Kevin Gates Confirms ‘Islah’ Album Sold More Than Rihanna’s ‘ANTI’ on iTunes

Kevin Gates has been relatively quiet ever since he dropped his outstanding major label debut Islah back in January, but in one of his first interviews since the album's release, the Louisiana MC revealed that he outsold Rihanna's ANTI on iTunes.

During a recent sit-down with Washington DC's Quicksilva and Lil' Mo on WKYS 93.9, Gates says that someone at Apple told him Islah outsold ANTI, but their charts didn't reflect that info because of the million ANTI copies Samsung bought, making Rihanna's album platinum the second it was released. You can see him speak on it around the 6:50 mark.

"The album is No. 2? And then when I went to Apple, they was like, 'No, it's really No. 1.' And I was like whatever, I didn't care if it was No. 13," recalls Gates. "She was like, 'No, but Kevin... Samsung paid for Rihanna's CDs and that's not fair, so you're really #1.' I said ma'am let me tell you something - and this is what that lady [from Apple] said. I said ma'am, I wouldn't care if mine was in 100th place."

Keep in mind, Gates is probably talking about first week sales, and those numbers are heavily skewed here because Rihanna's album leaked a day before album sales are reported on Fridays, making her "first week" of sales technically only one day while Gates enjoyed a full seven. Gates sold around 112,000 copies first week while Rihanna only moved about 16,000. That's probably what Gates is referring to here.

Nonetheless, the buying power of Kevin's fanbase surprised almost everyone in the industry - except for his fans.

Watch the whole interview above where he also explains his comment about "All Lives Matter" during another recent interview.