Billboard Responds to Tekashi 6ix9ine’s Corruption Claim After New Song Debuts at No. 3
On May 8, Tekashi 6ix9ine released “GOOBA,” his first new song following his release from prison last month. Earlier today (May 18), Billboard reported that “GOOBA” landed at No. 3 on the the Billboard Hot 100 chart, following Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj’s “Say So” at No. 2 and Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber’s “Stuck with U” at No. 1. Prior to the announcement of “GOOBA”’s No. 3 chart position, 6ix9ine posted a video on his Instagram account accusing Billboard of manipulating the charts.
The video shows 6ix9ine scrolling through an unidentified chart forecasting site on his phone and noticing that “Stuck with U” jumped from No. 5 to No. 1 overnight. Earlier today, 6ix9ine made another post accusing Billboard of dishonest chart calculations. “@Billboard caught cheating,” he wrote. “You’re a lie and corrupt. You got caught cheating and the world will know.” Now, Billboard has published a response to 6ix9ine’s accusations.
In an article titled “How Billboard Came to Its Calculations in This Week’s Race For the Hot 100 No. 1,” the Billboard staff detailed its process for determining the Hot 100 chart. “In the interest of transparency, Billboard wanted to clear up the Hot 100’s chart rules and tabulation process, the calculations that go into the determinations of its final rankings, and the stats accumulated by the two singles that marked this week’s highest debuts,” Billboard wrote. The staff went on to specifically address every accusation made by 6ix9ine in his social media posts.
Billboard clarified that the discrepancy between YouTube’s visible number of plays for “GOOBA” include global plays, while Billboard only counts U.S.-based plays for its charts.
In response to the Hot 100 forecast 6ix9ine referenced in his Instagram video, Billboard wrote:
The chart forecast referenced was not created nor provided by Billboard to the industry. Those with access to sales, streaming and radio data from various sources often create their own chart models and update them at their own frequency. Billboard does not distribute any Hot 100 ranking forecast to labels, management or artists.
Billboard also addressed the late 24-hour sales spike for “Stuck with U,” stating:
“Stuck with U” was available to purchase through the week as a digital download, as well as in various physical format/digital download combinations through Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber’s webstores. The sales spike is likely referring to sales on Thursday, May 14—the final day of the tracking week—when signed “Stuck with U” singles were put up for sale in Grande and Bieber’s webstores.
A signed single or album is an accepted form of sales available to any artist and has been noted repeatedly within Billboard chart stories when such items have impacted the Hot 100. 6ix9ine, meanwhile, released a non-signed CD single/digital download on the last day of the tracking week via his webstore.
As noted in this week’s story announcing the results on the latest Hot 100, “Stuck with U” sold 108,000 in the tracking week ending May 14 and “GOOBA” sold 24,000, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.
Regarding 6ix9ine’s claims that “six credit cards” were responsible for a large percentage of the “Stuck With U” sales, Billboard wrote:
Billboard and Nielsen Music/MRC Data conducts audits on all sales reported with access to purchase-level detail, and works with data partners to recognize excessive bulk purchases and remove those units from the final sales total. All titles this week, as in every week, were put under the same scrutiny. (Billboard has reached out to Fame House/Bravado, retailer and reporter of director-to-consumer sales, for further comment about the sales data provided for “Stuck with U.”)
Read the full report at Billboard.
Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber have also responded to 6ix9ine. “my fans bought the song. JUSTIN’S fans bought the song,” Grande wrote. “OUR fans bought this song (never more than four copies each, AS THE RULES STATE). they are ride or die motherfuckers and i thank god every day that i have them in my life.” In his note, Justin Bieber addressed the discrepancy between global YouTube views and American streams. Find their responses below.
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
