Travis Scott’s ‘Days Before Rodeo’ Projected To Hit No. 1 On Billboard 200
Travis Scott may have been down, but he is far from out. The 33-year-old rapper’s Days Before Rodeo mixtape re-release has been projected to go No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, once again.
HITS Daily Double reported that the 2014 project is set to move 130,000 album-equivalent units this week, 125,000 of which will be pure sales due to fans purchasing Days Before Rodeo vinyl copies. This would mark a huge jump for the project, which sunk to No. 106 on the Billboard 200. It initially debuted at No. 2 on the chart and dropped 92% in sales, putting it at No. 30 before eventually hitting No. 106.
The Houston artist and his team fought aggressively to reach No. 1 when the project debuted toward the end of August. It came out the same week that pop star Sabrina Carpenter released Short N’ Sweet, and thus ensued a tight battle for the top spot when Scott began to roll out merchandise, bundles, vinyls, and other products to boost his sales.
The battle intensified even more when Sabrina Carpenter invoked Nicki Minaj’s fanbase by tweeting “This one’s for Nicki.” This was a reference to Minaj’s 2018 sales battle with Travis Scott, when they released Queen and Astroworld, respectively, within one week of each other. The Queens rapper failed to hit No. 1 and called Scott out for “gaming the system” with bundles.
When numbers finally came out after Labor Day Weekend 2024, Carpenter narrowly defeated Scott by just over 1,000 units. She maintained the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 for the next few weeks, but it looks like Travis Scott and his team will finally get the victory they sought.
They didn’t hold their tongues about the initial loss, either, claiming Billboard used “unreliable and incomplete” data in assessing sales. Specifically, they felt that Carpenter’s sales via independent stores were being overly valued. Luminate, the analytics platform that works with Billboard to compile chart data, responded by saying “We are confident that our numbers are correct in accordance with our processes and methodology.”
Days Before Rodeo is a cult classic within the Hip-Hop community, boasting popular records such as “Mamacita” featuring Young Thug and the late Rich Homie Quan, “Drugs You Should Try It,” “Quintana Pt. 2,” and more. Migos, Big Sean, and Peewee Longway also appeared on the mixtape.