Birdman Denies Buying Lil Wayne's Albums: 'That's Hustling Backwards'
Lil Wayne rocketed to the top of the charts this week when he sold 964,000 copies of his latest album Tha Carter IV. The staggering amount had some skeptics believing that Birdman bought many of the copies himself, a claim he adamantly denies.
The Cash Money CEO appeared on Shade 45’s “Sway in the Morning” radio show to dismiss the rumors. “Nah, man, that really don’t make no sense. Why would we do that?” he asked Sway Calloway. “I press and distribute ’em. Ain’t no need for me to buy ’em. That’s hustling backwards; we ain’t in it for that. I ain’t ever been a part of that type of scheme to be buyin’ records. We don’t do that, homie. We be working too hard to be—that don’t go with what we do. We truly what we do. We’re real about what we do, we work hard every day at it, and we work for the people. That’s what we do music for: for people. And we appreciate the love they give us back. But no such thing as me buying no CDs. I wouldn’t even play it like that.”
Early reports had the album topping the million mark, but it fell short by 36,000 according to Nielsen SoundScan. “People doin’ different numbers,” added Baby. “But this comes from Billboard. To me, that’s a million; 964, we right there, so it’s cool. We’ll just keep grinding, I guess.”
The next few months are shaping up to be even more profitable for Birdman with upcoming releases from Drake (Take Care), Bow Wow (Underrated), Tyga (Careless World), and his own album, Bigga Than Life.
[MTV News]