Nicki Minaj released her latest album, Pink Friday 2, last Friday (December 8), and it has a good chance at debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart; The most noteworthy album that also released on the same day would be Tate McRae’s Think Later. It appears Minaj’s album may not end up with as many first-week sales as the rapper was counting on, though.
As Stereogum notes, in a now deleted post, Minaj announced a contest for her fans, writing, “Show the PROOF of your 4 vinyls OR 4 DIGITAL DOWNLOADS (each cover) & you can win what he just did. A Change to help me pick the next 3 songs for the #GagCity2 edition that comes out in 5 days. In person ;).”
Then, in also-deleted tweets shared yesterday, December 14, Minaj claimed that Billboard was removing 100,000 sales from the tracking week for Pink Friday 2 due to the contest. She wrote, “been discussing my 100 barbz contest for months. they said billboard reached out to say they gon take away sales for me telling y’all about the 100 barbz thing. Can’t wait until these next 6 hours are up so I can tell y’all some sh*t. You can give out millions in cashapp money tho. Lol. So barbz, me asking you to show PROOF of something that was already DELIVERED OR PURCHASED IS AGAINST THE RULES. SO pls disregard. Apologies.”
She added in another tweet:
“They so mad
They said 170-190 knowing it was 200k alrdy.
Then they said 199 just so that 2 wouldn’t leave they moof chi
It’s at 300 but once they filter out 100K, you’ll be none the fking wiser.
I’m being punished for:
Not signing a 360
Making great music
Having great fans
And for not leaving the game so that their new Nicki’s (who signed 360 deals) can be propped up to look as tho they are a lot more successful than they rlly are.
Having too much power
#PinkFriday2.”
Nicki Minaj says that Billboard will remove 100K sales from the debut week of ‘Pink Friday 2’ because she ran a contest requiring fans to show proof of buying four copies of the album. pic.twitter.com/0aqjtXE9LX
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) December 15, 2023
On a related note, Billboard reported this past May:
“Limited combinations of merchandise and physical albums will be counted on Billboard‘s album charts starting this summer, but with new rules to prevent the issues that led to the elimination of such ‘bundles’ three years ago.
The new combinations of merch and albums, dubbed ‘fan packs,’ will allow fans to support their favorite artists on the charts in a way that research suggests that many would like to. However, the packs will be restricted to just two options per album release — a sweatshirt with an LP and a t-shirt with a CD, for example — with the requirement that each individual item must also be sold separately in the same web store. Fan packs will include only merch — not tickets, meet-and-greet opportunities, virtual items or non-tangible benefits — and they must also contain a physical copy of an album: Combinations of digital downloads and merch will not count towards the charts. In addition, fan pack offerings must be approved in advance of their on-sale date by Luminate and Billboard. […]
The new rules allowing fan packs will take effect during the tracking week that runs from June 30 to July 6, 2023, for charts dated July 15.”