Tyler, the Creator is breaking his silence on his chart battle with DJ Khaled.
In May, the Odd Future rapper earned his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with IGOR, which outsold Khaled’s star-studded album Father of Asahd.
IGOR, which was sold with merchandise bundles, moved 165,000 equivalent album units (74,000 in album sales) in its first week, while Father of Asahd sold 136,000 units, of which 34,000 were traditional sales.
According to reports, he was furious with Billboard and alleges that the chart organization unfairly disqualified more than 100,000 in sales of his album from an energy drink bundle, which cost him the No. 1 spot.
Tyler opened up about his chart victory during an interview with Zane Loweon Beats 1. “This is no disrespect to Khaled or anyone, but this ni**a had every person in the industry, everyone on that fu**ing album—everyone, everyone—Cardi B, 21 Savage, Travis Scott, Post Malone, Beyoncé and JAY, everyone who sells billions of records,” he said.
“And the fact that I beat him with this that isn’t parallel to all the popping music right now was fu**ing crazy, bro. Are you serious? Like that was insane to me and it’s new to me, bro.”
A proud Tyler added, “It’s work. It’s effort… Whether ni**as like it or not, it’s so much work and detail put into this sh*t.”