The battle for No. 1 on the album charts may be more serious than music fans first thought.
After Sabrina Carpenter’s Short N’ Sweet album surpassed Travis Scott’s Days Before Rodeo mixtape on the Billboard 200 chart this week, Vulture reported that the rapper’s label disputed the results.
In a letter obtained by the outlet, Cactus Jack Records reached out to representatives for Billboard and Luminate — which tabulates weekly data for the Billboard charts — and alleged that the process behind the week’s albums chart was “unreliable and incomplete.”
The label focused on a portion of sales Cactus Jack claimed were not included in Days Before Rodeo’s final number, which could have pushed Scott, 33, to No. 1.
According to Vulture, the writer of the unsigned letter claimed they were “not reaching out as management for an upset artist.” Instead, the note was on behalf of Cactus Jack Records and Scott’s Cactus Jack store.
A spokesperson for Luminate confirmed to Vulture that the company received a letter from a label disputing the Billboard 200 results. Ultimately, the company stood by its data.
“We are confident that our numbers are correct in accordance with our processes and methodology,” the spokesperson said on Friday, September 6.
Us Weekly has reached out to Luminate as well as Scott and Carpenter’s reps for comment. Both artists have not publicly commented on the reported dispute.
Back on Tuesday, September 3, Billboard announced that Carpenter, 25, achieved her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart after Short n’ Sweet earned 362,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending August 29, according to Luminate.
“Can’t express my gratitude. My first #1 album!!!!” Carpenter wrote via Instagram on September 4. “Thank you for listening to short n’ sweet. thank you for believing in me all these years! couldn’t do any of this without you 💋:’) this feels really special. love you all.”
Meanwhile, the first official release of Scott’s 2014 mixtape Days Before Rodeo earned the No. 2 spot with a little over 361,000 equivalent album units sold.
Sales aside, Carpenter appears focused on launching her Short N’ Sweet tour on September 23. Before that, she will perform at the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday, September 11.
Scott is nominated for Best Hip-Hop thanks to his “Fe!n” collaboration with Playboi Carti. It’s unclear if he will be in attendance for the award show held at UBS Arena in New York.
