French Montana Accused Of Selling Fraudulent Vinyls To Boost Album Sales

BYLavender AlexandriaPublished on February 28, 20244.4K Views

French Montana at Michael Rubin's Fanatics Super Bowl Party held at Marquee Dayclub Las Vegas at The Cosmopolitan on February 10, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images)

Fans are trying to explain his impressive 44k in pure sales this week.

Last week, French Montana released his new album Mac & Cheese 5. He was clearly hoping for the album to do big sales numbers as it got numerous different versions on streaming. The album was released with an acapella version, an instrumental version, a sped-up version, a slowed-down version, and a deluxe version that featured just one new track. All of the versions were also collected into one massive 126-song version of the project on streaming platforms. Montana himself had to defend the massive "Versions" album against criticism from fans.

Now, sales projections for the album are in and it initially seemed to pay off. The album is set to push 55k in first week sales, which Chart Data projects could land it as high as #3 on the Billboard 200. But surprisingly, most of that isn't coming from the numerous versions of the album uploaded to streaming platforms. Only around 11k sales came from streaming while the rest were pure sales. 44k in pure sales is extremely impressive for a rap album and represents even more numbers than artists like Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole have done in recent years. But some users online are starting to suspect that the sales of the album aren't what they seem. Some have even gone as far as to accuse French Montana of straight up fraud.

French Montana Vinyl Orders Not Arriving

Last month, French Montana sold vinyl pre-orders of the new project on his website. The twist is that they were being sold for just $5, far less than most artists sell their vinyls, or even CDs for. But in the wake of his new sales numbers, fans aren't receiving what they ordered. Twitter user @99Vinyl_ claims that their order was "delivered" to a random address multiple states away. They also claim to have proof of others with similar experiences.

Shortly after they made the claim while tagging French Montana publicly, he blocked the account. What do you think of the accusations that French Montana could be committing sales fraud? Do you think his new album is capable of pulling 44k in pure sales authentically? Let us know in the comment section below.

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About The Author

Lavender Alexandria

Lavender Alexandria is a music and culture journalist based in Los Angeles, California. She’s covered dozens of musical genres and styles from the most mainstream to the most experimental and underground on her blog and accompanying YouTube channel that looks at music, pop culture, and Billboard charts since 2017: Lav’s Music Corner. Lavender has produced editorial and listicle content both in written and video form over the past far years and has also interviewed up-and-coming artists like Censored Dialogue. Her experiences covering culture have taken her from Hyperpop parties in LA to underground rap shows in Atlanta, to DIY punk shows in Charlotte. Lavender has also written for iHeartRadio, covering some of the biggest artists in Hip Hop such as Ice Spice, Drake, Doja Cat and Cardi B. She also has bylines with ScreenRant and continues to write for Ringtone magazine. Lavender is a lifelong Charlotte Hornets fan and her favorite rap artists include Clipping, Little Simz, Earl Sweatshirt, and Kendrick Lamar.