Mack Maine Not Concerned With First Week C4 Sales

With Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV finally officially hitting shelves today (August 29), the question will now be tossed around, will C4 outdo C3's lofty first week's sales?

But according to Young Money president Mack Maine, first week sales aren't the barometer that he uses to gauge the success of an album, admitting he and his boss Weezy are in it for the long haul.

“[Wayne] actually told us if he don't do those same numbers again as C3 don't be mad,” Mack admitted to XXL.

“I said this before,” he continued. “I told Nicki—she was kinda nervous about her first-week sales—I said, ‘First week sales don't matter.' I'd rather my final sales matter. I know albums from Juvenile 400 Degreez to Beiber's first album sold 20, or 30,000 the first-week and went onto sell 2 million one album then 6 million on another album. I saw Gaga did the 99 cent thing [and] then [her] second-week it did like 175,000. Congratulation as it relates to her. With Wayne, I don't want him to sell a million the first-week, [and] then drop to 100,000 the next week then 50,00 the following week. I'd rather sell ten times platinum total.”

“People have gotten away from working a record,” said Mack, “With Nicki, we're on our seventh or eighth video on Pink Friday,” he added. “We working!”

Tha Carter III sold 400,000 copies in its first day on shelves when it dropped in June 2008. After one week in stores the album had already reached platinum status.

As most of you might have heard somewhere, Jay-Z and some dude named Kanye West dropped a collaborative album Monday with a peculiar debut that was exclusively limited to the Apple iTunes store for four whole days.

With that said, the first week of sales will come to a close and the numbers will be revealed next Wednesday. Whether or not the no-leak method that the two bragging rappers were able to pull off will equal chart-topping sales is yet to be determined.

Right now the projections are in between 400,000 and 500,000 copies moved which isn't bad at all.

As a matter of fact it only comes second this year to Lady Gaga's 1.1 million first week sales for Born This Way. Go get your copies so the rich can get richer.

“When you say something as vague as ‘Men lie, women lie, numbers don't,' how do you take that as a disrespect, a response.  If we did look at the numbers, you'd see I did his career, my first two records.”

For some reason, when Jay-Z says something, other rappers seem to almost get a little heavy-hearted and sensitive about it and feel the need to lash out.

As Hov continues to use the phrase ‘Men lie, women lie, numbers don't' as an easy route to derail any diss coming at him from other artists, some have yet to prove Jay wrong.

With the release of The Blueprint III, Jay has etched himself in for achieving yet another number 1 album in his catalogue and has already reached platinum status as his detractors are clawing just to say that they have a gold plaque for their latest album.

The low numbers projected for 50 Cent's Before I Self Destruct haven't affected the rapper, according to him, as the response outweighs the sales, but Jay's catch-phrase must have left its mark when he uttered the words during this year's American Music Awards.

While on tour with G-Unit in Paris, the rapper was able to speak on the idea of numbers and comparing his track record with Jay's so far in their musical careers.

“I did what he did in 15 years in 4 years.  Like the numbers, you don't wanna talk about the numbers.”

Referring to his first and second albums which totaled around 15 million copies, his offerings since have seen a steady decline, whereas Jay started off slow initially, but has since established a foundation and has yet to not nab a platinum record so far in his career.

These two have had a love/hate relationship since Fif came through the gate with “How to Rob."  Lyrically, the two may be in two different places mentally, but financially the two have battled for years and established themselves as major components in Hip Hop.

An artist such as 50 Cent, who was known to gloat over his success in mainstream sales seemed to be silenced once the theory of platinum status first week was shattered, due in part to a major leak almost a month before the actual release.

Where the soap opera drama of the two will go from here is uncertain.  Whether they make up or continue to throw jabs is uncertain, but the fight for the crown will not stop until Jay or 50 can proclaim that they truly run New York.

Recently, Rick Ross spoke on the sales of 50 Cent's latest offering, Before I Self Destruct, which sold close to 160,000 copies in its first week.   After viewing what appear to be disappointing numbers for an artist with such a caliber as 50, Ross proclaimed that he was able to bury the G-Unit general.

Never willing to let any punch slip through, Jackson revealed news through an interview with DJ Whoo Kid about how Ross tried to take a play from his book when he contacted Tia and tried to find a means to get at 50's baby's mother.

“They actually, indirectly, tried to contact my son's mom.  They would have only shown up somewhere for me to have them shot at that point.”

The rapper continued to flex his muscle by stating that the rap game doesn't take away from his past and the fact that he could quickly slip back into the mentality that raised him when he was without a deal and did not have the fame and fortune that he rests on now.

“Then we gonna stop rappin and start doing the Shyte.  If they think that ain't real, then they should try it.  That's just that.  I tell them, constantly, don't expect me not to go where I come from.  That's gonna be nice and comfy for me so you gonna have to figure out how to adjust your Shyte.  My car is already bulletproof.  Everything is already in order for that.”

He also added that with all of the heat coming his way, he finds it interesting how everyone is fully aware of where he rests his head at, but nobody bothers to come knock at the door and come in.

“While we getting ready to go through those circumstances, and I don't live in Connecticut, that's just the house, and that one got motion sensors and cameras all kind of Shyte, so go ahead.   Why everybody got my address and ain't nobody stopping by?  Get busy then.  I done said everything that I can think of.”

Referring to himself as a Hip Hop president, Jackson stated that there are consequences for all actions and that every shot fired will be fired back.

“I'm like Obama.  The president gotta kiss hands and shake babies.  You can kill the president.  It's hard to get away with it.  So I use my resources.  I ain't even worried about it, it's too late for that.”

As the page turns, the story only gets better between 50 Cent and all of his enemies in the rap world.  Hopefully things can remain on wax and the chapters will only be told through a story and not spill out onto the streets.

“Somebody call the ambulance.”

It seems as though the war is over and 50 Cent may have won again as it relates to the battle with Rick Ross and Triple Cs.

First week sales projections came in and showed that their collaborative effort is estimated to push under 4,000 copies.  Hits Daily Double, which gives up-to-date sales projections of upcoming albums showed new releases from Michael Jackson, Creed and other albums that dropped on October 27.

In the 50 albums that were listed, Custom Cars & Cycles was nowhere to be found on the list with the lowest top 50 sales coming in at 3,063.

As the site updates every 5 to 10 minutes, this may serve as a major blow to the camp of Ross.

During an interview, 50 Cent was back at his antics and went into full throttle once he was told what the sales would look like around Wednesday.  The rapper broke down on air.

“I need a minute.  This is 50 Cent live on ThisIs50.com and muthaf**ka sold 4,000 CDs, man.  It's bad out here…I don't know what the Fawk is going to happen next.”

Check the video here: