On the disappointing sales of The DeAndre Way
“Honestly, I felt like that was one of the best albums in my career. But when the sales came, I just felt like that reflected something that was going on personally in my life. A lot of people don’t know that ‘Pretty Boy Swag’ went platinum and it was a Billboard Top 10 hit. I felt like I should have dropped my album at the peak of ‘Pretty Boy Swag.’ But I dropped the album so far after that. Because after that, ‘Blowing Me Kisses’ performed well and ‘Speakers Going Hammer’ was a hit, but it really didn’t do what ‘Pretty Boy Swag’ did.
“I wanted to release my album on my birthday. But when you’re signed to a label like Interscope, they’ve got a million other artists dropping albums. If I could, I would go in there and say, ‘Hey, I need to ship a million copies on my birthday, July 28.’ I’ve got hit singles and platinum albums, but I can’t demand what day they put my album in stores. It just so happened that my date came to fall upon that winter, when it should have really been that summer.
“Honestly, I shut down for a week [after my album dropped]. I wasn’t talking to nobody, I wasn’t talking to management, and I wasn’t talking to the label. I wasn’t picking up nobody’s calls. I went like that for a week. I was in a state of confusion. I needed answers. I was doing this concert in Hawaii for my fans and then I was in Hawaii for a week.
I shut down for a week [after my album dropped]. I wasn’t talking to nobody, I wasn’t talking to management, and I wasn’t talking to the label. I wasn’t picking up nobody’s calls. I went like that for a week.
“I wouldn’t have been able to go platinum first week anyway, because the label only shipped like 18,000 copies. So I wasn’t able to do gold first week or even 100k, none of that. They only put like 8,000 units in Best Buy. It was crazy. I didn’t know all of that though. I was just going off of, ‘My album’s going to be in stores, so I’m going to promote it as much as I can.’ I’m not the type of person to just be out like, ‘Hey, my label did this and I was in a situation with that.’ But I don’t want to get caught up in record-label-artist drama or nothing like that. I just want to keep everything cool to make music, that’s all.
“Honestly, I had hit singles on that album besides ‘Pretty Boy Swag.’ Like ‘Hey Cutie’ with Trey Songz, ‘Grammy’ with Esther Dean, and ‘Mean Mug’ with 50 Cent. The labels out here, they don’t know what they’re doing. No disrespect to no labels, but I’ve got my ear to the streets. I know what’s hot and I know what’s going to sell, but nine times out of ten you’ve got to bring that to the label, and you’ve got to tell them.
“So I feel like this mixtape is going to set the tone. I’ve got some great music on it, they’re going to like it, and then that’s going to push the momentum into my fourth project on Interscope. I’ve got three more albums with Interscope.
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