Kendrick Lamar Breaks Spotify Record With 9.6 Million Streams

Kendrick Lamar tackled one of the biggest challenges in music - a sophomore album that lives up to its first.

The Compton-native surprised fans Monday by dropping his second studio album, "To Pimp a Butterfly," one week early on iTunes and Spotify.

"Kendrick put his album out early," Taylor Swift tweeted. "No one touch me."

Two days later and Lamar goes down in the history books for the streaming service. Spotify is reporting 9.6 million streams of his album on its first day, beating the previous record holder Drake.

The 27-year-old rapper's critically-acclaimed debut album "good kid, m.A.A.d. city" was a tough act to follow.

Fans first got a taste of his new music in September with the release of "i," which Pharrell Williams described "brilliance" on Twitter.

That track was followed by "The Blacker the Berry" and "King Kunta," which leaked online last week.

iTunes has yet to release sales totals for the album's first week since it has only been out for two days. But if it's anything like his first album, which has earned comparisons to Nas' "Illmatic," it will surely be a huge success.

"If anything, aside from 'good kid,' it'll probably feel even more raw," Lamar said on New York City's Hot 97 in November when discussing the new album. "I really stick with four producers that I've been working with since day one. I don't really go outside the box of that soundwave."

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