Why first-week gross sales don’t matter in keeping with Joey Bada$$

Joey Bada$$ is an intriguing and distinctive rapper. Born and raised within the East Flatbush space of Brooklyn, the emcee (actual identify Jo-Vaughn Scott) first surfaced within the early 2010s as considered one of New York’s most promising younger prospects. As an unbiased artist and unbelievable lyricist, Scott put New York again on the map when he dropped his debut mixtape, 1999.

Scott has at all times remained unbiased and has launched all his music via Professional Period Data, a label based by the Brooklyn Pro Era collective, of which he’s a member, alongside Kirk Knight, CJ Fly and the late Capital STEEZ, 

Akin to figures resembling Likelihood The Rapper, Vince Staples and Smino, Joey Bada$$ has at all times remained unscathed by developments and has endured in making music that’s true to himself as a substitute of pursuing the mainstream. 

As such, his music is refreshing, has notable substance and stands out in opposition to a backdrop of soundalike mumble rappers. Though that has its advantages, and he has cultivated a cult following, he doesn’t have the machine of a label like Atlantic pushing his music to the forefront. Due to this fact, some may interpret his first week gross sales as low.

That stated, the rapper just lately took to Twitter/X to handle the relevance of first-week gross sales within the new musical panorama. The Flatbush native insisted that this outdated trade approach of measuring success doesn’t “matter anymore” and asserted that charts not replicate the trendy days of streaming. As an alternative of meaningless numbers, he informed listeners to merely “shut the f**k up and enjoy the music.”

Since the release of his album 2000 in 2022, the emcee has been a bit quiet. Nonetheless, upon his return to Twitter/X, he wrote, “It’s been a minute, hey guys. I’m back!” He continued, “I feel really compelled to say: F*ck first week sales. They simply don’t matter anymore for the simple fact that no one is buying albums. I mean, when’s the last time anyone you know bought an album?!”

He added, “We all can stream anything we want but in order for it to count as an album sale, you need to listen to every song like 1000+ times. They trynna make it seem like everybody flopping when it reality they changed the rules.”

Addressing the trade, Scott requested, “So someone plz tell me why the f**k is anybody still worried about that? They trynna take the power from the musician because they never learned how to measure influence properly. At this point, just shut the f*ck up and enjoy the music.”

He concluded his heartfelt assertion, writing, “For all the people saying ‘he’s only saying that because he’s not doing good first week numbers,’ first of all, that’s subjective nowadays unless you’re Drake or Taylor Swift level. I have always had a loyal fan base that have always supported me, even after taking five years off. STILL came back and sold out 1500-3500 cap rooms ALL OVER THE WORLD.”