The secrecy of the 1st week numbers are not only unusual, but it is quite damning if the projections were true and that the release was underwhelming by their standards. The idea of them opening less than the YE album in my eyes is embarrassing. Yet we will never know how much it sold, because they refuse to report the numbers.
It also questions the true relevance of Jay-Z. Jay-Z within this full decade appear to be beyond relevant over his other hip hop contemporaries, and it maybe true. However, the last TRUE sales-based success by Jay in my eyes was Blueprint 3. Everything else sense were either coat-tailing a collaborative success with some one else, like Kanye and his wife these days, or it's from some fugazi sales angle such as those bulk Verizon & Samsung deals. It have really been based off pure sales. And then there's Tidal fabricating numbers which make it all the more suspicious. I mean it is no argument as to how popular Beyoncé really is, but is Jay-Z as large as perceived or is this collaboration with Beyoncé is bringing her stock down a notch... IF the numbers that are hidden are what truly lower than they hoped?