‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ By Kendrick Lamar Hits Number One Spot On U.K. And Australian Charts

Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly has earned the top spot on the United Kingdom charts, marking another wave of success for the Compton, California, rapper.

According to the Guardian, Lamar has already enjoyed record-breaking success on Spotify, and now can boast having one of the best-selling albums of the year. Lamar’s third full length LP had 9.6 million streams on the first day of its release, which is the biggest number since the beginning of the Spotify service seven years ago, barely beating out Michael Bublé’s Christmas, which had 9.5 million streams on Christmas Eve, 2014.

In fact, the Inquisitr previously reported that To Pimp A Butterfly could already be the album of the year, and the charts don’t lie. The record managed to win out over Sam Smith’s hugely successful In the Lonely Hour. Lamar’s album landed the top spot by only 572 chart sales, pulling just ahead of Smith by the end of the week. Other artists below To Pimp A Butterfly on the list include Mark Knopfler’s Tracker in the number three spot, Ed Sheeran’s X sitting comfortably in fourth and Van Morrison’s Duets: Re-working the Catalogue in fifth.

What’s even more impressive is that To Pimp A Butterfly was released a week ahead of schedule, surprising many fans with an intentional album leak, of sorts. Hackers released one of the album’s tracks on the internet illegally, which prompted Lamar to release the whole thing early to thwart their efforts.

According to Billboard, Kendrick Lamar has enjoyed chart success from his previous albums, but no others have made it to the top spot. His last effort, Good Kid M.A.A.D. City, made it to 16 on the U.K. charts at the end of 2012. To Pimp A Butterfly has also managed to top the Australian charts this week — a double success for Lamar’s critically acclaimed record. So far, To Pimp A Butterfly has been hailed as a hip hop “masterpiece” and an “instant classic.”

Meanwhile, Sam Smith is still holding down the number one spot on the official singles chart with a collaboration with John Legend called “Lay Me Down.” Smith and Legend have earned more than 9,000 chart sales more than the number two spot. The song was written for the charity Comic Relief, which recently received a generous contribution after Roman Originals auctioned a white and gold version of the infamous black and blue dress for $2,000.

Have you listened to the album? What did you think?