The question in the Hip-Hop universe is: How did Wayne outsell two of the biggest stars in rap?
Forbes looks into the money aspect in an article on Forbes.com.
According to the money experts, Jay-Z and Kanye’s “complicated release strategy” that included exclusive windows with Apple’s iTunes and BestBuy and their safeguards against the possibility of a leak (and angered some retailers in the process) was one of the reason why they failed to win consumers.
The Young Money/Cash Money’s Carter IV did leak a few days before its debut—unlike Watch The Throne, which remained airtight—many people, including Lil Wayne himself, believe the leak actually helped.
CEO “Birdman” agreed with that assessment, mostly because the leak occurred too late to have large negative impact on sales.
“It always depends how much time you have with a leak,” Birdman says. “This one was two or three days.”
When you got a project like this and it’s three weeks to a month, it can really hurt you … but in this case I don’t think the leak hurt at all.”
What do you think? Did Kanye and Jay Z “out-smart” themselves?
