DaBaby pulled a surprise release with his latest album Baby On Baby 2 arriving last week. The sequel project is expected to sell about 16,000 total album-equivalent units and debut outside the Billboard 200’s top 20, which would be the lowest of his career, according to Akademiks.
DaBaby reacted to the disappointing chart placement saying that, while he is still proud of his positioning, he believes he’s been “blackballed” by the music industry following his homophobic rant last year and the album having no promo.
“Not bad for DaBlackBalled Baby,” he wrote to his Instagram Story on Wednesday (September 28).
Akademiks subscribes to the theory that Baby is being blackballed and he pinned blame on the likes of his foe Ebro Darden and Apple Music for being able to control an artist’s popularity.
“Da Baby last project in 2020 ‘Blame it on Baby’ sold 124K first week,” he wrote. “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.”
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
Ebro got wind of Ak’s comments and responded on Wednesday night and he said artists look to blame the platforms when things are going poorly for them and give them no credit when they’re hot.
“Funny shit, when artists get hot it is always how they built this themselves and the fans. When shit slows down it is radio, DJs, platforms and the label. #BlameEbro is back for a whole new generation.
“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?”
He continued: “Im confused… Im old and irrelevant. No one listens to my shows. But why am I always being brought up by people who are ‘more powerful’ and ‘doing more for the culture’ as the reason things don’t perform? Somebody lying!”
Im confused… Im old and irrelevant. No one listens to my shows.
But why am I always being brought up by people who are “more powerful” and “doing more for the culture” as the reason things don’t perform?
Somebody lying!!
— Kojo Ebro Odogwu (@oldmanebro) September 29, 2022
Regardless of his album sales situation, DaBaby is still set to hit the road in late October for a North American tour where he’ll be making stops in Minneapolis, Detroit, NYC, Boston, Houston, Cincinnati, Nashville, Atlanta and more.
