French Montana is being accused of scamming his fans in an effort to game the system and inflate the first-week sales of his new album,Mac & Cheese 5.
The situation was first called out on Twitter/X on Tuesday (February 27) by popular vinyl collector, Dro. In a long post, he explained that French ran a promotion in January to pre-order $5 vinyl copies of Mac & Cheese 5.
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In order to be counted toward first-week sales on Billboard, the vinyls would have to be shipped by the album’s release day, February 23. This is where the alleged scam comes into play, however, as Dro and many who replied to his post had their orders shipped to completely different states. Some also shared photos provided by the shipping company, and the packages appeared to be way too small to contain a vinyl record.
“Boosted Sales Fraud?” Dro began in his post. “French Montana sold Vinyl Records on his site for $5 preorders back in January. With all the albums needing to be shipped on release date to count towards sales, it seems almost everyone that purchased it has had it ‘delivered’ to a random address. This seems to be a case of fake shipping confirmations in order to boost sales numbers for the album.”
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He added: “@FrencHMonTanA if someone on your team wishes to comment on this my DMs are open. But I have received dozens of messages alleging the same. My order was also ‘delivered’ a few states away.”
HipHopDX has reached out to French Montana’s team for comment.
According to Hits Daily Double, Mac & Cheese 5 is currently forecasted to have a No. 3 debut on the Billboard 200 next week with approximately 56k equivalent units. This would tie with French’s biggest sales week yet when his debut album, Excuse My French, had the same first week numbers in 2013.
Aside from accusations of sales fraud, French Montana has also received flack for releasing a 126-song version of the project. The Bronx rapper delivered an extended version of MC5 featuring six versions of each song: explicit, sped up, slowed down, instrumental, acapella, and clean.
Speaking to TMZ, French ensured fans the cut was “simple science” inspired by Taylor Swift who saw a boom in sales after recreating her old work.
He also credited City Girls’ JT for making her smash hit “Sideways” accessible in multiple formats.
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However, the move perplexed fans, with some poking fun at the direction. “This looks like a cry for help! Like damn you must really need streams,” one X user commented. “How this even possible Man,” a second questioned the rapper.
Despite the jokes made at his expense, the project boasts a series of impressive collaborations with, among others, Kanye West. Other features on Mac & Cheese 5 include Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Lil Baby, JID, Lil Durk, Jeremih, Bryson Tiller and Meek Mill.
