UPDATE 4 (April 22): The official Billboard/Soundscan number stands at 603k out of which 353k are traditional album sales.
UPDATE 3 (April 21): After a bunch of crazy projections being thrown around all week, the final numbers are in. HDD reports that DAMN. has moved 610,417 units in the first week, with 361,534 of those being pure sales. Wow! Congrats to Kendrick and TDE.
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Kendrick Lamar’s latest album DAMN. is out now and sounding outstanding (see full credits here). The general consensus seems to be positive so we expected the album to do well in terms of numbers.
HDD has put the early projections for the TDE/Aftermath/Interscope set at 460-485k including streams, which is somewhat what I had predicted as well, before the album’s release. These numbers will mean the highest first week debut so far in Compton rapper’s career. His last album To Pimp A Butterfly moved 324k in the opening week.
K. Dot’s single ‘HUMBLE.’ continues to hold the number 1 spot on both Spotify and iTunes charts in the U.S. and many other international markets. ‘DNA’ is the other album track which seems to be an early fan favorite, holding the #6 spot on Apple’s store at the moment. The reaction to DAMN. has been incredible so it will be interesting to see if it can challenge Drake’s record breaking streaming numbers from More Life.
UPDATE: The projections for the album have now gone to 480-510k with 280-305k out of that being pure sales. This could mean a challenge to Drake’s 2017 record of 505k in first week for More Life. DAMN. is also looking to touch the 300m streams mark this week.
UPDATE (April 19): The figure has now gone up to 510-520k, making it a favorite to beat Drake’s record of highest first week sales of 2017.
UPDATE 2 (April 20): It keeps going up — now at 560k.
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