Kanye West Changes Title Of Troubled New Album: Will It Help Sales?
Kanye West is undoubtedly one of the hottest musical superstars of the past ten years. However, no matter how much anybody spins it, he appears to be on the decline. West’s 2013 album Yeezus is widely considered to be a flop. Billboard commented on West’s album sales a couple years back.
“Kanye West’s ‘Yeezus’ falls by 80% to No. 3 — the largest second-week percentage drop for a No. 1-debuting album in over a year. It sold 65,000 in its sophomore frame. A week ago it bowed with 327,000…Since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991, ‘Yeezus’ fall is the fourth-largest for a No. 1-bowing album. The last larger second-week drop — and biggest overall — is owned by Madonna’s ‘MDNA’ Album.”
Kanye West apparently thought that a duet with Paul McCartney would help make him relevant again on the charts. The song “Only One” was released on January 1, 2015, and only climbed high enough on Billboard‘s Hot 100 to reach No. 35. For other artists, that number wouldn’t be so bad. For Kanye, who is used to having new singles chart in the top five, it was a musical disaster. However, Kanye West’s next single, “All Day,” climbed to No. 15.
The lack of relative success could be one of the reasons West changed his album’s name from So Help Me God to SWISH. Gossip Cop broke the news.
“Kanye West’s highly-anticipated upcoming album has a new name. The rapper took to Twitter on Sunday to announce, ‘I’m changing my album name to SWISH.’ It took mere minutes for ‘SWISH’ to begin trending on Twitter in the United States, as thousands upon thousands of people retweeted the news. West cautioned, however, ‘I might change it again but that’s the name now.’ He provided no other details.”
One has to wonder why West released a single on January 1, but has failed to deliver an album almost four months later. Is it the same reason Rihanna is afraid to release RH8, which has suffered from two flop singles? In any case, the relative lack of success didn’t stop Time from putting Kanye on its cover as one of this year’s most important icons. Kanye didn’t hold back on his self-importance in the Time interview.
“Every time I crash the internet, it’s like this little drop of truth. Every time I say something that’s extremely truthful out loud, it literally breaks the internet. So, what are we getting all of the rest of the time?”
Nobody can deny that the internet reacts loudly whenever Kanye speaks, even if the reaction isn’t always positive. Let’s hope that Kanye West’s upcoming album SWISH can break both the internet and the charts.
[Photo Credit: The Wrap]
