Kendrick Lamar Debuts At No. 1 On Billboard 200

Kendrick Lamar notches his third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as DAMN. debuts atop the tally dated May 6. The set launches with the biggest week for an album in nearly a year: 603,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 20, according to Nielsen Music. DAMN. was released April 14 through Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope Records.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new May 6-dated chart will be posted in full to Billboard’s websites on Tuesday, March 21.

DAMN. sold 353,000 in traditional album sales (the largest sales week for an album since December and a career-high sales week for Lamar) and earned 227,000 in SEA units (the second-largest streaming week ever for an album) and 23,000 in TEA units.

DAMN. follows Lamar’s previous No. 1 sets: last year’s Untitled Unmastered. and 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly. He joins Drake and Future as the only acts to have achieved at least one No. 1 album in each 2015, 2016 and 2017. Drake had two No. 1s in 2015, including a collaborative set with Future (What a Time to Be Alive), as well as one No. 1 in both 2016 (Views) and 2017 (More Life). Future topped the list twice in 2015 (DS2 and What a Time to Be Alive), once in 2016 (Evol) and twice in 2017 (his self-titled album and HNDRXX).

At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200 chart, singer/songwriter John Mayer debuts with The Search for Everything. The album earned 132,000 equivalent album units (120,000 in traditional album sales). It was preceded by two introductory EPs that each featured four songs from the full 12-song album: The Search for Everything: Wave One (No. 2 on the Feb. 11-dated chart) and The Search for Everything: Wave Two (No. 13; March 18).

The new full-length Search album is the eighth top 10 effort for Mayer. If the set doesn’t go any higher on the list, it will mark his fourth No. 2-peaking set, following The Search for Everything: Wave One, Paradise Valley (2013) and Continuum (2006). (He's notched thee Billboard 200 No. 1s.)

Drake’s More Life slips 2-3 on the new Billboard 200 with 87,000 units (down 19 percent), Ed Sheeran’s ÷ (Divide) falls 3-4 with 66,000 units (down 5 percent) and The Chainsmokers’ Memories… Do No Open, descends 1-5 in its second week with 61,000 units (down 72 percent).

The Moana soundtrack climbs a spot to No. 6 with 50,000 units (up 16 percent), Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic moves 6-7 with 44,000 units (down 3 percent), Future’s self-titled album rises 9-8 with 38,000 units (down 2 percent) and the live-action Beauty and the Beast soundtrack ascends 11-9 with a little more than 37,000 units (up 7 percent).

Closing out the top 10 is the debut of the soundtrack to The Fate of the Furious, which drives in at No. 10 with 37,000 units (16,000 in traditional album sales). It’s one of four soundtracks in the top 10. The chart housed four soundtracks in the top 10 on the Jan. 21-dated chart, but before then one has to go all way back to Sept. 5, 1998, to find as many in the region (Armageddon, Dr. Dolittle, How Stella Got Her Groove Back and City of Angels).

SOURCE