Kendrick Lamar is leading the way for other artists this year, as he pulled off the biggest US album debut with ‘DAMN’; his new album and an introspective piece of work that features other big talents such as U2 and Rihanna. Selling a combined (physical and streaming figures) 603,000 copies since its release on April 14, the record sold more in a single week than any other album has done in the year so far.
Kendrick Lamar released his latest album on April 14
The record is the follow-up to the critically-acclaimed 2015 LP ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’, and has seen similar success to its predecessor, partly in thanks to its honesty and relatability to so many people throughout America.
Hugely personal to Lamar, the album is once again hugely political at times, but the artist has since said he didn’t want to focus too much on the 45th President of the United States, President Trump.
Speaking on Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio, he explained: “I wanted more self-evaluation and discipline because of what’s going on now. We’re not focusing on him. What’s going on now – we’re focusing on self.”
Though it’s had this huge success, ‘DAMN’ did fail to knock last year’s Drake release ‘Views’ from its top spot, which sold over a million copies within its first week.
‘DAMN’ has however done much better with critics, claiming a 96% approval rating on reviews aggregate website metacritic.com, while ‘Views’ sits on 69%.
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