According to HitsDailyDouble, French Montana's commercial mixtape, Mac & Cheese 5, had a 62K opening week, much bigger numbers than French has been posting lately.
Those numbers are also very odd. HDD has French moving 50K in physical albums, an unheard-of ratio of sales to streams for a rapper in 2024.
It would appear French and his team ran a scam involving five-dollar vinyls that were never really shipped.
French Montana is being accused of fraud after his new album is suspiciously projected to debut with 45K in pure sales
— Kurrco (@Kurrco) February 28, 2024
Fans who ordered his $5 vinyl allegedly had their orders shipped to random US addresses, in packages too small for a vinyl... pic.twitter.com/U1BZ2Rth5u
That is likely why Billboard is not including Mac & Cheese 5 in the top ten of this week's album chart.
We'll see how much Billboard penalizes him when the full chart is announced tomorrow.French Montana's 'Mac & Cheese 5' does not appear in the top 10 on this week's Billboard 200, despite being predicted to debut top 5 with over 60K units sold.
— chart data (@chartdata) March 3, 2024
Its placement is expected to be announced tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/JjZXN7VSfE
This isn't the first time French has been caught trying to cheat the charts.