In the fourth week of its release, "Keep Going" sold 389,000 copies in the U.S., reclaiming the top spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart for the second time.
"The Blueprint 3" came in second, with sales of 232,000 copies this week, falling 150,000 copies short of "Keep Going."
Media analysis attributed this disparity to several factors. First, last week, Link hosted a gold medal giveaway event, which garnered substantial exposure.
In contrast, Jay-Z's promotional activities were lackluster, lacking highlights, and artists like Lil Wayne and Drake were frequently late to events and appeared disengaged.
The second reason was the album's style and quality.
"Keep Going" blends rock, pop, and electronic music, making it more mainstream and broadening its audience.
The songs on this album, such as "Give Me Reason" and "Believer," are energetic and exhilarating, with powerful melodies, intense rhythms, and dramatic vocals from Link, making it very uplifting.
On the other hand, "The Blueprint 3" is also good, praised by hip-hop magazine XXL as the best rap album of 2009. Jay-Z's album revived his reputation and popularity in the music scene.
However, rap music has limited appeal among lighter-skinned demographics.
This narrower audience base also contributed to "The Blueprint 3" not performing as well as "Keep Going."
Moreover, although "The Blueprint 3" includes two chart-topping singles, the overall quality of its other tracks does not match up to "Keep Going," and its popularity is less compared to the standout tracks on Link's second album.
The Los Angeles Times analyzed a third reason related to the artists themselves.
Comparing Jay-Z, a 41-year-old overweight African-American, with Link, who is 21, young, handsome, tall, and fit, the public image disparity is clear. Link is a fresh and appealing youth icon, while Jay-Z is an established but aging star.
In terms of influence and appeal to the younger demographic, Jay-Z falls significantly short of Link.
This explains why "The Blueprint 3" continues to lag despite ongoing promotions.
However, Jay-Z did have a silver lining this week: "Empire State of Mind" held the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for the third week, while "Believer" dropped to fourth.
This week, Link and Jay-Z were competing on the charts.
In terms of album sales, both Link and Jay-Z have each claimed the top spot on the album chart for two weeks, but Link leads in cumulative sales.
On the singles chart, "Keep Going" has only one number-one single, "Give Me Reason," which topped the chart for one week.
In contrast, "The Blueprint 3" boasts two number-one singles, each holding the top spot for four weeks.
However, Link's album features a higher number of charted songs.
The New York Post commented that both artists have achieved victories and losses, essentially evening the score, and suggested that reconciliation might be beneficial.
The music industry shared this view, seeing a draw as an opportunity for peace, which could be advantageous since continued competition might hinder sales for other artists' albums.
But for Jay-Z and the East Coast rap crew, a draw was an unacceptable result.
As top-tier music industry figures, Jay-Z is an established icon and king of the New York music scene. Despite their intense promotion efforts, they found themselves on par with a newcomer like Link, who has only released two albums.
A draw felt like a defeat to them—a group of elite artists being outperformed by one individual.
"Is there any good solution?" Jay-Z asked.
Kanye and the others shook their heads. With the album having been out for four weeks, its sales were likely to decline as is typical for albums, with peak sales occurring in the first month. Quality albums benefit from a longer tail effect, but "The Blueprint 3" is not top-tier, and the label projected total sales in the U.S. would be under 2.5 million copies.
Further promotion wouldn't make much difference.
They had no effective strategy to reverse their disadvantage.
"I propose reconciliation," Beyoncé said, lounging on an Italian sofa, legs crossed, sipping a glass of Bordeaux red wine. "Rihanna and Katy Perry have talked, and Link isn't eager to compete with you. It's your repeated pressure and competition that forced him to respond. Since things are at a stalemate, why not propose reconciliation?"
"Bullshit! His comments outside the Grammy Awards said we became arrogant and hostile after the African-American election. Then he suddenly released the rap single 'I'm the One,' which was clearly a provocation. He dares to claim he was forced? Nonsense!"
Jay-Z responded angrily.
"So, do you have any ideas to defeat him?" Beyoncé asked with a smile, glancing over at Jay-Z, Kanye, Lil Wayne, and the others.
Lil Wayne, with his messy hair, glanced at Beyoncé's legs and said, "Jay-Z, we haven't lost. Initially, we only competed with Link for the rap charts, but the media hype shifted the focus to the album charts."
"Now we just need to use the media to refocus attention on the rap charts and continue competing with Link there."
Seeing everyone's attention shift, Lil Wayne laughed and continued, "Right now, on the rap singles chart, 'Empire State of Mind' is number one, and 'The Blueprint 3' has 12 songs in the Hot 40.
Link's 'I'm the One' has already dropped off the charts, and 'Lighters' is only at 16. In the rap field, Link and Link Music have suffered a comprehensive defeat, so in this competition, we won big, and Link lost."
Everyone considered this and agreed it made sense.
Initially, their competition with Link was focused solely on the rap charts.
The attention shifted from the rap charts to the singles charts when "Give Me Reason" took the top spot from Jay-Z's promotional single "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)." The media hype then moved the focus from singles to albums, leading to Link's album surpassing theirs.
If they had stayed focused on the rap field, a rookie like Link with only two albums from Link Music would never have matched up against their rap top-tier artists.
Bang!
Jay-Z slammed the armrest of the sofa angrily.
"Tricked! We fell for Link's scheme. That damned bastard knew he couldn't compete with us in the rap field, so he used tricks to pull us out of the rap arena and into a different competition. He's too cunning."
Everyone realized how cunning Link was.
Perhaps earlier in the year, when he attacked Kanye at a press conference, he was intentionally provoking a dispute to gain more attention, boosting his first album's exposure and sales.
His debut album selling double platinum in America shows how successful his scheme was.
In the interim, he laid low for two months before his second album's release, using a rap single to reignite the conflict, leveraging the attention of other top rappers to generate news for himself and his new album.
Seeing a newcomer being bullied by a group of top rappers and a young white face being picked on by a group of black rappers likely stirred public sympathy and support for him.
Thus, his album sold well.
"That damned Link! You were definitely riding on my coattails."
Kanye West, furious, kicked the table. The marble table didn't budge, and Kanye winced in pain, collapsing onto the sofa and calming down.
Others who understood this also felt enraged and wanted to take drastic actions against Link.
"Is Link really that powerful?" Rihanna, sitting next to Beyoncé, asked skeptically.
Initially, Kanye, Lil Wayne, and 50 Cent targeted Link, forcing him to retaliate. If Link had planned his promotional strategies from the beginning of the year up to now, it would indeed be formidable.
"Rihanna, the news says Link is a master strategist in the ring, often using schemes to defeat opponents.
Even during his amateur matches, he was very adept at using the fame of other boxing stars for promotion, making his name bigger than that of second-tier champions. All of this shows Link is a very crafty guy."
Chris Brown said.
Rihanna snorted dismissively and ignored him.
Kanye, hearing Chris Brown's comment, was even more convinced that Link had been riding on his coattails and angrily kicked the sofa a few more times.
"We should retaliate."
Lil Wayne shouted angrily.
"How should we retaliate?" Jay-Z and the others looked at Lil Wayne, who was clever and quick-witted.
Lil Wayne scratched his hair and suggested, "How about planting drugs and weapons in his car?"
"Link isn't an ordinary person. Such methods won't work on him." Jay-Z frowned.
T.I. thought for a moment and said, "How about sending a woman his way? He's quite the player and likely has many women. We could send one his way, then accuse him of harassment or rape. His reputation would be ruined."
Jay-Z stroked his chin, considering this idea as it targeted Link's weakness.
However, implementing it would be challenging—first, finding a beautiful woman, and second, ensuring Link accepts her. This sort of thing couldn't be accomplished in a few days.
Jay-Z thought for a while and said, "First, we should use media public relations to refocus the public's attention on the rap field, making everyone aware that we are the kings of rap music, and no one can defeat us in this domain. We'll settle other accounts later."
Everyone nodded in agreement. The idea was sound.
Beyoncé and Rihanna exchanged glances and shook their heads, finding the men's continuous rivalry quite tiresome.
The chapter is complete with ten additional updates. Many thanks
to the generous support from the benefactor ^_^.
(The end of the chapter)