"HE DID IT TO NICKI " — Internet reacts as Travis Scott's team questions "integrity" of US album chart disputing Sabrina Carpenter's Billboard victory

Travis Scott's team is questioning the "integrity" of the U.S. album charts after Sabrina Carpenter's Short 'n Sweet beats his Days Before Rodeo re-release to top Billboard 200. In a statement made to Rolling Stone, a rep for the rapper explained:

"This was never about Travis versus Sabrina — it’s about the integrity of the process and the questionable tactics used in U.S. charting... This could happen to any artist."

According to a letter sent to Billboard and Luminate (the company that tabulates data for the charts), Scott's team claims that sales of about 1,291 equivalent units ahead of the cutoff were not counted toward the final results.

As news of the move by Travis Scott's team made headlines, internet users were quick to react. One, referencing him beating Nicki Minaj to gain No. 1 spot on the albums chart in 2018, called the rapper a hypocrite for using similar moves on Minaj, stating:

Netizens continued to call the rapper out on using underhanded tactics to claim the top spot on the Billboard albums chart. Some wondered why he would worry about a re-released album not making the No. 1 spot. Here are some comments seen on X:

"Not to defend Nicki but wasn’t he the one selling bundles and tshirts and concert tickets to block her from the number 1 ….yall just hate to see woman win," a user remarked.

"I’d like to know why they wanted this #1 so bad. Why’s it so important for his 10 yr old mixtape to go #1," another countered.

"Crying cause you lost is crazy," a user wrote.

Others stated that Sabrina Carpenter won fair and square, even bringing up the sales during the second week to defend their claims. However, some others supported Travis Scott, commenting that charts scammed him.

"mind u travis did 360k yet struggling to touch 30k second week… u don’t wanna talk about fraudulence," one fan commented.

"They’re dumb asf because what album is selling 125k alone this week…? Sabrina!" a user added.

"They scammed him," another chimed in.

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Travis Scott's team questions the process of tabulating data, and calls it "unreliable and incomplete"

Per a report by Vulture, citing a letter sent by a representative for the rapper's label, Cactus Jack Records, to Billboard and Luminate, his team alleges the process of tabulating the data was "unreliable and incomplete," referring to the missing 1,291 units in the final figures.

According to the final album sales numbers announced on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, the Espresso hitmaker sold 362,000 equivalent units compared to her peer's 361,000. The additional figure would have pushed Travis Scott to the top spot.

Travis Scott re-released his 2014 mixtape Days Before Rodeo on August 23, 2024. He dropped multiple deluxe editions of the project on the last day of tracking (August 29), with the final release around 11:20 p.m. ET. Per the letter, the final edition pushed sales due to "an extremely high volume of orders."

It alleged that Tommy Stalknecht, CEO of Single (a music-selling app), alerted Cactus Jack that "about 1000 units" being delayed and not reported to Luminate (these would be counted in the next week's sales). Per Vulture, a screenshot of a text exchange between Stalknecht and a Cactus Jack rep attached in the letter, showed the latter commenting, "All good not worth the headache."

The letter adds that Travis Scott's team contacted Luminate multiple times when the numbers were being counted. However, the company "did not respond nor acknowledge receipt of data."

The letter also questioned how sales by indie stores weighed in the numbers. Highlighting that it was such sales that gave Sabrina Carpenter the push over Travis Scott, it hinted that there was transparency, stating:

"It clearly bumped Sabrina’s final number of units just above Travis by almost the exact amount of units we erroneously 'lost' that would have counted toward week 1."

The letter noted that a Luminate employee previously worked for Sabrina's label Island Records (within the past three years), questioning the employee's "integrity." It suggested that they had "personal incentive to encourage the artist signed to his previous employer while under his tenure to win the race this week."

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A representative for Luminate confirmed the receipt of the letter to Vulture, adding that the company frequently corresponds with records labels to verify their data. However, the company stands by their number, stating:

"We are confident that our numbers are correct in accordance with our processes and methodology."

Travis Scott's team has not released any other statements. Neither Billboard nor Sabrina Carpenter has reacted to the claims at the time of writing.