Most estimates, including the often-cited HitsDailyDouble.com, estimated Diddy-Dirty Money would sell about 65,000 copies during their album’s crucial first week of sales. While those figures would have certainly placed the trio within the top 25 Hip Hop/R&B releases, they might not have justified Diddy’s reality show, multiple release date changes, his move to Interscope, and the massive promotional campaign associated with Last Train to Paris.
Despite being panned in some circles (in the interest of full disclosure, HipHopDX’s editorial committee rated the album as a 2.5 out of 5 while the reader rating averaged to a 2.78 out of 5), the album surpassed expectations with sales of 101,000. Diddy was so pleased with the nearly 40 percent jump in sales, that he took to his blog to thank fans that purchased the album.
“Y’all already know that I deal with a lot of hate,” he said. “I talk about that, but it’s also important to talk about when I’m dealing a lot of love…Y’all made this project a success, and I want to say thank you.”
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The album was in the unique position of being a top 10 debut without the aid of a number one single. And while Sean, Dawn and Keleena’s relentless approach to hitting every late night talk show didn’t hurt, Diddy pointed to Twitter as one of the keys to the increase in sales. Last week, Diddy offered to follow anyone who changed their Twitter avatar to the Last Train to Paris album cover.
“We had the Twitter support,” Diddy added. “We had one of the first albums that Twitter really overrode radio, MTV, anything else. Y’all basically said y’all heard the album and it’s hot…the definition of the Internet—word of mouth, being viral.”
