DaBaby Claims To Be “Blackballed” Amid Low First-Week Sales Projections Of His New Album
New DeBaby album Baby on Baby 2 will reportedly move 16,500 units in first-week sales, a major decline from his previous album, Blame It On Baby.
DaBaby‘s reign is dwindling. The North Carolina rapper’s fourth album, Baby on Baby 2, was released last Friday (September 23), and its speculated that its first-week sales are lackluster. The rapper’s Instagram fan page @DaBaby2Baby reported on Wednesday (September 28) that the album will move 16,500 units in first-week sales, which DaBaby shared on his Instagram Story, claiming that it’s “Not bad for da blackballed Baby.” The speculated forecast is a major decline from his third LP Blame It On Baby, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Chart with 124,000 units in its first week.
DaBaby referring to himself as blackballed likely came from a tweet DJ Akademiks posted earlier that Wednesday, where he accused Apple Music’s Ebro Darden of blackballing the rapper.
Da Baby last project in 2020 'Blame it on Baby' sold 124K first week. His new project after being blackballed by Ebro, Apple Music is scheduled to do less than 20K. Now yall understand my Ebro convo…. DSPs control who is hot and who is not. Fall out of favor with them.. UR DONE
— DJ Akademiks (@Akademiks) September 28, 2022
Darden shot back in a response, leading to a back-and-forth between the two.
Apple Music is not the only platform.
Based on this dummy’s logic, Da Baby should be doing well on the platform HE works for. Is it?
— Kojo Ebro Odogwu (@oldmanebro) September 29, 2022
Along with low sales, Kirk has been losing steam as a live performer. In late August, his headlining concert at New Orleans’ Smoothie King Arena was cancelled due to only 500 tickets being sold for the 14,000-capacity arena. Kirk was also pulled from multiple festivals in 2021 after making homophobic remarks at Rolling Loud Miami. The controversy has only continued, with the rapper facing criticism for his new single “Boogeyman,” where he name drops Megan Thee Stallion and claims to have been intimate with the Traumazine rapper on multiple occasions. He also released a music video for the song, which finds him haunting a Megan Thee Stallion look-alike.
Beginning October 27, Kirk will embark on his 13-date Baby on Baby 2 Tour, with stops in Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Nashville and other cities, before concluding on November 19 in LA.