Despite Young Thug's image being tarnished to some extent, there was still quite a bit of excitement to hear his new album. That of course would be UY SCUTI, which was led by singles "Money On Money" and "Miss My Dogs." Prior to all of the news about the leaked jail calls and snitching allegations, fans were dying to hear new music following his trial, which was the longest in Georgia's history.
But it appears that everything that has transpired in between then and now may have impacted the reception of the LP. That goes for the sales department, especially as the early sales projections are not what Thug may have expected.
Per DJ Akademiks, the Atlanta rapper is looking at a first week in which he would move 48,000 copies. Per HITS Daily Double, 2,000 of that number is coming from pure sales, so vinyl and other physical variants. If that's where UY SCUTI stays heading into next Tuesday, October 7, it will slide in at the number seven slot.
Albums above it includes Sabrina Carpenter's Man's Best Friend, Doja Cat's Vie, Mariah Carey's Here For It All, and Cardi B's sophomore LP.
Other potential reasons as to why UY SCUTI maybe isn't performing as well as it could have so far could be the usual things. Fans weren't messing with the sameness of the songs, beats, etc.
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Young Thug UY SCUTI
But more specific to this record, the cover art was another big point of contention. The artwork sees Young Thug in "whiteface." He even doubled down on the idea, posting all of the guests on the album as white on his social media.
He explained why he decided to go with this cover in a clip caught on social media. "I think it was just, like, some funny sh*t. But it's still serious to the point where I went with it. [...] We always joked and played in my hood. 'N****, you want to be the biggest, go white.' [...] We just talking sh*t... It's just a narrative that the world paint. And we just going with the narrative... 'Michael Jackson went white for this,' we know that ain't true. We just go with the motions. It's just all fun. [...] They always let the white people be the biggest. I love white people, too... We got big-a*s artists too that's Black... I was just pushing the envelope a little bit."
In comparison to past releases, UY SCUTI falls in the middle of Thugger's other first-week sales. Others in its vicinity include JEFFERY, Slime Season 3, and Beautiful Thugger Girls. His best debut is 2019's So Much Fun, which did 131,000.
