21 Savage may be catching flack from some rappers for his "f**k the streets" comments, but at least this is driving interest for his new album WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STREETS? We recently learned of its updated first week sales projections, which represent almost double of what the first projections indicated. Now, we have a few more alleged details about this surge that have many fans raising eyebrows.
According to Kurrco on Twitter, an upwards spike direct-to-consumer digital downloads is what mainly drove the new LP's commercial performance over the past two days. Apparently, projections went as high as 110K units, although the final projected number sits at around 93K. What's curious about this development is the absence of digital copies up for sale on Savage's storefront. Rather, the surge may come from the even.biz platform that 21 had previously promoted on his Instagram Story.
At the end of the day, these numbers show that you always need to take these things with a grain of salt, even once the final tally rolls in soon. This has led to a lot of conspiracy theories about alleged botting and commercial manipulation, but all of them are unfounded at press time. In any case, there's certainly a lot of conversation to have around this rollout.
21 Savage's WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STREETS?
In other news, the Atlanta MC's 2018 project i am > i was is celebrating its seventh anniversary today (Sunday, December 21). With big songs like "a lot" featuring J. Cole and "monster" with Childish Gambino, the album also sold 131K units in its first week.
Despite the nostalgia for that project and for his career as a whole, 21 Savage is moving forward concerning "the streets." His calls for unity got support from Thugger, YFN Lucci, Meek Mill, and many more in the game. Also, 21 eased up tensions between himself and Future, as well as issues between Quavo and Offset.
Even though 21 Savage has many detractors in this regard, the more important conversation is about the music. Still, with these new numbers details, we will see just where WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STREETS? lands commercially soon. Hopefully the end of that conversation can open the door for an honest discussion of artistry with all this context in mind.
