Whichever way you look it, Kendrick Lamar's third album, 'To Pimp a Butterfly' just released on March 16, is doing exceedingly well. Although it did not achieve 1 million records in 7 days as many of the Compton, California-born rapper's friends predicted, the album totaled over 300,000 on its first week- still a remarkable feat from any artist's vantage point.
On the second week, the album still reigned supreme garnering over 100,000 in sales - grabbing the #1 spot in the charts again.
The album also solicited raving reviews from music critics with some hailing it as a 'hiphop masterpiece" while other pundits described it as an "instant classic".
Hits After Hits
It would come as no surprise for 'To Pimp a Butterfly' to achieve outrageous sales, following Lamar's platinum-selling, last album, 'good kid, m.A.A.d city' which was multi-Grammy Award nominated.
Speaking in a recent interview with Flying Lotus who collaborated with him on the album, the 27-year old rapper disclosed the inspiration behind his latest hits saying: "[It came from] me collecting every bit of music I've learned to live with and love since the day I was born. My father's influences from oldies to gangster rap. That was it for me and not being in fear to show these influences," according to NME online.
Further he added: "A lot of artists get to a point where we like to stay redundant, we like to stay compromising what we really want to do. And I said I wasn't going to do that on this album. I give that advise to any artist out there: Do what your heart tells you to do, because the rewards is even that much more better."
Debuting with around 324,000/363,000 SPS album sales on its first week, 'To Pimp a Butterfly' added an additional 107,000/123,000 SPS and should be coasting over 500,000 album sales today - and running.
What is outstanding is Kendrick's album held the top spot of the album chart for two weeks straight.
With another rap album from Wale getting the #1 spot on the third week, it sure has made rap albums reign supreme in the charts for three straight weeks - a feat never before accomplished except when Kanye West's Yeezus (1 week), Wale's The Gifted (1 week), J. Cole's Born Sinner (1 week), and Jay Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail (2 weeks) together held the chart top spots for five consecutive weeks in 2013, reports All HipHop.
Master Collaborator
To note, 'To Pimp a Butterfly' is a product of numerous collaboration between Kendrick Lamar and various artists, the who's who in the rap industry.
For instance, perhaps giving honor to the roots of his music, snippets of a conversation featuring the late rapper Shakur as interviewed by Mats Nileskär are incorporated in "Mortal Man", the closing track of the record.
The album itself that contains the monster hit "i" has Dr. Dre as executive producer with musical direction from various artists namely: Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith. Boi-1da, Flying Lotus, Pharrell Williams, Knxwledge, Sounwave, Terrace Martin, and Thundercat among a slew of other artists.
Lamar also revealed that recently he has worked with Prince hitting the studio with the pop act together last September but due to time constraints was unable to finish the collaboration.
With such dedication no wonder Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp a Butterfly' is a huge success.
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