We Speak Entertainment
Nicki Minaj Calls Out Travis Scott, Spotify After Queen Debuts at No. 2 Behind Astroworld
In a series of tweets, she accuses Travis of artificially inflating his numbers and the streaming service of treating her unfairly
After debuting at the top of the charts, Travis Scott’s latest album Astroworld has notched another week at No. 1, Billboard reports. Coming in at the No. 2 spot is Nicki Minaj’s latest album Queen. Astroworld sold 205,000 equivalent units, with 78,000 from traditional sales. Queen, in the meantime, sold 185,000 units—78,000 were from traditional sales.
Nicki responded to the news in a series of tweets, calling out Travis Scott for selling “season pass” bundles for his upcoming Astroworld tour. “Travis sold over 50K of these,” Nicki wrote. “With no requirement of redeeming the album! With no dates for a tour, etc. I spoke to him. He knows he doesn’t have the #1 album this week.” She also implied that Billboard might change the rules based on the Astroworld rollout.
Later, she called out Spotify for their recent campaign promoting Drake’s Scorpion and claimed that she was being punished for debuting her record during her radio show. She wrote, “Spotify had to teach me a lesson but rewarded the man who has had an Apple radio show the longest; inadvertently helping the Apple platform the most.” She continued, “My label didn’t want to defend me for fear of Spotify trying to teach Ariana a ‘lesson’ too.”
Astroworld was the first album to unseat Drake’s Scorpion, which debuted at the top spot upon its release and spent five weeks straight in that position. This week, Scorpion is at No. 3. Travis’ album had the second-biggest opening week for an album in 2018, second only to Scorpion.
Following the release of Queen, Nicki made some changes to the album, which included the inclusion of her 6ix9ine and Murda Beatz collaboration “FEFE” as a bonus track. Read the op-ed “Nicki Minaj, 6ix9ine, and the Alarming Normalization of Predatory Behavior” on the Pitch.
Aaron makes music about meaningful topics that rocks and grooves – and sometimes it even skanks on a rock steady beat!
His new song ‘Geeks’ has been released on all major music platforms on November 15th. It is an anthem for the heroes of the digital age: computer nerds, also known as geeks. It is driven by an off-beat ska guitar, a sticky bass line and a groovy brass section. The icing on the cake is a jazzy saxophone solo.
“I have always loved Ska, I even saw the Specials, the Selecter and Madness live in their heydays”, says Aaron. “I chose the topic although I am not a geek myself, but I have a lot of sympathy for them. Geeks are often frowned upon because they can be socially awkward, but they are the ones who are building a better world. So I think they deserve an anthem.”
The music video is mostly made up of typography, minimalistic ASCII graphics and heavily pixelated images – it surely looks geeky! Watch it here:
Aaron writes catchy songs that are made for people who like meaningful, uplifting topics and guitar-driven, hand-made sounds. His musical journey started young but it wasn’t until he discovered Bitcoin and became so invested in it that he used music to express his new found joy.
“It’s mostly rock music, with excursions into funk, soul and other styles I grew up with. In general, it’s guitar-driven and hand-made, often with a punkish energy and beatlesque harmonies. What all my songs have in common are meaningful lyrics about being in the here and now, about transforming disturbing emotions into wisdom, about being in the flow, things like that.” says Aaron in an interview.
“I have always been making music and writing songs, starting with a punk rock band when I was 15. However, I never saw it as a career. I played in several bands in my teenage years and my early twenties, but after my media studies in Berlin and Rio de Janeiro I focused on other things. I first worked in TV production and then founded one of the first Internet agencies in Germany. I discovered Bitcoin in 2011 and became fascinated by it. I wrote five books about it, made lots of promotional videos and educational series for Bitcoin and blockchain companies, and organised events. I even wrote some songs about Bitcoin, which became quite popular in the community, like my Reggaeton about the Bitcoin Beach in El Salvador. People always liked that my songs are catchy and provocative. It was by the end of 2023 that I decided to go full in on music. It’s what I enjoy the most, so now I want to fully follow my passion.”
Since May 2024, his songs have been streamed more than 250,000 times on Spotify and his music videos have been viewed more than 350,000 times on YouTube.
Read more about Aaron King: http://aaron-koenig.net/press/
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