In December 2019, a Brooklyn-born 23-year-old named Daniel Hernandez was sentenced to two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to racketeering, among other offenses. At the beginning of April, he was released to serve the last four months of his two-year term at home. Hernandez has asthma, his lawyer argued, and thus needed compassionate release to prevent the risks of coronavirus. By the time Hernandez, better known as the volatile rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, made it home, he was ready to launch a comeback.

On May 8, he released “Gooba,” his first new single since October 2018, and by May 18, the song had rocketed to number three on the Billboard Hot 100. “Gooba” was beat out by last week’s number one, “Say So” by Doja Cat (a song with its own air of controversy), and “Stuck With U,” a new song by Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, recorded during their own quarantines.

Considering how far he’d come in just over a week, he probably could have patted himself on the back for a job well done. Instead 6ix9ine took to his Instagram to allege that an industry conspiracy had prevented him from taking his rightful spot. “It’s all manipulated,” he said, claiming that Billboard had not counted all of his streams. “It’s all fabricated. You can buy number ones. This is what these artists do, and it’s not fair.” He cited a forecast he had seen that put him above “Stuck With U” and noted late-breaking sales numbers from Grande’s camp, which he claimed showed irregularities.

Within hours the major players had all responded. Grande, naming only “strange accusations,” discussed the single and her experience with the charts. “Numbers aren’t the driving force in anything i do,” she wrote on Instagram. “I’m grateful to sing. grateful to have people who want to listen. grateful to even be here at all.”

In his Instagram Story, Bieber said 6ix9ine’s claim was a lie and took issue with the fact that he singled Grande out for criticism in his original post. “This is my song with Ariana Grande and I’m honored to work with her to help raise money for a great cause,” he wrote. “If you gonna say her name make sure you say mine because it’s our song.”

Scooter Braun, the occasionally controversial mogul who manages Bieber and Grande, also put in his two cents on Instagram—and implied that “Gooba” was investigated due to more-than-average bot activity on streaming platforms. “You never have to stand alone so let me be clear,” he wrote, addressing Grande. “No one should discredit your amazing fan base with lies.”

Perhaps most unusually, even Billboard responded to the allegations, with a multipoint debunking of 6ix9ine’s theory. According to Billboard, it takes into account only streams from the U.S., whereas the visible streams on YouTube, Spotify, and more are global. It added that Grande’s and Bieber’s websites both began selling a signed physical single on the last day of the eligibility period. (6ix9ine’s site began selling a similar single of “Gooba” on the same day, the magazine noted, only his were not signed.) Ultimately, Billboard went back to the numbers:

The Hot 100 has a locked-in methodology, updated at least once a year, with each metric divided by a certain number, which results in an average chart ratio whereby streams are the most heavily weighted factor, followed next by radio airplay and then sales. Each song has its own ratio breakdown based on its specific activity, which contributes to the overall chart average each week .

Overall, “Stuck With U” drew 28.1 million U.S. streams, 26.3 million in radio airplay audience, and 108,000 sold in the tracking week. “Gooba” had 55.3 million U.S. streams, 172,000 in radio airplay audience, and 24,000 sold.

So while there is a case to be made that “Gooba” had more grassroots support than the Grande-and-Bieber collaboration, it seems to be a normal case of radio airplay and physical sales trumping free streams. The Hot 100 only began taking YouTube streams into account in 2013, so this is certainly not a new phenomenon. Billboard’s response to 6ix9ine indicates that it does care about legitimacy, but it’s unlikely that it will take any more action in the future.

6ix9ine, on the other hand, will probably be busy throwing more bombs. Just last week he slammed the charity No Kid Hungry after it declined his $200,000 donation. “@nokidhungry rather take food out the mouth of these innocent children I never seen something so cruel,” 6ix9ine wrote in a since-deleted post.

The charity responded in a statement. “As a child-focused campaign, it is our policy to decline funding from donors whose activities do not align with our mission and values,” it read.

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