Despite the numerous ways in which the music industry has changed over the years (especially within the past few), first week sales continue to be a telling sign as to which artist's projects are delivering at their desired capacities, and which are unexpectedly flopping and falling to the bottom of the chart.
It seems the latter was the fate of DaBaby after he unexpectedly delivered his Baby on Baby 2 project last weekend.
Even with the enticing tactics Jonathan Kirk used – such as claiming to have slept with Megan Thee Stallion on multiple occasions and using a lookalike in the "BOOGEYMAN" music video, as well as sampling audio from a 911 call earlier this year after he shot a home intruder – it was revealed that he was only able to move 17K album-equivalent units in his first week, putting him between DJ Khaled (18K) and CMG the Label (17K).
When the projections for Baby on Baby 2 arrived online last week, a slew of artists expressed genuine shock while claiming that the explanation must be that the 30-year-old has been "blackballed" by the industry – allegations he himself has also made.
"Not bad for Da blackballed Baby," he wrote on social media after finding out about the news.
On his Twitter page, Boosie BadAzz wrote, "Ain't no way my n*gga @DaBabyDaBaby supposed to sell 16K after selling almost 150K his last first week!! He one of the BIGGEST [in] this shit!! I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON, BUT SOMETHING IS DEFINITELY GOING ON!!"
While DaBaby and co.'s numbers and comments have left some raising their eyebrows, many hip-hop heads are happy to see that he was at least beat out by Lucki's Flawless Like Me, which sold 25K in its first week.
Check out Twitter's reaction to the news below, and tap back in with HNHH later for more hip-hop news updates.