Consequence Talks Album Sales, "If Somebody Thinks My Career Is Over..."

[Simagine]

Since selling 7,000 units, critics and fans alike have been dismissing Consequence's Don't Quit Your Day Job as a disappointment. The Queens, NY emcee recently caught up with SOHH to explain why his album is a triumph rather than a flop.

Last week, news spread that Cons' debut album sold 7,000 copies according to Nielsen's SoundScan. While many perceived the numbers as weak, most overlooked that the G.O.O.D Music release dropped under a smaller distributor and landed at No.1 on Billboard's New Artist Chart.

"I put my album through Red [Inc. Distributions] because I didn't know when I was gonna be able to utilize the machine, which is Sony," Cons told SOHH. "The machine is the part of the company that puts out Beyonce records or puts out John Legend records or records that they know is gonna make money."

"I knew I was gonna sell records on my namesake alone. I spent basically zero dollars on marketing and promotion. You didn't see any billboards or anything on my record," he added. "Of course, if you look at it without any information you're like, 'Consequence only sold 7,000.' But if you know the science behind it, motherfuckers is calling me from the office like I scored. I'm still in the red, but I'm way closer to recouping than the top ten artists that are on Billboard right now."

Sales aside, some have been speculating on whether Kanye West, G.O.O.D Music's CEO, provided Cons with proper support for his debut.

"You gotta understand, I'm signed to another artist. Do you think Jay-Z gave Kanye as much support on his first album as he probably should have, or as he would have if he was just a CEO? It's the same thing," Cons explained. "I don't say yes. I don't say no. At the end of the day, I supported me, that's why the record came out."

Cons' record has also received a few jabs courtesy of its title. Skeptics have been pointing out the irony of a CD entitled Don't Quit Your Day Job only moving 7,000 copies.

"I don't care what nobody say, the irony of that is I got 'Hip-Hop Quotable' [in the Source magazine] this month," Cons revealed. "I mean, if you wanna poke a jab at it, it's cool. But, that's the first week. This is a marathon, not a sprint. If somebody thinks that means my career is over, they're sadly mistaken."

Consequence's Don't Quit Your Day Job is in stores now.

[Vick Slate]

i love the album

[CWB83c]

Same here, i think its dope. Cons' style is awesome.

[run]

he doesnt have the skills to put a solid album together, he can talk all that "promotion and against the machine" talk but everyone knows that 7000 is less than mixtape numbers and its a major disappointment.

[Inn Deppth]

he has a koolade produced joint?! koolade is sick

[Fero Blaque]

If everyone's talking like he's the franchise, how come he sold 7,000 copies of his album ? That's most definitely a flop, probably because the album was downloaded a thousand times or over by Internet-hiphop kids.

They fuck up this whole Industry, are you fucking blind or something ? It really pisses me off you know, It's like I have to sign with a major cause dropping on indie labels gets me underground exposure most likely and these internet-kids think underground Is cool.

So they upload the thing and all these 'fans' download It, how are you ever going to drop an album from your bassment or from an indie label ? Those days are over, stop sharing underground hip-hop on this board because these artists struggle and you even making It more sour for them to earn some money. Thank you.

[run]

lots of indie artists do very well as most of their album sales go straight to their pocket.

EVERY album gets released early on the net, thats the music industry. you cant single one guy out and say thats why his album flopped, it flopped because nobody knows or cares who consequence is and hes just trying to sell off comments from kanye. the album is below average with a couple solid songs. he has no structure and many songs were straight up boring.

major label albums get downloaded 10fold the number that underground releases do, it goes with popularity. not every "internet hiphop kid" its solely in it for underground releases.

[Fero Blaque]

Originally Posted by run

lots of indie artists do very well as most of their album sales go straight to their pocket.

EVERY album gets released early on the net, thats the music industry. you cant single one guy out and say thats why his album flopped, it flopped because nobody knows or cares who consequence is and hes just trying to sell off comments from kanye. the album is below average with a couple solid songs. he has no structure and many songs were straight up boring.

major label albums get downloaded 10fold the number that underground releases do, it goes with popularity. not every "internet hiphop kid" its solely in it for underground releases.

Consequence album isnt worth buying, straight up.

Treu, but do know that mainstream albums are like 2 dollars up In price or more and they have tripple the fans. Their name sells, they all do something on the side that's making thenm even more money.

Indie artists do get the money straight In their pockets, but look at how many they sell ? Maybe like 10,000 ... minus the 1500 downloads so they do miss out on alot of money. In the end, they don't have all that much left.

[Al@moe.]

Na. "Gym Class Heros" are at 200k after 9 weeks. Thats pretty good. "Jim jones" hit the 300k mark and more. Right now I say independent is the best way to go. If someone can push Platinum on independent, they can pretty much retire.

[bascand]

there seems to be only two good reasons why an album flops, bad promo and boring album, this has both attributes written all over it

[efgeesus]

i havent heard the album

but has it really flopped? 7000 units sold, off the back of your own promo is still good hustle regardless

people think an album that fails to sell a mill is wack

he spent fuck all on advertising, so to sell 7000 off a name isnt that fricking bad

its not good by any means but its not dreadful

[CWB83c]

i like cons, and as a cons fan i didnt even know the thing was droppin til one day i saw it online as the retail one. So yeh there was barely any promotion of it, so i can understand why it sold so little.