Promising to expose sloppiness behind-the-scenes, Jelly Roll declared a few weeks ago he would “put the music industry on blast” in October.
The country musician visited ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show this week to address what he refers to as unethical business practices.
The week Charli XCX dropped a Brat remix album called It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat, Jelly Roll’s new album Beautifully Broken dropped. “I know a lot of artists are disconnected from what’s happening in the business,” Jelly Roll continues, not specifically mentioning Charli XCX. We’re a little more involved behind the scenes since I started working as an independent artist the same way you guys started working as an independent media show.
“My manager then simply sits me down; I’m sort of keeping up with this stuff. “Look man, I didn’t want you to get in a situation where you were aware what was happening when you started getting in these conversations for number one albums because it’s just real dirty business, like old-school dirty business.”
READ MORE: Jelly Roll Reports A 100-Pound Weight Reduction Change
As he, Charli XCX, and rapper Rod Wave were vying for the top spot on the Billboard 200 rankings, the singer claims his staff was monitoring chart statistics. “There was an artist where Hits Daily Double projected that they wouldn’s not even be within 50-60,000 albums of me and Rod Wave,” Jelly Wave informs the host.
A piece on Hits Daily Double emphasizes the race. Fighting valiantly to capture the #1 place are BBR/Republic with Jelly Roll and Atlantic with Charli XCX. Every side is working hard to refute the other’s allegations and provide figures thrown out. Both the deluxe expansion of Brat by Jelly Roll and Charli XCX seem to start around the low 150,000 area.
READ MORE: Rod Wave Arrest: 25-Year-Old Reportedly In Florida Police Custody
Then Thursday night before the Friday count finishes—40,000 albums drop from a third-party aggregated site. And you’re looking like, “yo that’s slimy.”
“Now Luminate, who counts record sales, rejected these sales, which is how I ended up with the #1 album, so that’s the truth,” Jelly Roll says. The Brat remix album by Charli XCX debuted behind Last Lap by Jelly Roll and Rod Wave.
“And here’s the true truth, while we’re doing inside baseball—as far as I’m concerned, I want to commend Rod Wave on getting the #1 album since he was streamed more than the other two artists almost combined in consumption that first week. But we sold more records since we still had a conventional fan base headed for Walmart, Target, you know what I mean? I noticed so much in it that it slightly changed my perspective. A little bit depressed me.
The whole Jelly Roll interview is available here. Around the eight minute mark, the remarks on chart manipulation behind-the-scenes in the music business begin.
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