Cyrus Langhorne
Top Dawg Entertainment artist Kendrick Lamar's new To Pimp a Butterfly album has crushed its competition atop the sales chart with a chart-topping debut.
After a surprise release last week, the LP sold just over 360,000 copies.
The album — which was initially slated to bow on March 27 but was pushed forward to a March 16 release — starts with 363,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending March 22, according to Nielsen Music. Lamar’s last album, 2012’s good kid, m.A.A.d city, debuted and peaked at No. 2, selling 241,000 copies. (Billboard)
Check out where the LP debuted in the United Kingdom on the next page…
According to reports, K. Dot’s To Pimp a Butterfly is resting atop its competition on the United Kingdom sales chart.
U.S. rapper Kendrick Lamar scored his first British number one album on Sunday when his “To Pimp A Butterfly” knocked Sam Smith‘s “In the Lonely Hours” off the top spot in its first week of release, the Official Charts Company said on Sunday. Lamar’s follow-up to his 2012 debut had already broken global records for music streaming service Spotify when it was streamed more than 9.6 million times on the service on Monday. (Reuters)
Based on weekend estimates, the LP was expected to sell at least 300,000 copies in its first week.
Kendrick Lamar will top next week’s albums and SPS charts with the year’s second-largest debut, behind only Drake. This will be the 10th album this year to debut over 100k. By this time last year, only four albums had hit six figures. Here’s how it looks in Sales Plus Streaming (SPS) and albums as we head into the weekend:
*Kendrick Lamar (TDE/Aftermath/Interscope) 340-365k SPS (300-325k albums)
Empire ST (Twentieth Century Fox/Columbia) 80-85k SPS (60-65k albums) (HITS Daily Double)
G.O.O.D. Music head Kanye West, Pusha T and rap veteran Bun B took to their Twitter pages to applaud K. Dot’s newest solo offering last week.
U put together a helluva movie my maaaan… @Kendricklamar #Congrats #ToPimpAButterfly
— King Push (@PUSHA_T) March 16, 2015
Kendrick wins because there's no fear. Of man or the machine. This is how you truly strive for greatness.
— Bun B (@BunBTrillOG) March 16, 2015
That’s good to hear.
Album goes in
Congratulations to the young boy! He can spit. Don’t really like his beat selection for my taste. But I always happy to see a brotha come up! 🙂
Shame it didn’t go platinum
I wanna see an urban artist go plat in one week again .Taylor Swift sitting too confortable up there
Congrats.
Not my taste in music but he keeps it real humble and positive…..