Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande have fired back at Tekashi 6ix9ine’s allegation that they bought their way to the top of the Billboard chart, as the controversy around who should rightfully be at number one this week continues.
6ix9ine has been on the warpath since he disclosed last week that Ariana and Bieber’s charity single Stuck With U would fraudulently outpace his song, Gooba, on the Hot 100.
“I’ma make this real quick, because I’ll be real disappointed if Billboard gives paid-for number ones, somehow manipulate the charts…’ said the rapper who was recently released from prison.
‘I want the whole world to see this, because what I’m about to show you is a forecast, right, of what every label in the world gets. Atlantic, Interscope, Republic, Columbia, Sony, Universal Music, every label gets this, right?,” he said.
His accusations did not go down well with Ariana, who has since advised the rapper to humble himself.
“My fans bought the song. JUSTIN’S fans bought the song. OUR fans bought this song (never more than four copies each, AS THE RULES STATE),” she said in an expletive laden Instagram post.
Bieber on his part said the song’s late surge was because of his team’s strategy.
“He says his streams don’t count,” Bieber wrote on Instagram. “Yes they do, but he is counting his global streams and this is a domestic chart, so only domestic streams count.”
He added that the additional 60,000 sales of Stuck With U were not reported until Thursday as a tactic to beat the competition. “That’s called strategy,” said the singer.
In a lengthy article, Billboard explained the workings of the chart and how Gooba had come second best.
“Overall, Stuck With U drew 28.1 million US streams, 26.3 million in radio airplay audience and 108,000 sold in the tracking week,” it explained.
“Gooba had 55.3 million US streams, 172,000 in radio airplay audience and 24,000 sold. Those sums resulted in the songs’ respective rankings on this week’s Hot 100.”