It’s official, y’all: Kendrick Lamar has the number two album in the country. His proper label debut, good kid, m.A.A.d. city, pushed a total of 242,122 units in its first week. This is a decent amount more than what was previously projected and, really, is a hell of a debut performance by the Compton, Calif. rapper.
And you know, plenty of folks will come here in waving their hands about how album sales don’t matter anymore and how they aren’t a metric success in the music industry these days. I understand completely that artists can make money in a slew of different ways, be it through merchandising, advertising deals, touring, and other options out there today.
But don’t act like Kendrick doing this well isn’t a great sign for both him and his TDE crew. Will ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, and Ab-Soul move the same numbers when they make their proper debuts? Probably not. But I am willing to bet they’ll do well enough to STAY EATIN’. [via]
J. Cole sold well but never capitalized any further with singles or anything else. That Roc Nation team hasn’t really done much for him that he couldn’t have accomplished on his own.
Wale completely fell off after his first album. luckily he linked with Rick Ross a couple years later and rejuvenated his career after he went all R&B on us.
I wouldn’t call J Cole’s album good at all. It was pretty much the definition of uninspired and average.
Illegal of course
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Illegal downloads? Because if you mean otherwise, then that is fales.
Damn, Turnip…you did your research! I didn’t even know that…good work!
how did J.cole or Wale fall off?
This is good for hip hop and good for the west coast. I’m happy.
and J.Cole was what Wale was supposed to be. what Wale and J. Cole both lacked was a industry backing. that’s why they both fell off. fortunately for Kendrick, he has a good team behind him. The same team responsible for Lady Gaga not being on the album. Scratch that, a GREAT team.
Actually, it does when the album is over 100 minutes and includes two discs. Which this does with the extended copies. Are you really that dumb man?
http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinum.php?content_selector=criteria
Scroll down to the M section, idiot.
Your an idiot a double disc doesn’t count as two albums sold. Are you really that dumb man
Jay Rock’s debut album (Follow Me Home) has been in stores for almost two years so ppl can grab that.
well j. cole did do 219000 his first week so i dont know what you mean j. cole is just as talented unless you didnt listen to the album
I don’t know if this comparison has been made yet, but from an industry stand point Kendrick Lamar is what J Cole was supposed to be: a lyrical, organically grown rapper that dropped doped albums that the mainstream could bump as well.
double
In went platinum in downloads Ill tell you that much
Well really it moved half of that in actual physical units people purchased seeing it’s double disc even though the second disc was totally unnecessary and only included to inflate the sales number. Either way that’s impressive for a debut and it’s a really solid album for the most part.