According to Billboard Kendrick Lamar’s “DAMN.” album sold 603,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 20, according to Nielsen Music. This makes Kendrick’s effort the most successful album of 2017 thus far. Drake’s “More Life” album now moves to second place with 505,000 units in the first week. DAMN.’s first week is larger than expected. The afternoon of April 20, industry prognosticators had forecasted the album moving between 530,000 and 550,000 units.
The buzz around “DAMN.” continued to grow as well as the momentum in support. Although the album was highly anticipated the critical acclaim that it has received also helped this momentum to continue to grow. Kendrick’s incredible Coachella performance kept that momentum going as well. Will we see a changing of the type of mainstream music Hip-Hop will be pushing now that Kendrick has beat out Drake in first week sales?
Kendrick’s other two number albums are “untitled. unmastered” moving 178,000 units the first week and “To Pimp a Butterfly” moving 324,000 units the first week.
