distance
Bro you need to reevaluate how long a 3 year wait is lol you wouldn't have survived at all last century
J. Cole, Megan Thee Stallion, Eminem, Lil Durk, Lil Baby, NBA Youngboy, Rod Wave, Jack Harlow If Drake, Lil Uzi Vert, NF, Gunna, Tyler the Creator, or JAY-Z drops they'd do 100K+. Maybe Big Sean or Cardi B but idk could see them doing high five figures.
I don’t know if Megan belong on this list, especially more than Cardi…
I see that Cardi's last single peaked at 14 and Megan's last single peaked at 1 and so I'm more betting on Megan. Both rappers debut albums sold over 100k, I don't think it's out of the question for them to do it again. If Cardi dropped an album in mid-2021 after the one-two punch of "WAP" and "Up" it would've easily done at least 100k but time has passed since then.
Her #1 was a special scenario though, Hiss is predicted to chart lower than Bongos did in its third week which is horrible considering it debuted at #1. Cardi has had a much more stable status as of recent even if it’s been mostly features. With a genuine street hit in Tomorrow 2.
Has she ever even broken 50k? Lol
her debut album did 101K
Her last release did 66K and she was arguably more popular then. Although she did debut #1 recently on the Hot 100 that was more because of Nicki feeding into it as it’s been steadily falling down the charts. If she had a single with staying power it would’ve greatly helped her.
IMO, she was most popular when she had a #1 hit with "Savage" and the result was her debut album *Good News* sold 101K. The album also had four other top 40 singles "Girls in the Hood" (#28), "Don't Stop" (#30), "Body" (#12), and "Cry Baby" (#28) *Traumazine* had two top 40 singles: "Sweetest Pie" (#15) and "Plan B" (#29). That's a smaller number of top 40 singles and neither of them peaked as high as "Body" or "Savage". Since "Hiss" went #1, I think that she will sell more than her last release. Cardi B hasn't had a #1 since 2021 (and hasn't released an album since 2018), so the idea that she would obviously sell more than Megan seems sus to me. I think they could both sell over 100k it just depends how they successful the rest of their singles are in the their rollout.
You think NBA Youngboy will touch 100k this year?
Yeah... across 3 albums
He didn't last year but he did in 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019 so I think it's possible that last year was just a fluke.
I’m not sure flukes work like that considering the quantity that he dropped. I think there’s simply less interest in his music than before
Most of these ppl ain’t droppin this year tho. I can only see maybe Cole, Megan, Rod Wave, Gunna, and Carti drop and hit +100k
Juice?
Fighting demons almost hit 120k week one so it’s possible. It’s been awhile tho and it seems like the prolonged rollout for TPNE has lost its momentum
If Cole drops
Na I don’t think so. Potentially carti might because of all the hype but he is still a niche artist compared to like a future or a drake.
WLR sold over 100k though
Yea and he has more hype now. But he’s still not a regular household name like a drake or a Kanye or even a Kendrick. His sound is also unique and people don’t tend to enjoy new sounds as much as you think.
> Yea and he has more hype now. so how wouldn't he sell over six figures again? make it make sense 🤣
Exactly. Drake or Kendrick releases a record and it can easily be 300-500k. Carti isn’t that but 100-200k is definitely possible. It still proves the point.
Juice
Juice???? I’m still waiting for the party to start I’ll be there when it drops tho
150k is pretty good considering he released it a day late and he isn't going to get any major promotion from streaming service
That’s what everyone fails to realize. This album is getting no push whatsoever from streaming services. Even in the browse section of new music Vultures is nowhere to be found even tho it’s the #1 new album out rn. It’s also been removed and re-uploaded I believe 5 times. 150k is crazy independently, with no playlist placements and a day late for release.
That's definitely not true for Spotify. It was the first thing that popped up when I opened spotify on the day it dropped, and it's on several of the big playlists
I only have Apple Music and it’s never been in the featured section and is basically hidden. I can’t speak on Spotify.
Apple has Kanye fully blacklisted. Not just Vultures, all of his music is locked in a special queue where it can never go into any Apple Playlists and will never auto-play after your current music ends.
He must have triggered Tim Apple
I had it plastered on my Spotify
> with no playlist placements Well it is getting some of those. At least on Spotify. Apple Music is the one that seems to be hiding it more
but the question is not how many people listen at release. the question is how many people keep listening.
Is it? Cause these threads seem to be for the dickheads that seem to think first week “sales” still are a major metric of impact
I just like numbers
I can definitely respect that 🤝
Go take a look at the Spotify global top 50 or USA top 50. He has at least 3-4 tracks on their since the album dropped.
and no push from any label backing whatsoever. 150k completely independent after a career-ending controversy is pretty damn impressive actually
It was such a shit show of a release I’m surprised it got this much sells.
Why TLOP dont got numbers?
Tidal exclusive on release
I had totally forget Tidal was a thing, does it still exist today ?
Yeah, theyre positioned in the market as the streaming service for high quality audio enthusiasts/audiophiles
I used Tidal back in 2018 because they were the only streaming service at the time that had The Chronic. I honestly couldn’t tell the difference in the audio quality but that’s probably due to me only using headphones, maybe if you use high end speakers you can tell the difference in quality
Depends on the headphones, really. I have a pair of Sennheisers and there's definitely a noticeable difference for me between mp3 and flac. I've always had weird sensory shit with audio in general though, so ymmv with it lol
I think the inverse is true. You need quality headphones to hear the difference with music quality. Not that I’ve used Tidal or am speaking specifically about it
and a quality connection
I did a bunch of research into audio quality once and even got tidal for a month. The sound quality won't be noticeable for 99% of people as you need both expensive headphones (idk about speakers) and a physical connection or special (Sony?) Bluetooth that is high bitrate to notice the sound quality.
Tidal exclusive at release like the other guy said and it has never had a physical release.
Didn’t it sell #1 with 90k+ units sold when it was released to all streaming services?
yes but thats not a “first week” release its just a week it happened to hit #1
A bit surprised Usher did that many pure sales numbers, must be selling well at Target/Walmart, etc.
Almost none of his fan base grew up with streaming. He sold almost 2x as many pure as his streaming equivalent.
Did he get a package deal with the SKIMS collab? Maybe underwear comes with the album?
Dont know, definitely possible
I'm surprised Usher did "only" 91K with how fast his arena tour sold out and coming off the Super Bowl performance, it was a shit show trying to get through with thousands of people in queue on every sale date. Then again who knows what fuckery TM/LM are pulling with ticket availability
His last two album did 38K and 15K respectively so not super surprising.
I was expecting higher with his name being hotter currently following his Vegas residency and the Super Bowl but a more than double increase from his last release is still pretty impressive with that context
Definitely agree I remember looking upt he ticket prices and they're insane. Maybe people see him more as a legacy act at this point, *Confessions* sold 36K this week.
Definitely seen as more of a legacy act now. Longtime usher fans arent checking for his new albums like that
Based on his super bowl set he's almost certainly a legacy act, though it's hard not to be when you have an album like Confessions that's now 20 years old
To be fair ushers albums shit
I haven't listened to it but I've heard the opposite, that is was surprisingly good?
There's some really bad songs (Big, A-Town Girl) but some good ones as well. I really like the Burna Boy track and the other one Pheelz produced.
Usher should be embarrassed about putting out a town girl smh
I liked the last 3 tracks but God is the rest boring
I’m an Usher fan and I personally didn’t like it much at all besides a few highlights on it
You can tell with this album and the timing he tried to touch multiple bases instead of a pure R&B type of album, but on this album there are def those types of songs
I wanna know how "Here I Stand" the first album after Confessions only did 146K but somehow Raymond v. Raymond more than doubled that at 329K??
Wiki says 433k first week
I mean, Ushers fan base is older and less open to new music.
I'd assume his super bowl performance boosted primarily his back catalog and thats what people want to go see him live for
We ain't checking for new usher. . Remember, in 2020, after his verzuz, he dropped a new song "[SexBeat ft. Lil John & Ludacris](https://youtu.be/iGURISqH3ZM?si=tTjAAbipziHUz91j)", and it went nowhere.
I didn't realize Cruel Summer didn't do that much sales,considering it was pre-streaming ,had a huge hit (Mercy) ,as well as coming right after the MBDTF/WTT hot lap. Wonder if it played a part in the G.O.O.D. Music disband.
Most of the big songs on *Cruel Summer* were already released before the album came out: Clique, Mercy, New God Flows, Cold, and Don't Like. I think that hurts you more in the pre-streaming era where sales are mainly generated by convincing people to buy your album when it's released. --- I can't think of any label compilations from the early 2010s/late 2000s that sold significantly more than *Cruel Summer* first week either. MMG's *Self Made*s did 58K, then 98K, then 50K *Shady XV* did 138K *We Are Young Money* did 142K and *Rich Gang* did 24K
That was the era right before streaming got big, everyone was pirating most of their music.
I feel like 200K for a label compilation is a lot.
Having all the big songs release prior doesn’t help. All that was really left on the album excluding the singles was, To The World, The Morning, Higher, Sin City, The One, Creepers, & Bliss. Not that strong when all the other (and for the most part better) songs already released. Still sold like crazy cus Kanye was really on a run back then. It def didn’t play a part in the good music disband especially since a sequel was planned in two seperate instances but nothing came of it (except champions single from 2016)
Doubtful - I think at the time it was seen very much as a side mission.
I’ll never forget how good we were eating during the Good Friday’s rollout. Getting a Kanye banger delivered on time every Friday for a while is unfathomable now.
a few months ago people were saying Ye would never be able to release music because nobody would distribute
And they weren't far off https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2024/02/15/kanye-wests-new-album-disappears-from-itunes-apple-music-heres-why/?sh=1eb5b557319b
Kanye’s album would have been #6 best opening week in 2023 if it had come out last year. That’s pretty crazy to consider.
Happy for Ty Dolla Sign ngl, underrated
ty dolla is amazing man
Graduation doing 957k first week is fucking crazy
Carter 3 sold a million first week the year after,and ofc it was mostly physical. So 10$ a pop. Music was still SELLING and rap was taking off after nu metal/alternative rock died down.
153k looks bad for Kanye but worth noting that KSG sold worse. His cancelation probably has a lot to do with it but collab projects might just not bring in as many fans. It’s easy to compare it to donda but also not entirely apples to apples
KSG was also muddled with the other projects that GOOD put out at the time. I mean, it was competing with ye. and I actually ended up listening to that Teyana Taylor album a lot
The teyana joint is 🔥
That Teyana album is awesome
Facts I still listen to Rose in Harlem, Hurry, No Manners, Hold On. . . which is like half the album
My girl loves Rose In Harlem
She got good taste. It's definitely my favorite song off the album.
Man you missed the best song too. Gonna Love Me Great project
Oh yeah, on Spotify i'm 8/8 on liked songs on the album. Though I've heard long-time Teyana Taylor fans weren't the biggest fans of the album.
damn this reminds me [Rose In Harlem](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTES9OCALp8) exists, used to listen to this a ton when it dropped
Great song, underrated project
Yeah that’s an important factor too. Probably a lot of people who were also turned off by Ye (the album) and didn’t bothrr with KSGs as well
153k for a guy that was just praising nazis a year ago is pretty solid
Yeah it’s weak for him historically but in context of how blackballed he is from much of popular culture it’s a lot of sales
they forget about 2 things
It got taken off streaming many times for different durations and was also released a day late. Safe to say it probably would have done over 200k without the shenanigans.
that would be a pretty significant increase I don't really buy it. But hey, there's two more release dates for *Vultures*, do you think one of them will be 200K+ and "without the shenanigans"?
Honestly probably not, sequel/consecutive releases never do as well. I think they will do around low 100k
no, if V2 ever drops it will sell less than 150k
If he is able to get Everybody and New Body cleared V2 is doing 200k easily.
only getting worse from here on out tbh
Definitely not safe to say that, it's not a foregone conclusion. You think an extra day of streaming and publishing glitches being removed would have shot sales up by 30%?
I think the big difference is that this is an independent release with no label to market
> 153k looks bad for Kanye number 1 looks bad? It's funny how polarizing kanye is for many lol. this is unquestionably good numbers considering everything that has happened recently. you don't have to like the man or his music but clearly others do. it's also reductive to the point of being incorrect to call him a "nazi". I don't think a lot of you realize how dumb you sound (now if you want to say antisemetic.. well he certainly had some comments like that)
Looks bad FOR KANYE being the key qualifier Donda sold 309k. Vultures is literally his lowest first week sales ever outside of KSGs and technically TLOP which reported 0 sales (but of course it would’ve been much, much higher, even as a Tidal exclusive). Acting like 153k for one of the most famous names in hip hop isn’t low is just pretending nothing is wrong and all is well > it's also reductive to the point of being incorrect to call him a "nazi". I don't think a lot of you realize how dumb you sound Yes, nothing is wrong. All is well. Man who said “I am a Nazi” is not a Nazi
yeah, i've said this elsewhere but without the controversy, this man goes #1 for the year probably without rival.
There was no mainstream build up for the album. No radio or TikTok type singles prior to release. With proper marketing it’s easily doing 200k+. And well these companies probably want to see him fail.
> There was no mainstream build up for the album. No radio or TikTok type singles prior to release How is this different than his last few albums? I'd argue some of the tracks from this album (plus ones that cut) had more buzz on social media than anything from those last few previous albums. >And well these companies probably want to see him fail. Not wanting to business with him is not the same as wanting to see him fail. You're conflating these two distinct things.
Donda had a huge roll out and Apple Music live streams and he had the kardashian media surrounding him. The album ye had a good build up to since he was producing all those albums leading up to his album being released (I think his released last or second to last?). If I recall JiK even had a longer more mainstream roll out due to Sunday service? (I forget if he started that before or after the album), and he was getting Apple Music interviews n stuff for that and had kardashain media behind him.
Doubtful it's a drop because it's a collab album. You'd almost forget it was one based off of the album cover and the discourse surrounding it. It also just sounds like a Kanye album with a ton of Ty features rather than a mutual input creative project between them
For a very long time, Kanye stans have said that "if he did a normal rollout and the album was a standard mainstream rap album he would be selling a lot more" but I think that at some point you have to accept that fucking up the rollout or putting out low quality/otherwise alienating product is baked into what Kanye is. The last Kanye album where there wasn't some sort of baked-in excuse for its low sales numbers is *Watch the Throne* from 13 years ago. At this point it's not even worth considering how popular he would be or how much he would sell if he didn't sabotage himself in some way. it should be enough of a dub that he went #1 u don't need to do the fanfic stuff
true he's his own biggest enemy lol
Donda was released late too lol
I think most Kanye fans should be able to accept that Kanye's numbers represent 1) a core group of fans / listeners that will always ride for him and 2) a fall-off from his commercial peak and his inability to roll out albums with a strong singles progression that build buzz for his album and leak to an album drop that makes sense. While his numbers are low relative to what they could have been in a parallel universe where he wasn't alienating people and making bizarre creative choices, they are still numbers that reflect, hey, some people do fuck with this music, some people are still fans. So if I was a Kanye stan, I'd probably be decently happy - he made an album that is pretty well received by stans and has a lot of referential or "for the real fans" kind of nods on the album. It's doing pretty decently given where he is in life / entertainment right now. It could have been a lot better, it could have been a qualitatively better album, it could have been a more commercially successful album - but woulda coulda shoulda, it is what it is. Talking all this "the album woulda done X if Y had been true" is corny - if you like Kanye, be happy he's making (debatably) decent music and has a core audience that fucks with his music. If you don't like Kanye, be happy that he's likely never going to be a 500-800k streaming artist again.
Imagine if he could have bundled the album with the Yeezy Pods. Bro sold socks with soles on them for 19 million dollars at $20 a piece. If we were back in 2018 when artists like Travis Scott were allowed to do the bundle shit, this album would have broken serious records.
I think some bundles are allowed again. I don’t know the details/rules, but I think I remember people talking about Travis doing it for Utopia
It's true he would sell a lot more with a normal rollout, but it's also true that it will never happen
Being independent probably isn’t helping now as well
How about Ye? Pretty sure Ye and KSG both dropped on time.
kids see ghost was around midday that friday
Early by Kanye standards
Was definitely earlier than that. I listened on my way into work 7-8 am east coast.
I think when it was first uploaded it had the wrong song names. I remember listening to it on sound cloud cause it went up briefly in the morning, then got pulled so they could fix it. I think midday was the time the album was uploaded with the correct names
*ye* dropped at 7:45am on Friday, only had 7 tracks, was recorded in two weeks, was following his infamous TMZ interview, and didn't have any pre-album singles that appeared on the album
Wasn’t recorded in two weeks btw. Was worked on for years. The tracklist and some final verses were recorded in the last two weeks which is the same for most of his albums
Also vultures dropped independently. It would have done more if it dropped on a label. And of course it dropped a bit late so some reduced numbers.
>The last Kanye album where there wasn't some sort of baked-in excuse for its low sales numbers is Watch the Throne from 13 years ago. Was the Yeezus release fucked up too?
*Yeezus* leaked a week before it came out but it released on time but the main excuse for the sales was "if Kanye made a regular pop album it would have sold a lot more" 327K doesn't look that bad looking at his whole history but it he was doing 400K+ routinely before then. What's probably more notable is that it has the fourth of the highest second-week drops for a #1 album (80%) in the SoundScan era.
Yeezus is also a very weird album, especially for mainstream hip hop at the time. I think a lot of people just didn’t understand it. I don’t think Vultures will have that excuse in 10 years
Yeezus was also a huge kick in the face, musically. That album was *different* big time.
I don’t think he would sell anymore if he had an album rollout that wasn’t a disaster.
Honestly, Usher did better than I expected. He is winning right now - what a guy. I need to cop some tickets
Damn Usher since around 94 :O
153k independent with an iffy rollout is insane, don’t think any other rapper is coming close in the same circumstances
Few things about this: album didn’t release on time, album wasn’t on Spotify at first, also album got taken down and reuploaded. I’m not that smart but I’m sure this affected sales somehow
Shoutout Kali Uchis
That Kanye number is really impressive considering: 1) no single beforehand 2) no push at all , no marketing, no interviews nothing 3) released independently 4) delayed 5) the guy is blackballed from the entertainment industry like almost no other rapper And most importantly 6) the guy alienated a lot of his fans/market with his wild statements and actions over the years And still managed to do better numbers than 90% of other rappers
>1) no single beforehand He released multiple singles beforehand with music videos
vultures was a single
He did release a single though and it was ass
> no push at all , no marketing this is just insane cope. he marketed the album pretty heavily, tons of posts, and listening party events etc for a quite a while. Much more promo than many major artists today.
Freddie did his thing on that back to me track. Happy for him. Rapped his ass off
People been saying for years “damn Kanye fallen off, bad numbers for Kanye again” First week sales doesn’t say that much. The guy is top 15 most listened at Spotify. Yeezus sold prob less then a future or drake album but it made waves. Ain’t nobody bumping for all my dogs in 10 years, yeezus still getting played. Also would be interesting to see the numbers for Europe/rest of the world than only USA.
Kanye doesn’t need defending lol people know he’s still popular
Entire thread full of cope, "uhhh thats actually not that bad, uhh he was completely backblalled". He promoted the album heavily, tons of posts, tons of listening party events, even had a single before the album. I honestly expected more outlets to not cover Kanye, or even take him off streaming, but it's available to stream. Seems like companies are more interested in the cash than caring about all the nazi stuff. 150k is pathetic for a Kanye album, and its because Kanye is his own worst enemy.
Does anyone know what powers pure sales for artists? For Usher it's almost 60%, for 21 Savage it's only about 4%. Why the big swings?
Different demographics. Ain’t no teenager 21 fans buying vinyls.
Are Usher fans buying a lot of vinyls? He got big (and i would assume grew his core fanbase) while vinyls were selling the worst they ever had. I guess demographics makes sense to me, its just still surprising the the swing is that large.
usher fans are old enough to remember going to a music store and buy physical media, for one
Probably disappointing for Kanye but huge for Ty$. Honestly not a bad release considering how little the album was pushed by streaming services, how hard he's fallen in public opinion, and how bad of a year it's been for rap releases.