Consequence reports that in a recent interview with ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show, country singer Jelly Roll spoke about his belief that some “old-school dirty business” was taking place behind the scenes last month while both himself and Charli XCX were vying for the Number 1 spot on the Billboard 200.

Jelly Roll released his new album Beautifully Broken the same week Charli XCX dropped the remix album for BRAT, titled Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat. “I won’t say the artist’s name because I know that a lot of artists are disconnected from what’s happening in the business,” Jelly Roll said in the interview.

He continued by saying that his team was keeping an eye on the numbers while he, Charli XCX and rapper Rod Wave were locked in a battle for the top slot. “There was an artist where Hits Double Daily projected that they wouldn’t even be within 50, 60,000 albums of me and Rod Wave,” he recalled. “And then Thursday night, before the Friday count ends, 40,000 albums – [a] third-party aggregated site had that. And you’re looking and you’re just like, ‘Yo, that’s just slimy.’”

“Now Luminate, who is in charge of counting record sales, rejected these sales, which is how I ended up with the Number 1 album, so that’s the truth,” he added.

Charli ultimately landed at Number 3 on the Billboard 200 behind Jelly Roll and Rod Wave at Numbers 1 and 2, respectively. That said, both Jelly Roll and Charli XCX are doing just fine, Number 1 album or not.

Jelly Roll recently performed at Global Citizen NYC in September and is on tour; information on tickets can be found here. Charli XCX scored seven GRAMMY nominations this week, as well as multiple nominations for Tour of the Year and Pop Tour of the Year from the Pollstar Awards.

Photo Credit: Boston Lynn Schulz