Ariana Grande responds to accusations of buying Billboard spot

Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine was just released from prison last month and hit the ground running, releasing new single “Gooba” and the accompanying music video in record time. Good for him and for his drive, hustle, and ambition. He should feel proud, but apparently he would rather lash out at Ariana Grande and the Billboard Hot 100 charts. He took to Insta with some wild accusations of chart manipulation coupled with doctoring, and folks, it wasn’t pretty.Luckily, Ariana is no shrinking violet and clapped back in epic fashion.It all began with a somewhat cryptic Insta-video from Tekashi 6ix9ine (real name Daniel Hernandez), where he asked Billboard to explain why they play favourites:

 

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@billboard explain this to the millions of artist who never got #1 because you guys play favorites.

A post shared by IM BACK AND THEY MAD (@6ix9ine) on May 15, 2020 at 11:38am PDT

Then came an even angrier rant on Insta-video where he apparently lashed out at Ariana for “buying” the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He claims 30,000 units were bought with six credit cards.[video_embed id='1931550']RELATED: Ariana Grande shows off her naturally curly hair in self-isolation[/video_embed]

 

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@billboard YOU’RE A LIE AND CORRUPT. YOU GOT CAUGHT CHEATING AND THE WORLD WILL KNOW.

A post shared by IM BACK AND THEY MAD (@6ix9ine) on May 18, 2020 at 10:46am PDT

It sounds like someone is a little grumpy they didn’t debut at number 1, and decided to lash out with all the fight and fury of sour grapes. Well, Ariana Grande, who currently sits at the top number 1 spot for ‘Stuck With You,’ her duet with Justin Bieber, decided that when they go low, she’ll go high.She responded with a gracious and thoughtful Instagram post that let Tekashi 6ix9ine know that she won’t have him or anybody negating her hard work (especially because she’s a woman), and told him that being on the charts at all is actually a huge accomplishment.

 

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thank u to everybody who supported this song, this cause and made this happen. we love uuuuu so much. ? there’s so much to celebrate today. ? however, i would like to say a few things. anyone who knows me or has followed me for a while knows that numbers aren’t the driving force in anything i do. i’m grateful to sing. grateful to have people who want to listen. grateful to even be here at all. i didn’t have a number one for the first five years of my career and it didn’t upset me at all because from the bottom of my heart, music is everything to me. my fans are everything to me. i promise i couldn’t ask for another fucking thing. so with this celebration today, i would like to address a few things which i don’t usually do (i don’t give my energy to drama or strange accusations normally but this has gone a little too far)...my fans bought the song. JUSTIN’S fans bought the song. OUR fans bought this song (never more than four copies each, AS THE RULES STATE). they are ride or die motherfuckers and i thank god every day that i have them in my life. not just when they fight for us to win (even when i ask them not to as i did this week) but because they’re some of the greatest people i know. sales count for more than streams. u can not discredit this as hard as u try. to anybody that is displeased with their placement on the chart this week or who is spending their time racking their brain thinking of as many ways as they can to discredit hardworking women (and only the women for some reason.....), i ask u to take a moment to humble yourself. be grateful you’re even here. that people want to listen to u at all. it’s a blessed position to be in. i’ve had a lot of “almost number ones” in my career and i never said a goddamn thing because I FEEL GRATEFUL TO EVEN BE HERE. TO WANT TO BE HEARD AT ALL .... and you should feel that way too. congratulations to all my talented ass peers in the top ten this week. even number 3. ? and thank u to @billboard for this honor. and thank u to everybody who helped us raise a lot of money for a very important cause this week. love u all a lot.

A post shared by Ariana Grande (@arianagrande) on May 18, 2020 at 12:40pm PDT

After stating that numbers aren’t the impetus behind her work, she wrote, “to anybody that is displeased with their placement on the chart this week or who is spending their time racking their brain thinking of as many ways as they can to discredit hardworking women (and only the women for some reason.....), i ask u to take a moment to humble yourself. be grateful you’re even here.” She then added a little nod to Tekashi 6ix9ine, whose ‘Gooba’ currently sits at the number 3 spot, saying, “congratulations to all my talented ass peers in the top ten this week. even number 3.”That’s the powerful, impressive, gracious Ariana that we know and love. Luckily, Justin Bieber wasn’t about to let his singing partner shoulder this unwarranted attack alone. The Biebs took to his Insta Stories with a statement that read in part, “This is my song with Ariana Grande and I’m honored to work with her [ . . .] If you’re gonna say her name make sure you say mine because it’s our song.” Dannnnng. Don’t mess with The Biebs or his friends!After all that, 6ix9ine still wouldn’t let sleeping dogs lie, he then posted another longwinded rant about Ariana’s call for humility, because he struggled his way out of welfare.  That is definitely something to be proud of, but he seems to forget that she didn’t come for him in the first place, he came for her.Eventually, even Billboard themselves had to weigh in to the controversy to explain how they tabulate the top spots on their charts, and how doctoring the charts via mass-buying isn’t actually possible. “As noted in this week’s story announcing the results on the latest Hot 100, ‘Stuck With ‘” sold 108,000 in the tracking week ending May 14 and ‘Gooba’ sold 24,000, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data,” they wrote, and later added, “Billboard and Nielsen Music/MRC Data conducts audits on all sales reported with access to purchase-level detail, and works with data partners to recognize excessive bulk purchases and remove those units from the final sales total. All titles this week, as in every week, were put under the same scrutiny. (Billboard has reached out to Fame House/Bravado, retailer and reporter of director-to-consumer sales, for further comment about the sales data provided for ‘Stuck With U.’)”To boil it down, no, six credit cards weren’t used to buy 30,000 units. 6ix9ine, you gonna apologize now or ...?[video_embed id='-1']BEFORE YOU GO: Impatient man nearly gets hit by speeding train[/video_embed]