Joey Badass is sounding off on whether album sales actually matter.
The “Waves” rapper took to X on Monday, writing, “Fuck 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 continued, pointing out that for a streamed song to count as a sale, “you need to listen to every song like 1000+ times.” He added, “They trynna make it seem like everybody flopping when it reality they changed the rules,” concluding, “At this point, just shut the fuck up and enjoy the music.”
That wasn’t the end of his rant though. In a follow-up tweet, he directly called out the haters: “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. Second of all, do your googles I been packing out venues since inception and will continue to do so.”
He also shared that he’s looking to release his next album at the top of 2024, but added a disclaimer: “Life be lifeing so don’t hate me if shit get slid back.” And reminded his fans that he'll be back on Power Book III: Raising Kanan in December, in which he plays Kadeem "Unique" Mathis.
The Brooklyn native dropped off his most recent album 2000 in 2022, which was anticipated to move 22,000 units in its first week, and later peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard 200 chart.
The 14-track project boasted features from Westside Gunn, JID, and Larry June, among others. Since then, he’s dropped off a short film for the album cut “Show Me,” and a new single and accompanying music video for “Fallin’.”
