It’s no question that media tricks and fan manipulation are some of the greatest assets to artists. And even though we’re astutely aware of their existence, sometimes we can’t help but to just fall victim to them, and honestly, why not? Ridiculously excessive media strategies are nothing new. What is new, and what continues to be revered each year, is the scope of those strategies and just what companies are willing to do to reach the millions of potential buyers sitting idly by with expendable cash.

Take JayZ’s newest album, the “Magna Carta…Holy Grail.” Released just this week to all non-Samsung-carrying normal people, the MCHG LP has the industry in a fervent conundrum. The rules of album releases are being changed quite literally by Hov’s release, which has forced the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to reconsider the way they count album sales. The Jiggaman boasted a solid one-mil in sales, even before the album was out to all other consumers.

Though Billboard has yet to acknowledge the 1,000,000 albums that J-Hova sold to Samsung, for an unprecedented July 4th promotional album release, the RIAA has. MCHG received a platinum sales award earlier this week, which equates to about double of what Kanye West’s “Yeezus” has sold to date. Whether or not having a sponsor buy up a million of your albums and then hand them out for free counts towards actual sales numbers or not, it has certainly rocked the boat a bit in the archaic ways of counting numbers.

The cell phone vs. physical album sales fight was only one of the tricks up this hip-hop mogul’s sleeve, however. He also threw in a type of beat-prodigy to help in producing his “Crown” track on the new album. Ebony Oshunrinde, aka WondaGurl, is a 16 year-old, now platinum, producer who created the acclaimed beat to the new album.

Says WondaGurl in a recent MTV News interview, “Travi$ Scott (Epic Records / Grand Hustle) said he was gonna add some stuff to it, and then later on, a few days afterwards, he messaged me saying he’s about to change my life. And then, um, a few days later he told me that I was on Jay Z’s album.”

This makes all those broken skate decks, insane make-out sessions at the park and frozen Hot Pockets seem like a huge waste of time, doesn’t it?

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