en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Notorious_B.I.G.
1 correction found
became the highest-selling release of the year
As written, this is too broad and is incorrect. Life After Death was a huge seller and the top year-end R&B/hip-hop album, but it was not the overall best-selling U.S. album of 1997.
Full reasoning
The statement drops an important genre qualifier.
A contemporaneous Billboard/SoundScan year-end sales roundup reported that the best-selling album of 1997 in the U.S. was the Spice Girls' Spice with 5.3 million units, while The Notorious B.I.G.'s Life After Death sold 3.1 million and ranked below it on the year-end list.
By contrast, a later REVOLT retrospective notes that Life After Death "topped the 1997 Year-End chart for Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums."
So Life After Death was the year-end leader in R&B/hip-hop, not the overall highest-selling U.S. release of 1997. The article's wording is misleading because it states the broader claim without that genre limitation.
2 sources
- Billboard - Best-Selling Records of 1997 (Jan. 31, 1998 issue)
NEW YORK—The best-selling album of 1997 in the U.S. was ... Spice Girls, whose debut on Virgin Records, "Spice," sold 5.3 million units, according to SoundScan. ... 6) LIFE AFTER DEATH—The Notorious B.I.G.—Bad Boy/Arista ... 3,100,000.
- A personal love for The Notorious B.I.G.'s "My Downfall" | REVOLT
Life After Death earned three Grammy nominations and topped the 1997 Year-End chart for Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.