According to the Nielsen SoundScan, the disc landed at the no. 21 spot, with 28,100 units sold. With all the hype surrounding the release, a guest spot on Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3 tour and a gig fronting the official house band of the 2009 MTV VMAs, many believed the Interscope rapper would have a bigger first week.
XXLMag.com spoke with Wale’s manager, Daniel Weisman, who claims that the label under shipped the disc to stores, much like what happened to fellow “Class of 09″ MC Asher Roth. ”Wale’s the type of artist who is bigger than the metrics (radio) say he is,” Weisman said. “That puts the label in a tough position in terms of physical distribution and because of twitter we are able to hear direct feedback from the fans about the problems they had actually finding the CD. But 64% of Wale’s sales came from digital outlets which makes sense for Wale. It’s a testament to Interscope and their confidence in Wale’s brand that they put the record out without a big single.”
I know it took me the better part of the week to get my copy, and I wasn’t the only one that’s for sure. Top it off I live in Maryland where you would think you should be able to find a copy. Not one copy in all of the Targets in the DMV?
