US Rapper, Russ, Accuses Billboard Of Defrauding Him Of Tens Of Thousands Of ‘SANTIAGO’ Sales

Russ has leveled severe claims against Billboard and Luminate, the businesses in charge of regulating the Billboard charts, accusing them of defrauding him of thousands of dollars from sales of his new album Santiago. The Atlanta rapper made the allegations on Twitter on Monday (August 28), following news that his latest album opened at No. 12 on the Billboard 200, with 42,000 album-equivalent units in its first week.

Billboard & Luminate took away ANOTHER 4,000 of my REAL sales over the weekend making that 10,000 sales total they took away from me while allowing major labels to fake their streams and sales and do monopolistic merch bundles (only major labels are allowed to do merch bundles… https://t.co/lH06KpNLM4

— SANTIAGO (@russdiemon) August 28, 2023

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While it would be a respectable total for any independent artist, Russ believed it was a little low, especially considering he was earlier forecast to make the top 10 with over 50,000 units, and accused Billboard and Luminate of excluding 10,000 sales from their calculations.

The Chomp MC also retweeted two controversial tweets from his manager, Milan Ackerman, in which he accused major labels of “inflating” their artists’ stats with fraudulent streams and the firms in charge of failing to properly verify streaming and sales data, insinuating a conspiracy.

🗣🗣🗣🗣

I don’t think y’all realize how nuts this is…Billboard charts are inflated by fake data which is being verified by only one company, Luminate

Both Billboard & Luminate are owned by the same company 🤦🏻‍♂️

Anyway imma sit back and watch Milan expose the whole shit… https://t.co/0FOmTN6OoS

— SANTIAGO (@russdiemon) August 28, 2023

Russ previously expressed his displeasure with the music industry on Twitter over the weekend, stating that the powers that be are attempting to “diminish [his] impact” and that “the game is rigged.” Santiago, Russ’ 16th studio album, was released on August 18 through his independent label Diemon.

While several of his recent releases have featured great lyricists, this effort was considerably more stripped-down, with only a few guest appearances from Rexx Life Raj and singers Bibi Bourelly and Justin Nozuka.