6ix9ine has aired his grievances against Billboard after they reinstated their rule that excludes merch bundles from counting towards chart placements.
The Rainbow-haired rapper took to Instagram to slam the publication for its change, and said it happened in the summer of 2020 after he sold over three million dollars worth of merch for his “Gooba” single.
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“The rule got changed in June/July 2020,” 6ix9ine wrote on IG. “I sold over 3,000,000 dollars of bulged merch for gooba. The nicki and travis thing was in 2018 for queen because I promoted it. The industry changed rules and laws just to blackball an artist that’s how I know I’m really him. Get mad all you want but this is facts.”
6ix9ine was referring to when Nicki Minaj went nuclear on Travis Scott after her 2018 album Queen debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 behind Scott’s Astroworld, which snagged the No. 1 spot.
During a 2018 episode of Queen Radio, she dubbed Scott the “Hoe n-gga of the week” and insisted Queen was the No. 1 album — despite what Billboard reported.
“What we’re not gonna do is have that Auto-Tune man selling fucking sweaters telling you he sold half a million albums, because he fucking didn’t,” she said. “You stupid fuck. You got your fucking homeboy talking for you and you got your girlfriend selling tour passes. Stop it. Knock it the fuck off.”
Billboard announced in 2020 they’d be changing the rules as to how albums would chart, but didn’t disclose when those new rules would take effect. The new rule states that all albums bundled with tickets or merch of any kind must be promoted as an add-on in order for it to be counted on the charts, with the sale only counting once the physical album is shipped. Chart data reported this week that the new rule will take effect in June.
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6ix9ine had his own issues with Billboard as well. In May 2020, Tekashi kicked off promotion for his sophomore effort Tattletales with the single “Gooba,” which shattered Eminem’s record for the most YouTube views in a single day for any debuting Hip Hop video. The song itself later went platinum, but it still debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, which caused 6ix9ine to reprimand the outlet for screwing with his numbers.
“@billboard We’re watching this very closely,” 6ix9ine wrote in a since-deleted post. “The world is watching very closely, we love you and always supported the charting. On every platform we are dominating by a LANDSLIDE. The numbers are there and to be looked at. WITH NO RADIO WE ARE DOMINATING THE STREAMS.
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“I will hate to believe that people pay for their spins on the radio and making manipulating bundles to manipulate the chart. Again it’s still early Im just making it clear that the world is watching.”
6ix9ine has yet to release his third studio album, but most recently teamed up with Mexican band Guapo Firme for his latest track, “Y Ahora,” which dropped on April 28.
