No I didn’t insinuate that at all.

And that’s not true whatsoever, high profile features benefit ANY artist, no matter who you are.

Most of Drake’s biggest songs this decade all have features:

Jimmy Cooks
Laugh Now Cry Later
Rich Flex
Knife Talk
Way 2 Sexy
Wants and Needs
Girls Want Girls

Acting like the difference — pop radio — isn't the inherent problem between pop hits and rap hits being able to exist is funny

Rap hits are able to stabilize when pop radio picks them up to some capacity, which means white people have to like the song or have been influenced to like it

With the re-emergence of stronger pop stars like Billie and ORod, white girls stopped consuming as much rap than say the 2016-2019 era

You can't be a hardcore fan if you not listening to the artist's music first week though surely

I never said there isn’t a REASON for the difference, I’m just acknowledging the existence of the difference, which people on here tend to ignore

tried our best is a top 10 drake track

It exists for sure
There's benefits for doing different genres

underwhelming sales and negative reception (5/10 is the general consensus)

there's always next album cycle tho. hope he makes a comeback

5/10 been the "general consensus" for every drake album since views lol
s***s never changing unless he comes w/ a pure rap album

FATD is about to become the 5th album ever to post 500 million US streams in a week, 4/5 are drake albums. this isn’t a flop by any means. nobody besides drake, taylor swift and morgan wallen (his album did 498 million streams) are doing those numbers.

also taylor having 5 albums in the top 20 is insane

Utopia
Day 5:
Global: 49.7 Million
USA: 19 Million

Global Total: 369.1 Million
USA Total: 140.6 Million

FatD
Day 5:
Global: 46.9 Million
USA: 22.5 Million

Global Total: 330.3 Million
USA Total: 163.4 Million

Yeah anyone saying this is a flop needs to start paying attention to the actual numbers instead of going by social media. They did the same thing with Honestly Nevermind and it ended up crossing 1 billion streams on Spotify alone after 1 month and had 3 top 10 Billboard hits

I agree this site always tries to downplay Abel but I will say it's sad and says a lot that all the people that listened to Blinding Lights didn't really show up for his next album. I don't think Abel is the massive global popstar we thought he'd become if he struggles to outsell f***ing Gunna of all people...

Bundles are back so hopefully he can drop a huge hit and get back to being at least Drake adjacent or somewhat close

“I don't think Abel is the massive global popstar we thought he'd become if he struggles to outsell f***ing Gunna of all people”

Like you said, global popstar. Fortunately, Gunna outselling him in the US has nothing to with his global success, hits and stadium tour.

It’s crazy that Travis and Drake are not that much apart in terms of popularity now.

the reception to this album seems to have shaken him up more than anything before it. he’s officially reached the crossroads that all of the GOATs before him have and im sure he knows it

his next moves will be the most important of his career

He’s about to drop his Donda

Is O-Rod’s second era kind of a dud or are these numbers in line with her last one?

"hope he makes a comeback" Number one album and occupying most of the billboard hot 100

ok man

Lmfaooo ppl really don’t know what a flop is

the word choice is jokes

Funny thing too is that, when you bring up how Lil Baby still has the best selling rap album this decade in streams, they switch up the whole argument about streaming.

My man.....I remember when C3 came out right in the middle of the Great Recession.

Nobody had money like that and gas prices were as crazy as they were today but Wayne still sold a milli fw in hard copies and people got really invested in the album due to spending their hard earned money on the purchase even while struggling.

I know you're gonna simp for streaming cause of Drake but it's still apples and oranges. Spending money on an album back then even if it was based on the singles showed more dedication to the artist than streaming, of which a good number involves curiosity streams.

I'm not even arguing that the pre-streaming era was better. But it took more dedication for someone to head out to the stores and spend their hard earned money on an album.

Because of the lack of dedication it takes to stream, it's harder than ever before for artists who blew up in the 2020's to maintain successful careers in the music industry and even Billboard themselves noted this.

billboard.com/pro/record-labels-adjust-expectations-pop-stars

The funny thing is buying physical copies is actually passive consumption.

Basically in 2023 it's akin to merch bundles. Fans who buy merchandise of an artist because they like them and want to decorate their room (like buying a poster back in the day).

Vast majority of people who buy Vinyl literally hang it up as decoration and NEVER actually even play the Vinyl. They hang it up, then go on Spotify/Apple and stream the album.

Actually like half the ppl who buy Vinyl don't even own a f***ing Vinyl player too. There's actual numbers behind this I can find too.

Most cars, laptops, etc in 2023 don't even have CD players anymore.

@thegreatdivine what happened to occupying the entire Top 10?