Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "KEN CARSON MORE CHAOS DEBUTS AT NUMBER 1 ON BILLBOARD 200"

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

Linktree: ⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠Become A Patron Of The Notorious Mass Effect Podcast For Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme! Join Our Patreon Here: ⁠https://ow.ly/oPsc50VBOuH⁠Join Analytic Dreamz on Notorious Mass Effect for an in-depth segment on Ken Carson’s More Chaos, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (April 26, 2025). Explore its 59,500 first-week units, driven by 67.3M streams and 11,000 pure sales. Analytic Dreamz breaks down Carson’s rise from Project X to this Opium/Interscope milestone, highlighting rage-rap fusion, key collabs like “Off the Meter,” and strategic touring. Dive into chart stats, cultural impact, and critical reception in this 500-600 character analysis.Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Now, of course, I did not know that I would have this particular artist on the cover of this episode, but when it comes to impacting the masses, Ken Carson showed up for hip hop in a way that I would hope other up-and-coming hip-hop rappers will be able to. But then, you know what I'm saying? I was like, damn, look at the state of hip-hop. Like, what's going on? As it's going to pain me, because I know the day the day is probably going to come soon, that a hip-hop artist or, R&B artist does not top the charts to where I probably would have to put the music episode out with it being an artist from another genre. You guys. See, that's the problem. So with that being said, obviously I'm talking about how Karen, Ken Carson came out with his album, more chaos as far as it being 22 songs, an hour and one minute in length. it coming out April 11, 2025.

And of course, it was under opium slash interscope. Now, that being said, this album came out and put up numbers on the charts to the, to the point where it, objectively speaking, went number one as far as that particular week, selling 59,000 units first week, 11,000 and pure album sales. But more importantly, 48,000, almost 49,000. and SEA, which is, I think it streams on demand. So, with that being said, 67.3 million on demand official streams, which is, I think it's stream equivalent album units.

Okay, that's not, yeah, so SEA is stream equivalent album units. I was trying to figure out, I was like, that's not streams on demand. Basically, he had a lot of people show up to the point where his engagement can no longer be questioned, because I remember covering this. when the album initially came out right and i talked about how navaraj is one of my favorite not favorite artists but i do like the way that nav puts out music and i like the melodies that he uses for certain tracks like on his latest album the track you and i i really enjoyed that track just from a melody perspective and then of course burbs is like o g nav as far as him

getting on a hard hitting 80-waist type of beat and just rapping and flowing over the beat the entire time so it pains me to come to you and basically say that they was i'm not going to say they was boosting the numbers but they was doing a lot of things to the point where they were projected to have 80 000 plus first week sales ended up coming out as far as the official sales as far as first week after billboard looked at it in and confirmed that he only sold 11 to 17,000 first week now let me pull that up specifically because nav is what his first week sales right is what i thought was going to happen to king carson because all my way to rexdale was on pace to sell 70 000 first week and then it ended up

selling 19 000 first week how in the world do you go from being projected to debut number three on billboard 200 with 83 000 units to only selling 19 000 first week well when it comes into play as far as physical uh physicals being attached to digital albums billboard has doubled down on them being strict to the point where now the hoodie the shirt the sock that you sell along with your album doesn't count as an album unit sale if you don't clear it beforehand so now found that out in the worst way possible as tens of thousands of its sales from his new album was filtered by billboard so initially set to sell 82,000 but they're not making the top 10 at all to the point where now you're selling 19,000 first week that is why I was looking at the projections as far as king carson with a lot of skepticism because you come to realize that once billboard looks at it the units could go down right so in people say oh billboards project i mean ken carson projected to have the number one album in the world and i forget what the number that they were saying but it was around what he actually sold right

i was thinking about it i was like i don't know like i just saw this happen with nav i haven't really heard too much about ken carson or ken carson fans talking about this album i have to wait and see billboard officially certify these units as far as first week because a lot of artists love to say oh first week sales don't matter that's like players in the NBA be like don't look at the points of the board just look at the other intangible things like boy if you don't get out of here with that billboard is an objective limit scale for how much consumption you could drum up and how much engagement you could build up before your project track etc when you go to negotiation lucca's not saying but you know all the water bottles are passed to my teammates see i'm a good

teammate no he's going to he's going in there saying i average this this this and this pay me to max right So that's when the artists come out say, oh, first week sales, I don't even know why y'all cover him. It's probably because that artist is flopping. So that being said, Ken Carson did phenomenal on the charts, putting a 59,000 first week sales to the point where he had the number one album on Billboard. Biggest first week debut of his career by far. Because if you look at his past albums, right, he has Project X that came out 2021. It didn't try at all. Nobody even reported on it.

It was basically SoundCloud driven. It should show you how long this person has been grinding, right? X. That came out 2022. That also was not widely reported to the point where it was likely under 10,000 units. And to be fair, it was estimated to be around the 100 mark as far as top albums in the world, like 115, something like that. Right. But I only cover like top 50 albums, so it wasn't even close to that.

So the reason why I'm saying this is to get up to the ultimate point, right? A great chaos that came out in 2023. That did better as well with an increased engagement to the point where it went number 11, selling 48,000 units first week and a thousand pure sales. But now you come to look at it. He puts out more chaos in 2025. And it's the number one album in the world. Granted, some will say he didn't face as much competition.

But guess what? A number one album and at any point in the world is a phenomenal accomplishment. And for him to have 59,000 units first week to put him on that metric selling around 11,000 as far as in pure sales, that's a testament to how he was grinding time and time again to put up these numbers and showcasing how his label as far as inner scope, as far as, I think it was opium as far as that, I think that's Playboy Cardi's out label. But more chaos as far as opium slash Interscope, you come to realize that those specific major machines backed him to the point where now his already organic buzz is growing even larger. Now, I know some people may point out how his last album did $48,000. He did an estimate of 59,000 units, right? And he had $11,000 in pure sales. Some people are probably saying he basically sold around the same amount that he did in 2020.

but his major label put in or they pushed the button let's just put like that to have 11,000 pure sales to make it seem like he did better than he did when he put out a great chaos to that I would say to build up equity to have your major label do that I'm saying that he did or he didn't but that did happen there was equity that needed to be built up to the point where they felt it was safe enough to invest in him like that to make his album sales larger than it was back in 2023. So anyways, regardless, this man went number one in the world with his latest album that came out this year titled More Chaos, which is a phenomenal W, especially for hip hop because I don't know if y'all notice. Y'all look at the top five, top 10, you would be hard pressed to find any hip hop and R&B musicians. Now, of course, we're not talking about the top dogs because Kendrick and Sizer currently have the most play track in the world with luther that's been on the charts for 22 weeks i'm talking

about in totality if you look at kendrick if you look at drake i'm trying oh if you look at a big x plug shout out to him with his track all the way that's the 11th track in the world right now been on the charts about three weeks um doche so those are the only hip-hop artist in the top 15 right And I say only. That is a good amount. But really and more importantly, what I'm pointing out is just the longevity of the projects, right? You look at Siza, Kendrick, Drake. Those are the only hip hop and R&B musicians name. Well, I guess there's Playb with Cardin and Doshi. That's in the top 15, right? You have a lot of, like if I was the name to other musicians and other genres, I could go on for days as far as Tate McCray, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Morgan Wallen, like stuff, you know, it's very interesting how the up-and-coming hip-hop musicians seemingly is not topping the charts like we used to see back in the 2016 or 2017. I think it takes a lot more legwork. And of course, artists like Dochi, artists like Ken Carson, artists like Playboy Cardi,

which, fun fact, I was going to make Dochey the cover of the last episode. But then Playboy Cardi came out nowhere and had the most popular album in the world. And I only had one of the most popular albums, but had one of the best first week number. in a while as far as in the past two to three years. So I would definitely say the top up and coming musicians for the year of 2025 is play with Cardi, Dochi, and Ken Carson currently. Now, I know as far as currently, he does not have the sales that he did when he first went number one because he is now at 33, I believe.

Let me see. Yeah, he has the 33rd most played album in the world currently when last week it was number one. But, you know, of course it's going to slide a little bit. I ain't a lot. One to 33 is a lot of slider. But in general, it's still a significant accomplishment for Ken Carson. So that is why I bring up these analytics and statistics to just showcase how when people talk about first week sales, but basically showcasing who can drum up the most engagement,

which plays a pivotal factor into what you can negotiate as far as what you're going to get on tour, what you're going to get on your next album. maybe you're about to read up on an advance from your label all of these metrics are being used by the artists and their team to showcase their respective clients value right so when they say first week sales don't matter maybe in a grand scheme of things as not as important but it definitely matters now as far as to who well pinpointing who really has the audience when it comes to gen z because that brings up another point when it comes to king carson he makes quote unquote rage rap this is what they called it themselves is not me being funny right

he puts out so-called rage rap to the point where now if you look at kink carson if you look at destroy lonely the all coming from the playbricardy trippy red ex extantacion type of branch how intricate as far as the music is on the experiment uh experimental side because if you can't experiment and still have that intricate connection to your fans, then you come to realize, you have, I'm not going to say created a whole new genre, but created a whole new subgenre, similar to how when Chief Keith did drill, drill started popping up in all different regions, but it basically came from one area, right? So Ken Carson came from that.

So now his rage rap, which has resonated for Gen Z for quite some time, has boosted his visibility, And now with him already completing his 80-day chaos world tour back in 2024, where he now putting out more chaos and seeing the fruits of his label come to fruition as far as having the number one album in the world, you kind of realize there's a lot of legwork put in even though you are one of the new artists when it comes to this subgenre. Like, you are one of the newer musicians who is in this rage rap that really and captivates a certain audience from the younger demographic.

So his rise to fame being in a niche subgenre that is rage rap is something I wanted to highlight because that is a huge accomplishment. And at the end of the day, it's going to showcase what type of movement we're going in as far as the future because of Playboy Cardi, if Ken Carson are the only hip-hop artists as far as outside of our already established artists, right? Like last year, sexy red and gloverilletly was going crazy. crazy this year four to five months in playbricardi and k karsen seemingly have taken over the masses when it comes to rage music so that is why i wanted to cover king carson the way i covered them

and let you know the landscape of music because it's definitely shifting but i don't know if it fully shift because the longevity is still a question mark especially like i was saying with play with carty's album with that the only track still on the charts from that music album is the one featuring the weekend as far as um let's see if i could find that one so timeless that that came out way before music came out right but that's still the 30 second most play album in the world been on the charts for about 30 weeks the only track that's still on the charts from playbric cardi's music album that came out what march 13 march 14 and it's not too it's not like a long time after that

release day right the only song left from that album still on the charts is rather lie and guess who it also has on it the weekend so it seems it seems as if the longevity is still a question mark but as far as drumming up the masses to put out to put up official and legit first week numbers raised rap seems like it's going to be here to stay so that being said click my link to my bio let me know one of my social medias what do you think about ken carson and his overall dominance as far as putting out more chaos and gone number one with 59,000 first week sales and what do you think the future of rage rap is