DJ Akademiks is continuing his feud with Lil Baby, although this time around, he is looking to get Apple Music and Spotify involved...sort of. Baby dropped his new album Fresh on Friday, and the streaming numbers over the weekend weren't particularly impressive. As you can imagine, Akademiks is loving every single second of this.
Over on X, Akademiks celebrated Lil Baby's poor performance. He said that it is a good thing for the music world, and even invoked Gunna. From there, he stated that he is going to be keeping tabs on Spotify and Apple Music to make sure there aren't any fraudulent streams behind the scenes.
"Lil Baby flopping this week is actually good for the game. Time to slow down wit all that bs music! Give gunna back his style and lane!" Akademiks wrote. "I’m on Spotify and Apple ass this week. No botted streams will get past me. Trust me. Let that boy receive that flop in peace."
Akademiks continued his rant, saying he wants to tally up all the streams like election-day ballots. It is a humorous analogy, though Lil Baby probably won't appreciate it much.
What Are Lil Baby's First-Week Sales For "Fresh"?
Outlets like Talk of the Charts have Lil Baby's first-week sales at around 60K units. Akademiks commented on this, stating that he does not want to see Baby sell more than this. In his view, it would be suspicious.
"Remember if yall see the final numbers like 80k. his label bought 20k copies. Love yall capitol / QC but yall can’t save dis one! A Fresh Flop. His streams tanking … no way his final numbers should differ more than +- 10k copies," Akademiks wrote. "I’ve hit up billboard and luminate too… no fraudulent sales will be tolerated with Lil Baby - FRESH album. Every organization is warned. Spotify, Apple, luminate and billboard. No bundle finesse…no 5 credit cards 20k sales bought sales."
Ultimately, the first-week sales are the first-week sales. There is nothing Akademiks can do to change that. Unfortunately, for Lil Baby, YouTube's partnership with Billboard only kicks in next year. In that regard, the album was released two months too early.
