Sales predictions for Kanye West's newest album "Yeezus" were wildly incorrect; Billboard's music charts don't lie, and West's sales are looking less than stellar compared to his past records.
"Yeezus" sold 327,000 copies in its debut week, but according to multiple reports, the album was estimated to sell 500,000 copies.
"That's what industry forecasters suggest," Keith Caulfield, Billboard's associate director of charts/retail told USA today. "It's difficult to a degree to predict an album's sales until it actually goes on sale, but the closer you to are to the release date, the better you can tell. It's like a weather forecast."
West's past successful albums have debuted with more than 450,000 copies sold. His last record. 2010's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" debuted with 496,000.
"[The last two albums] had a big holiday and Christmas to drive sales, and you don't have that now," Caulfield said. "Plus, he's missing the Father's Day window."
Sales dropped down 65,000 copies bought in its second week. According to Billboard, the drop in record sales lowered by 80% to No. 3, the largest second-week percentage drop for a No. 1-debuting album in over a year.
Def Jam, West's record label, released on Tuesday the first official radio single off "Yeezus" titled "Black Skinhead." The song is featured in Leonardo DiCaprio's newest film, "Wolf on Wall Street." The film will be released to theaters Nov. 15.
Below is a list of the five largest second-week percentage drops for No. 1-debuting albums, according to Billboard:
Chart Date - Artist - Title - % Decline - Debut Units - 2nd Week Units
April 21, 2012 - Madonna, "MDNA" - 86.70% (from 359,000 to 48,000 at No. 8)
June 18, 2011 - Lady Gaga, "Born This Way" - 84.28% (from 1.11 million to 174,000 at No. 1)
Dec. 3, 2011 - Mac Miller, "Blue Slide Park" - 82.54% (from 144,000 to 25,000 at No. 24)
July 13, 2013 - Kanye West, "Yeezus" - 80.27% (from 327,000 to 65,000 at No. 3)
Dec. 16, 2006 - Jay-Z, "Kingdom Come" - 79.42% (from 680,000 to 140,000 at No. 6)
