If you’re looking for Jay-Z‘s 13th album to make the Billboard Top 200 Albums list, you have a long wait. Apparently numbers do lie.
Despite going platinum in the first week, Jay-Z’s album 4:44 has not appeared anywhere on the Billboard Top 200 Albums list.
That’s because neither Jay-Z nor Sprint, which provided free downloads to TIDAL subscribers, have provided the actual number of units sold or even given away for free.
Hits Daily Double theorizes that the actual download numbers are made up out of thin air.
“We reach this conclusion in part because those streams have not been reported, and also because Tidal’s entire subscriber base would have to have streamed the album once every hour since release to get to 1.5 billion streams, which is platinum SEA.
“Per RIAA rules, a sale counts toward certification even if purchased by a business and offered to fans who must take steps to acquire it.”
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Apparently Jay-Z used his substantial clout with the RIAA to get his project certified platinum — even though he has no actual numbers to show.
That is probably why RIAA’s Cary Sherman already had a platinum plaque ready to present to Jay-Z whether 4:44 went platinum or not.
Jay-Z has pulled this sort of trickery before with his Magna Carta Holy Grail album in 2013.
Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images
