In a new interview, the Canadian hip-hop star claims that Billboard changes their charting rules after he released his behemoth double album 'Scorpion' in 2018.
- November 10, 2022
AceShowbiz - Drake doesn't think Billboard chart is reflecting truth. In a new interview, the Canadian star claimed that Billboard changed their charting rules after he released his behemoth double album Scorpion" in 2018.
In a recent episode of DJ Akademiks' "Off The Record" podcast featuring his "Her Loss" collaborator 21 Savage, the "In My Feelings" hitmaker said via phone that Billboard rigged the charts in an attempt to curb his dominance. "I mean, at the end of the day, ever since we were dunning off the charts from 'Scorpion', they fixed the charts anyway," Drizzy said.
He continued, "So it is what it is. You know, they had to give other people a fair shot." While Drake didn't go into specifics, he seemingly referred to a change in the way Billboard counts streams and album sales.
Before the release of "Scorpion", Billboard counted 1,500 streams equal to a single album sale. The week "Scorpion" was released, the company implemented two different ratios to reflect "the disparity in value between a song streamed by a paying subscriber" via Apple Music and Spotify, versus a stream that came from a "free user." The new ratios counted 1,250 paid streams as one album unit, while 3,750 free streams equal one album unit.
Despite the change, Drake's "Scorpion" still debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart with 723,000 album equivalent units in its first week. Some tracks off the album, including singles "God's Plan", "Nice for What", "I'm Upset", "Don't Matter to Me", "In My Feelings", "Nonstop" and "Mob Ties", also landed in the top twenty of the Billboard Hot 100.
Billboard additionally followed the rules with a new one regarding merch bundles in 2020. The company decided to completely eliminate the sale of any album if it came attached with merch or concert tickets because it didn't accurately reflect the interest of consumers.
Back to the interview, Drake later spoke about the projections for his new effort "Her Loss"."We'll do what we do. It's more about the feeling, the momentum; it's not about how long it stays," the rapper said. "Her Loss" is expected to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 400,000 first-week units, according to HITS Daily Double.
