first week sales

Metro Boomin’s “Heroes & Villains” First Week Sales Are In

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Metro Boomin came through clutch this year, ending the year on a high note with the release of Heroes & Villains. The St. Louis producer kept most of the project under wraps until its release. He didn’t drop a single, just a few social media posts and a short film to kick off the campaign.

Nonetheless, Metro proved that the wait was evidently worth it. Throughout the past week, first-week sales projections for Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains increased. Industry forecasters initially projected that Heroes & Villains would move upwards of 150K in its first week. Then, those numbers increased by nearly 30K.

rtNEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 30: Metro Boomin speaks onstage during “Metro Boom” New York Screening & Listening Event on November 30, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage)

Billboard confirmed Metro Boomin sold 185K in his first week, topping the charts with Heroes & Villains. The producer earned his third chart-topper with his latest project, which includes star-studded appearances. John Legend, The Weeknd, Future, Chris Brown, A$AP Rocky, Young Thug, Gunna, and more appear across the 15-song tracklist.

Following the release of Heroes & Villains, Metro followed it up just days later with the Heroes Version. The re-release included the original 15 songs and the instrumental version.

Prior to this, Metro hit the top of the Billboard 200 with 2020’s Savage Mode II alongside 21 Savage. His first #1 album was his debut album, NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES.

The road to the release of Heroes & Villains didn’t come without delay. Though Metro Boomin hinted at the project’s release for a minute, he announced in late October that he wouldn’t drop on November 4th, as initially planned. Due to the number of samples used, he explained that he faced trouble clearing certain songs.

In related news, A$AP Rocky recently said that he worked closely with Metro Boomin on his next studio album, Don’t Be Dumb. During a recent interview with GQ, the Harlem rapper explained that he and Metro locked in a few records together that will likely end up on his project.

“I’m gonna put it to you like this: This next album needs to be just called Flacko Boomin, you hear me?” he said. “Most artists wanna make [collabs just because they’re hot]. For us, it’s like, that’s really my n***a.”

DaBaby Believes He’s Been Blackballed Amid Low Sales

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DaBaby has gone through quite a few controversies over the last year. From his homophobic rant at Rolling Loud to his recent callout of Megan Thee Stallion, DaBaby does not shy away from the headlines.

Unfortunately, DaBaby seems to be attracting even more attention for the wrong reasons. Following the release of his latest project Baby On Baby 2, the sales projections have been incredibly low. For instance, it is being reported that he will only sell 16,000 units in the first week. This is especially wild when you consider how just a couple of years ago, DaBaby was someone who could sell between 90k-100k in the first week, alone.

Arturo Holmes/Getty Images

DaBaby has responded to these reports, and as you can see in his Instagram story below, he is simply chalking this up to being blackballed by the industry.

“Not bad for da BlackBalled Baby,” he wrote. This response is in line with DJ Akademiks’ recent analysis of the situation. Ak believes DaBaby is being blackballed by Ebro and Apple Music, which is leading to the poor sales.

Image via DaBaby

Ebro indirectly replied to Akademiks, noting that if it was, indeed, his own fault, then DaBaby should be performing well on platforms like Spotify, which is not the case.

“Apple Music is not the only platform. Based on this dummy’s logic, Da Baby should be doing well on the platform HE works for. Is it?” Ebro wrote.

Regardless of the reason for DaBaby’s poor sales, it is clear that he will need to rethink his strategy moving forward.

Stay tuned to HNHH for more updates from around the music world.