Mack recently sat down with Vibe to talk about Nicki’s mindset, and why he feels she shouldn’t sweat it so much.
“She was worrying about first week. She was like, ‘Drake sold [463,000]. What you think I’ma sell? As if she gon’ sell less,†recalls Maine. “Iexplained to her, ‘You know a lot of the press and the media really gotit brainwashed with first week sales.’ Bieber went on to sell 2 millionand Bieber might have only sold 17,000 the first week. Juvenile soldlike 30,000 his first week of 400 Degreez and went on to sell 6million.â€
Mack makes a valid point there. Very few albums are keeping the same momentum going after a big 1st week. For every cd like Eminem’s ‘Recovery’that continued to do great numbers weeks after its release, there arecountless projects that fall off the face of the map after the debutweek.
Is this a result or weak overall albums? Or labels pushing the panic button too soon and bailing on projects prematurely?
Mack spoke about that as well.
“I don’t know what happened to working the record and making surethat the artist reaches a certain point. I rather the end number behigher than the beginning,†says Maine. “These days, it’sall about: Let me do 500,000, a million the first week. Don’t get caughtup in what Wayne did. You don’t want your pinnacle to be yourfirst-week sales. Then everything’s downhill from there and then what? Idon’t care if you sell 10 the first week and you go on to sell 5million—we did better than the person that sold 300 the first week.
