MIAMI, FLORIDA – DECEMBER 01: Tory Lanez attends “Genesis” The First Ever NFT Minting And Landmark Sports Event Hosted By Quavo From Migos, Paige Vanzant, Mike Chandler & Eric Apple hosted by Bitcoin Latinum And TapStats at Mr Jones on December 01, 2021 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Bitcoin Latinum & TAPSTATS)

Tory Lanez had crazy buzz heading into his new album, and it had a successful first week depending on who you ask.

Tory Lanez is in a tough spot. The rapper is locked up for a decade, but he has not let it deter him from dropping new music. He announced that he planned to record and release an album from prison in the span of three weeks, and he did just that. PETERSON, his first release since 2022, had lots of eyes on it due to its unorthodox making. Some people hailed it a classic, others mocked Lanez for continuing to put out mid-music. These polarizing stances played out when the first week sales PETERSON were revealed.

Hip Hop All Day confirmed that Tory Lanez’s new album sold 24K units first week. It represents the tenth Billboard charting album of his career, an impressive achievement by any metric. PETERSON selling what it did drew mixed responses from fans. Several notable figures praised the rapper for selling 24K despite being locked up and being independent. Akademiks TV stated that Lanez “did this from a jail phone while actively being blackballed from all DSP support.” The account also commended the rapper for making an impact despite having no “new release placements and no assistance from the algorithms.” Lanez got a lot of props for being able to put together an album under such dire conditions. They described the sales total as a “W.”

Tory Lanez Best Selling Album

Other listeners were disappointed by the first week sales, given how much attention PETERSON got in the lead up to its release. The internet can be brutal, and the jokes flooded in, trolling Tory Lanez for not selling as much as he has in the past. “Jail or not that’s trash,” one Twitter user asserted. “That’s double corkboard,” another critic wrote. A recurring topic of debate among supporters and critics was whether Tory Lanez suffered from not getting the boost of Spotify playlist placements. The rapper has criticized the streaming platform of “censoring” his music since 2021.

PETERSON actually sold more than Lanez’s last album, Sorry 4 What. The 2022 release pulled in 23K units during its first week. It did, however, pale in comparison to the albums Lanez put out when he was under a major label. Chixtape 5 represented the peak of the rapper’s commercial viability, pulling in an impressive 83K units first week in 2019. It was eventually certified gold, and remains his best-selling LP.