Morgan Wallen Sets Surprising Record in Spite of N-Word Scandal

Despite the multiple scandals that Morgan Wallen has been wrapped in, his music is still skyrocketing. Recently, Wallen was caught on video saying the N-word, causing an uproar from onlookers, including those in the country music community; however, that doesn’t seem to be stopping his music from selling. In fact, according to Billboard, his Dangerous album became the first country album to spend seven weeks at No. 1 on Billboard 200.

Dangerous earned 89,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending in Feb. 25. The only other artist who has come close to that, tallying its first six weeks at No. 1 is Garth Brooks’ The Chase in 1992. Recently, Wallen found himself in the midst of a heated controversy after he was caught shouting the N-word outside of his house. In early February, a video was sent into TMZ that showed the country music artist shouting multiple profanities following a rowdy night with his friends.

The publication reported at the time that he was out with his friends on a Sunday, and when he returned home around midnight the group was extremely loud and honking their horns. In the video that was captured, Wallen was seen stumbling towards his house when he tells one of his friends to watch over another guy in the group. He told him to “take care of” this “p— ass mother—” and then added, “take care of this p— ass n—” before he entered his house.

The video and behavior caused major backlash, sparking fellow country music artists to come forward, including Kelsea Ballerini and Maren Morris. Ballerini took to Twitter to write, “The news out of Nashville tonight does not represent country music.” According to E!, Morris followed it up with, “yup. we’d be dropped, endorsement lost, social pariahs to music row …. .” However, she followed that tweet up with another one calling out the entire town.

“It actually IS representative of our town because this isn’t his first ‘scuffle’ and he just demolished a huge streaming record last month regardless. We all know it wasn’t his first time using that word. We keep them rich and protected at all costs with no recourse,” she wrote. While several others stepped forward to share their dismay, his family is sticking by his side. Wallen’s sister, Ashlyne Wallen took to social media to address the topic of “cancel culture” saying it’s the “worst thing” noting that the digital world doesn’t allow for “forgiveness and growth.”