Ariana Grande Shades Travis Scott Over Album Sales
Nicki Minaj has a friend in Ariana Grande.
During her “Sweetener Sessions” show in Chicago on Wednesday (Aug. 22), the “God Is a woman” singer threw shade at Minaj’s rival Travis Scott and his questionable album sale tactics. At one point during the evening, Grande’s manager, Scooter Braun, predicted that her album would “100 percent” debut at No. 1.
But Grande wasn’t so confident. “We got three days left,” she responded. “You don’t know what Travis could pull!”
Ariana shading Travis. You better! pic.twitter.com/k31On6KhRJ
— TSB (@ThatsSoBeyoncee) August 23, 2018
The comments come after Ariana’s “Bed” collaborator Minaj has been outspoken about Travis on social media and her Queen Radio show.
Minaj blasted the Houston rapper after his album, Astroworld, topped Queen on the Billboard 200. Astroworld remained No. 1 for a second week with 205,000 equivalent albums in the U.S. (78,000 traditional), while Queen opened with 185,000 equivalents (78,000 traditional).
Nicki also awarded “Ho of the Week” to Scott during the latest episode of her Queen Radio show and accused him of using girlfriend Kylie Jenner and their daughter Stormi to sell tour bundles to inflate his album sales.
“Travis Scott on Thursday, when he realized the Queen was about to have the No. 1 album in America, he and his label decided to have Kylie and baby Stormi put up a tour pass,” she said. “He had her go and post and say, ‘Me and Stormi can’t wait to see y’all!’ How are you selling something that does not have anything to do with your album, but it’s being counted on Billboard as album sales?”
Grande’s album Sweetener is headed for No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It is expected to sell 210-220,000 equivalent albums, of which 110-120,000 are traditional sales. She should easily take the spot from Travis, who’s on track to sell 95-100,000 equivalent albums (8-10,000 traditional) in his third week.
UPDATE: Ariana has clarified that her comment about Travis was just a joke. “i adore travis & kylie and i love the astroworld album a joke issa joke watch the video, stop using me for clickbait so i can come online n celebrate my number one too pls ! hip hip hooray !” she tweeted.
i adore travis & kylie and i love the astroworld album a joke issa joke watch the video, stop using me for clickbait so i can come online n celebrate my number one too pls ! hip hip hooray !
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) August 23, 2018
also everything literally almost everything i say i say for comedic effect and am never serious …. like i’m always “on”…. if ever u think i’m being shady i’m jus goin for the laugh ….. if i’m being fr shady you’ll know
i’m a v loving lil babe 👼🏼— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) August 23, 2018