Kendrick Lamar is about to win in 2024. He scored his second No. 1 single with “Not Like Us,” and his other Drizzy diss also reached No. 3 and No. 6. It gets better. Lamar’s signature win inspired fans to dig back into his catalog and play his albums at a rate not seen in years. The proof is in the numbers. The rapper’s groundbreaking 2012 debut Good Kid, MAAD City is selling like a new album.
DJ Akademiks supported Drake throughout the fight, but he gave up on Lamar’s dominance. He noted that the rapper’s debut album is expected to sell 26,000 copies during the week of May 12. open. That means Lamar accrued more than 10% of its initial first-week sales without any kind of promotion or repackaging. It all comes from the quality of the music. 26K sales were enough to propel “Good Kid, MAAD City” into the top 20 of the Billboard 200.
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Kendrick Lamar’s debut album returns to charts
It’s ironic that “Good Kid, MAAD City” is doing so well in 2024 that Drake appears on one of the album’s biggest hits. The album’s fourth single, “Poetic Justice,” peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100. Other works in Lamar’s catalog also experienced dramatic increases in popularity. Billboard reports that streaming of Lamar’s music increased 49% between May 3 and 6. By comparison, Drake’s numbers were down 5%.
Good boy, MAAD City also maintained a key position. Considered by many to be the greatest hip-hop debut album of all time, it is also one of the genre’s greatest albums. It’s often compared to films like “Illmatic” and “Ready to Die.” The show currently has a score of 91 on Metacritic, his second-highest score, behind “To Pimp a Butterfly.” By comparison, Drake’s highest Metacritic score is “Nothing Was the Same,” which scored 79.
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