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Last week, we reported that Kendrick Lamar’s latest project, untitled unmastered., was set to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard charts with an expected 150k sold it its first week. Today, the official figures from Nielsen Music have been released via Billboard, with untitled unmastered. moving 178,000 equivalent album units in the week ending March 10. Of that number, 142,000 were in pure album sales.
Kendrick Lamar’s eight-song untitled unmastered. project was surprise released on March 4 with no prior promotion and no singles, and consists of demos from the To Pimp A Butterfly sessions. These include the untitled songs Kendrick performed The Colbert Report, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and, most recently, at the GRAMMY Awards show.
By reaching the top of the Billboard charts, untitled unmastered. gives Kendrick his second No. 1 album in less than a year, a feat also recently achieved by Future, who has three No. 1 albums in the past 12 months, and Drake. Kendrick previous album, To Pimp A Butterfly, was released on March 16, 2015, and reached No. 1 with 363,000 equivalent album units in its first week.
This week, Kendrick beat out Adele’s 25, which came it at No. 2 and Rihanna’s Anti, which remained at No. 3. After a stunning performance at the GRAMMYs and a No. 1 with demos “in raw form,” is there anything Kendrick can’t do?
Look out for a physical version of untitled unmasterd., coming very soon.
Related: How Kendrick Lamar Is Changing Late Night Performances
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