Kendrick Lamar‘s new album GNX is expected to make a significant splash on the Billboard 200 following its surprise release last week.
According to HITS Daily Double, the 12-track project is projected to earn 291,000 equivalent album units in its first week, including just over 30,000 in pure sales.
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That figure means GNX would comfortably debut at number one on next week’s chart, beating out the Wicked soundtrack which is on track to open with over 100,000 units.
GNX — Kendrick’s first album not to be released on Top Dawg Entertainment — would also mark the Compton rapper’s sixth consecutive chart-topper following To Pimp a Butterfly, untitled unmastered., DAMN., Black Panther: The Album and Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.
US albums chart preview (via @HITSDD):
#1 @kendricklamar 291K
#2 Wicked 109K
#3 Sabrina Carpenter (@SabrinAnnLynn) 70K
#4 @tylerthecreator 68K
#5 @billieeilish 50K
#6 @gracieabrams 48K
#7 @rauwalejandro 45K
#8 @MorganWallen 42K
#9 @taylorswift13 40K
#10 Zach Bryan 39K— chart data (@chartdata) November 26, 2024
In terms of first-week sales, its projected tally would be on par with his previous effort Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers (295,000) but fall short of To Pimp a Butterfly (324,000) and DAMN. (603,000), which remains his most commercially successful release.
Compared to other major rap albums from 2024, GNX would rank third in first-week consumption behind Travis Scott‘s Days Before Rodeo re-release (361,000) and Tyler, The Creator‘s Chromakopia (299,500).
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However, it would out-perform projects such as Eminem‘s The Death of Slim Shady (281,000), Future and Metro Boomin‘s We Don’t Trust You (251,000) and Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign‘s Vultures 1 (148,000).
GNX caps off a banner year for Kendrick Lamar who emerged victorious in his high-profile feud with Drake, scoring one of the biggest hits of 2024 with his chart-topping, Grammy-nominated (and potentially lawsuit-prompting) diss song “Not Like Us.”
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It also arrives just a few months before his halftime show performance at next year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, an announcement that ruffled the feathers of hometown hero Lil Wayne as well as many of his supporters.
Kendrick addressed the controversy on the album’s opening track “wacced out murals,” rapping: “Used to bump ‘Tha Carter III,’ I held my Rollie chain proud / Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down.”
He added: “Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulate me / All these n-ggas agitated, I’m just glad they showin’ they faces / Quite frankly, plenty artists but they outdated / Old-ass flows, tryna convince me that you they favorite.”
Lil Wayne issued a prickly response to the lyrics, writing on X (formerly Twitter): “Man wtf I do?! I just be chillin & dey still kome 4 my head. Let’s not take kindness for weakness. Let this giant sleep. I beg u all. No one really wants destruction,not even me but I shall destroy if disturbed. On me. Love.”
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Nas, on the other hand, continued to cheerlead for Kendrick by praising him for “keeping the essence of this shit alive and at the forefront” with GNX.
