NAV recently released his new album OMW2 REXDALE, which caused quite a lot of conversation online for unexpected reasons. Initial sales projections suggested this would be the highest hip-hop debut on Billboard in its corresponding first week, outpacing numbers for the new Lil Durk album Deep Thoughts. As such, everyone expressed surprise when Billboard revealed their final numbers and how they disqualified over 60K projected unit sales from the Toronto rapper's latest. Some folks were already skeptical, but the reasoning behind this is unclear. That is, until DJ Akademiks did some digging and appeared on his livestream to break it down.
First off, it's important to note DJ Akademiks' admitted reluctance to fully stand by everything he heard in his research with alleged sources, so take all this with the same grain of salt he is. Regardless, he compared the NAV sales situation to previous bundle sales controversies like those associated with Travis Scott's ASTROWORLD and, most recently, with Playboi Carti's MUSIC. However, the case of OMW2 REXDALE is different. Bundles aren't the issue here, but rather an alleged violation of new Billboard rules they set on February 28.
NAV First Week Sales
Basically, according to DJ Akademiks, projections indicated NAV would sell around 70K units (some projected up to 83K) in OMW2 REXDALE's first week. This number apparently centered on digital album sales via his private website, which is what Billboard wanted to crack down on when they slashed his official sales down to 19K. Apparently, the new album sold for a lower amount than the threshold Billboard set for sales to count on their 200 albums chart. In addition, Ak posited how Billboard likely wants to target private website sales in particular because it's harder to regulate and keep track of whether or not they follow other strict chart rules, such as accepted purchase points, amount of albums bought by one user, etc.
Finally, DJ Akademiks brought labels into the fray, praising XO as an "amazing team" and not placing direct blame for this on either them or NAV. If he had to choose one, though, it would probably be the former. Ak explained how labels might want to allegedly boost first week sales in order to create the notion of a lot of buzz, which would hopefully sustain the LP for stronger subsequent sales weeks on streaming and other platforms.
