His latest album only sold 63,000 copies in the first week, and he is angry that Motown did not do the other 50 per cent of the responsibility to promote the album.
- November 30, 2010
AceShowbiz - Rapper Nelly has launched a scathing attack on his record label following disappointing sales of his new album - insisting poor marketing and distribution are to blame for the lowly chart position. The hip-hop star's latest offering, "5.0", entered America's Billboard 200 chart at number 10 following its release earlier this month, selling 63,000 copies.
But Nelly, who has enjoyed top three hits with all of his previous records, is adamant the album could have performed better if it had been properly supported by his bosses at Motown. In a series of posts on his Twitter.com page, he writes, "A record deal is a 50/50 partnership! As (an) artist it's your job to provide the record company with music that they (record company) can sell! Thing about the partnership is that (in) the public eye the responsibility is not 50/50!"
"The artist is always the 1 who catches 90 per cent of the blame. When (an) artist doesn't deliver sufficient material they gets its budget cut for (their) next album or worse dropped from the label!... Who should be held responsible wen (sic) (an) artist has a history for selling records so it's not like a new artist (and) no1 (sic) knows his (or) her name?..."
"The fact is that some1 (sic) needs to hold up there (sic) end of the partnership!... If u (sic) only ship 200thound (200,000 copies) of an album how many are u f**king tryen (sic) to sell?? The artist does (not) control that nor does he or she control marketing."
