Playboi Carti is having a moment. He managed to translate all the anticipation and buzz surrounding his album into a massive first week. MUSIC lived up to its lofty title by dominating the music conversation. It racked up impressive streaming numbers, and Hip Hop All Day likened its first week numbers to some of the biggest rap albums in recent memory. Here's the thing, though. MUSIC's numbers do not reflect its physical sales, and everyone, including Playboi Carti, is confused.
Hip Hop All Day reported that Carti's album moved 250K just from streaming units. They likened these healthy streaming numbers to blockbuster releases like UTOPIA by Travis Scott and WE DON'T TRUST YOU by Future and Metro Boomin. The account noted, however, that MUSIC's first week numbers fail to incorporate physical and bundle sales. Why? They've no idea. A fan asked Hip Hop All Day why such an obviously established metric would no unreported during its most important. The outlet responded. "Not a clue," it wrote. "They never report the sales like this, seems odd." Then, Playboi Carti responded. The rapper quote tweeted Hip Hop All Day and wrote: "IT IS ODD."
Playboi Carti Best Selling Album
Playboi Carti is doing fine, of course. MUSIC is projected to debut at number one on Billboard 200, which would mark the biggest debut of his career. This album has absolutely dwarfed the albums and mixtapes that precede it, despite them all being hailed as classics. Carti is the rare artist who has sold increasingly more with each new release. His self-titled album sold 28K units first week, while Die Lit sold 61K. Then, the highly anticipated and highly influential Whole Lotta Red sold 100K units in 2020. Despite being such an enigmatic figure, it seems Playboi Carti's approach to releasing music is proving effective.
If physical sales and bundles were included, one can imagine that the first week numbers would be even more impressive. In this regard, it's easy to see why Carti is annoyed. Still, he's doing fine. In fact, MUSIC is on pace for a historical first three days. Hip Hop All Day claims the album amassed 139 million streams on Spotify during its first day, followed by 89.7 million streams its second day. The album is therefore on pace to achieve a top three biggest opening week of all time for a hip hop release.
