For some reason, Travis Scott was hellbent on getting a reissue of his ten-year-old mixtape Days Before Rodeo to top the Billboard album chart. Despite releasing a slew of deluxe editions, he fell just short of Sabrina Carpenter's Short N' Sweet. Though it turns out he was afraid that might happen, and got his label to complain about it before the numbers officially dropped.
As reported by Vulture, anonymous shills for Cactus Jack Records sent a letter to Billboard at the tabulation company Luminate before the September 3 publication of the chart. In it, they accused the week's album chart of being "unreliable and incomplete," saying that a portion of sales from a deluxe edition released forty minutes before the end of the last tracking day, August 29, were not included. They argue that this could have bolstered Scott's 361,000 sales over Carpenter's 362,000.
You may be asking, why would Billboard want to hypothetically snub Scott? According to Cactus Jack's thin-air conspiracies, someone working at Luminate might have "a personal incentive" to give Carpenter the top spot since he used to work at her label, Island Records. They also decided to reiterate that they were not tattling for Scott himself, but on behalf of their label and store. Sure.
A Luminate spokesperson confirmed they received the letter, while Billboard is confident their data is correct. "We are confident that our numbers are correct in accordance with our processes and methodology," the spokesperson said.