Rapper Kendrick Lamar is back with his second album, To Pimp A Butterfly, which knocked the Empire soundtrack out of the top spot on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Butterfly, which was released early on March 16, kicked off its chart run with 363,000 total units. Of that number, 324,000 were actual albums sold. That’s the second-best sales week of the year, behind Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.
Lamar’s first album, good kid, m.A.A.d city, had the misfortune of being released around the time Taylor Swift’s Red hit stores. As a result, his debut album never got past No. 2, but it did start out with 241,000 copies.
Last week’s No. 1, the soundtrack to Fox’s Empire, slid to No. 2 this week. But it was a very small dip, as it still moved 110,000 units (with 89,000 copies sold).
Modest Mouse’s Strangers To Ourselves started at No. 3 with 77,000 units. This past week’s other debut, Marina and the Diamonds’ Froot, debuted at No. 8 with just 46,000 units.
Here’s the full top 10: (*new release)
1. Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp A Butterfly* (363,000 units)
2. Empire (110,000)
3. Modest Mouse, Strangers To Ourselves* (77,000)
4. Fifty Shades of Grey (60,000)
5. Taylor Swift, 1989 (56,000)
6. Drake, If You're Reading This It's Too Late (52,000)
7. Ed Sheeran, X (49,000)
8. Marina and the Diamonds, Froot* (46,000)
9. Sam Smith, In The Lonely Hour (46,000)
10. Maroon 5, V (44,000)
image courtesy of INFphoto.com