This weekend, Nelly expressed his frustrations with his label, Universal Motown Records, for the underwhelming record sales of his latest album, 5.0.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, his sixth solo release sold 63,000 copies sold stateside in its first week, and with a lead single, “Just A Dream,” that has already reached the double platinum mark, the Grammy winner was surprised to find out the label only shipped 200,000 units. The St. Louis rapper took to his Twitter account on Saturday (November 27) to address the situation, even retweeting angry fans that could not find the album in their city.
Check out Nelly’s comments below.

“A record deal is a 50/50 partnership,” he wrote on Saturday afternoon. “As an artist it’s your job to provide the record company with music that they (record company) can sell! Thing about the partnership is that [in] the public eye the responsibility is not 50/50! [T]he artist is always the 1 who catches 90% of the blame. When an artist doesn’t deliver sufficient material they (artist) gets its budget cut for next album or worse dropped from the label!

"So not only is the label [your] partner but also disciplinarian and 90% of the time the one who decides if the partnership continues,” he continued. “No doubt [when] an artist doesn’t deliver a song that does crack top of the charts or even top 10 the label is quick to say artist didn’t deliver. So [in turn] the artist must bare the brunt of that failure and take responsibility and consequences as handed out by his or her label!!

"So [whose] fault is it when a artist gives the label not only a #1 hit but [their] first top 40 #1 [in] label history,” he asked. “[S]ell 2mill [in] singles [in] 2.5 month[s]. Who should be held responsible when an artist has a history for selling records so [it’s] not like a new artist [and no one] knows his [or] her name? Benefit of the doubt: Maybe [no one] wants to hear music from that artist? [W]ell if that was true then the artist would not have a #1 song! Benefit of the doubt: Maybe [no one] is checking [for] the artist anymore? Well if that was true then how do [you] explain selling 2 [million] singles [in two and half months]?

"I care less about haters [you can’t] hate on #1 song [and] 2.5 [million] singles” he added. “[B]ut the fact is that [someone] need[s] to holdup [their] end of the partnership! If the music wasn’t good how do u get to #1 and 2.5mill!! [B]ut if folks say they didn’t even no [when] the album came out????? If [you] only ship 200 [thousand] of an album how many are u f#cking [trying] to sell?? [T]he artist [doesn't] control that nor does he or she control marketing. “5.0″ Every[one] [loves the] album [and] say its crazy! So [when you] hear folks say they [didn’t know] it was out [or] there were hardly any [in] the store! WTF?”Nicole LoPresti

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