YG’s first week sales are abysmal and fans blame Kendrick Lamar

YG is a proven hip-hop talent, having produced acclaimed albums for a decade and featured on several hit singles. Unfortunately, the rapper’s pedigree did not translate into success for his new tape. Just updated 3. The (seemingly highly anticipated) third installment in his series sold only 8,000 copies in its first week. A massive drop from his last album I Got Issues, which sold 13,800 copies in 2022. Fans were quite surprised by the drop. However, a story quickly developed that had to do with YG’s West Coast brother, Kendrick Lamar.

The consensus on social media was that Kendrick Lamar should have used his considerable success to promote YG’s album. YG had been suggesting Dot as his successor throughout the Drake battle. He was one of the artists who attended the Pop Out show. He also distanced himself from Drake, despite working with the Toronto rapper on two of his biggest singles. “Why hasn’t Kendrick tweeted or posted YG’s album?” asked one Twitter user. “Doesn’t anyone find this weird??” Others took a more hostile approach, claiming that Lamar took advantage of his West Coast peers when it suited him but didn’t help them in return.

“The Pop Out show did nothing for the artists dancing on stage,” wrote one angry user. “They were all used by Kendrick for personal gain and nothing else. Kendrick couldn’t even give them features or release their albums. West Coast United did nothing for them after that. Clown show.” YG isn’t the first artist to have album sales drop after working with Dot. DJ Mustard landed his first number one single when he produced Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” Mustard slammed Drake in the media and happily appeared alongside Lamar in the music video. When the producer was due to release his new album, however, it wasn’t as successful. The Faith of a Mustard Seed only 18,000 sold in the first week.

Once again, fans were confused by Kendrick Lamar’s lack of involvement. The rapper didn’t contribute a verse to the album, nor did he bother to promote it on social media. It’s obviously not Lamar’s job to do any of that, but critics are starting to piece together a story where the Compton rapper has the opposite of Drake’s stimulus package. In other words, a Kendrick Lamar co-sign isn’t going to help album sales. Mustard crashed on Twitter after his album numbers were released. But he still managed to sell 10,000 more than poor YG.