Here Are The Final First Week Sales for Kendrick Lamar 'DAMN.' Album

UPDATE 4 (April 22): The official Billboard/Soundscan number stands at 603k out of which 353k are traditional album sales.

Kendrick Lamar Shakes Up The Super Bowl With Bold Drake Diss And Surprise Guests

Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl 59 halftime performance was nothing short of legendary, leaving fans buzzing with surprise cameos and bold moments that took his long-running feud with Drake to new heights. Kicking off with an unreleased song snippet and followed by “Squabble Up” from his latest album GNX, Kendrick immediately set the tone for a game-changing performance. Fans eagerly waited to see if Kendrick would play his diss track Not Like Us, especially with Drake's ongoing lawsuit against him and his label for defamation and harassment. Lamar's performance included an unexpected appearance by SZA and a quirky cameo from Serena Williams, along with Samuel L. Jackson’s comedic interruptions, all building the suspense around the Drake drama. In the middle of his performance, Kendrick turned up the heat, looking straight into the camera and directly addressing Drake with his famous lyrics, “I heard you like them young," as fans held their breath. Despite the tension, Kendrick censored himself when it came time to call Drake a "certified lover boy" and avoided saying “pedophile,” which had been widely speculated. Social media lit up with mixed reactions, with some fans mocking the performance as a "mid mashup" and others noting the intense hostility toward Drake. With the hashtag #KendrickBowl trending, it’s clear that Kendrick’s performance was a cultural moment that pushed boundaries—but has he gone too far, or is this just another chapter in hip-hop history? Only time will tell, and Drake has yet to respond.

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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.

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.