When NYC rapper and 50 Cent doppelganger Troy Ave was profiled for his spot on the 2014 XXL Freshmen list, he seemed to overestimate his own status: "I thought the Freshmen cover was going to make it happen. Now, it’s going to happen either way. If they didn’t put me, it would be an outrage." It was a weird thing to hear from someone without a charting single or breakout mixtape to his credit. There were no reports of majors circling trying to scoop him up like the list’s other indie floaters, Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa. He didn’t have a signature moment remotely as catalyzing as Rich Homie Quan’s "Type of Way" or Lil Durk’s "Dis Ain’t What You Want". Many were unsure of what exactly he’d done to even warrant selection. Yet, there he was, standing among several lauded up-and-comers (many of whom had already arrived) proclaiming himself their equal with little to no proof. One month later, he was on the main stage at Hot 97’s annual Summer Jam concert sharing a stage with Nicki Minaj, Nas, and 50 himself.

Fast forward to two weeks ago and Troy Ave was again performing on the main stage at Summer Jam, this time as a surprise guest and closer, promoting his new album, Major Without a Deal, which boasts big-time NYC guests (50, Cam’ron, Fat Joe, Fabolous, Jadakiss, and A$AP Ferg) and a single, "Doo Doo". NYC rap tastemakers have been force-feeding Ave as the city’s Next Great Hope for some time now, and it’s granted him quite a bit of unwarranted primetime exposure. Last May, Drew Millard wrote a takedown of Troy Ave’s rising stardom for Noisey, citing specifically the shadiness of his relationships with figures in New York rap media (Ave ironically took to Hot 97 to trash Millard in response), and it’s hard to argue there isn’t some sort of backchanneling taking place considering the last rapper to perform on the main stage at Summer Jam in back-to-back years—2 Chainz—had 14 songs reach the Top 15 on the Billboard Rap Chart during that span. Troy Ave has zero. The NYC hip-hop machine has been pushing Troy Ave’s music as the new (read: current yet stodgily nostalgic) sound of the city, but there was a hitch: nobody is buying it, literally or figuratively.

-=-=-=-When the Internet received word that Major Without a Deal had sold only 4,373 copies in its first week, with just 30 of the albums being physicals, so many jokes flooded Twitter so fast that Troy Ave became a trending topic almost instantaneously. Even Kreayshawn, whose own flop once served as fodder for the rap masses for entirely different reasons, took some time out to throw a jab at Ave. Amid a sea of memes, the jig began to surface.

Billboard rushed quickly to momentarily halt the ridicule, pointing out that the album was almost exclusively released to digital retailers that Friday (June 5), cutting its sales week in half. Additionally, the physicals would only be shipped that next Tuesday (June 9), altering the figures. It noted that Troy Ave’s previous album, New York, had sold 6,000 copies total since its 2013 release, hinting that this would be an improvement. However, the article also makes a point of mentioning that Ave has yet to chart on any of Billboard’s singles or airplay charts.