Cactus Jack disputes Carpenter’s #1 in a letter to Billboard

With the recent win, Sabrina Carpenter has gained both fame and infamy, depending on who you’re asking. While the world roots for her and her win over Travis, fans of the rapper call bullshit. Sabrina Carpenter, although technically has secured the top spot, the difference between her and Travis’ numbers is so minimal, that it's raising legitimate doubts in a lot of people’s minds. 

While the internet voices its concerns and rage types, representatives of the Cactus Jack Records sent a letter over to Billboard and Luminate disputing the data for the Billboard charts.

The Claim

Missing Sales Numbers

Cactus Jack alleges data for the Billboard charts is “unreliable and incomplete”, claiming that a portion of the sales was not included in Days Before Rodeo’s final number. 
 

Final day of counting was August 29th. To ensure the no.1 spot, Travis released deluxe digital editions to his album, including a final release as late as 11:20 PM that day. “An extremely high volume of orders”, as Cactus Jack claims, caused delays in the final minute of tracking. Furthermore, Single, the music-selling app for Shopify, reported around 1000 units worth of sales were delayed and not reported to Luminate, and were to be counted in next week’s count. 
 

Cactus Jack was not initially concerned, as data available on August 31st (Saturday) showed Travis with an 11,000+ lead. However, after including numbers from Independent Retail were compiled on Sunday, Sabrina has taken the lead. While streaming numbers are reported and compiled daily, indie record stores share their numbers at the end of each week.

Sabrina’s Unfair Advantage

Along with the claim for wrong counts, more claims were made suggesting Sabrina’s indie sales were weighed more heavily than her normal album sales, giving her an unfair advantage. As claimed in the letter, “It clearly bumped Sabrina’s final number of units just above Travis by almost the exact amount of units we erroneously ‘lost’ that would have counted toward week 1”
 

Interference

Finally, Cactus Jack claims deliberate and malicious intervention by alleging that the representative of Limunate that Cactus Jack and Single communicated with, was previously an employee of Island Records, Carpenter’s Label. Cactus Jack Records tries to hide the intensity of their claim behind complex words like, “Occam’s razor principle dictates the explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is usually correct”, but their intent is crystal. 

The Response

A spokesperson for Luminate responded to the claim in a brief, yet deliberate manner. After acknowledging they, in fact, had received the letter, they further clarified that a lot of labels reach out to them to request clarification about weekly numbers and they are happy to oblige. However, regarding the claims of the letter, the company is standing by its data and results. 

“We are confident that our numbers are correct in accordance with our processes and methodology”

When asked specifically about the Luminate correspondent who previously worked for Island Records, Luminate quoted that he “had no final say over the final chart data of the tracking week.”

The Reaction

While die-hard fans of Travis Scott are furious about the result, claiming he was robbed of his legitimate throne, a lot of people have called out Travis and Cactus Jack Records petty.
There are things to be said about Cactus Jack’s so-called “antics” to stop Sabrina from getting the title, while all Sabrina did was sit and let the market decide who gets the throne.
Claims have been made against Cactus Jack Records too, as sales for the album dropped 98% in the second week, claiming their numbers to be spoofed. 

After the numbers were in, Sabrina took to X, posting “this one’s for nicki”, claiming to have avenged her for when in 2018, Astroworld overshadowed Nicki Minaj’s Queen. 

Does It Matter?

According to Billboard, Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet debuted at #1 with 362,000 album units, while Travis’ Days Before Rodeo sat at #2 with a little over 361,000 sales. However, claims were made that the difference is as little as 600 copies. 

There have been multiple claims now, both by the parties involved, and the internet at large, that it is becoming a little difficult to enjoy the context here. The context that a release of a decade-old mixtape managed to top sales charts. That speaks volumes to Travis Scott’s popularity. Travis’s net worth speaks volumes to just how popular of a rap artist he is. 

Alas, he and others at Cactus Jack Records seem to be the “glass half empty” kinda people. Hopefully, they get to enjoy his upcoming tours.