Kendrick Lamar is headed back to the top of the charts following his halftime performance at Super Bowl LIX.
According to early projections reported by Hits Daily Double, GNX is being estimated to move another 230k units this week, which will secure the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200. This was also boosted by the release of physical copies of the LP just days ahead of the Super Bowl on Friday (February 7).
With total sales of the album now over one million, another platinum plaque will be on its way!
And GNX wasn’t the only project to get a boost. 2012’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City is projected to arrive at No. 11 with 34k units sold, while 2017’s DAMN. is expected to arrive at No. 12 with just under 34k.
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According to newly-released stats, Kendrick Lamar now has the most watched Super Bowl Halftime Show in history. The Apple Music-sponsored show on Sunday (February 9) brought in a whopping 133.5 million viewers – up three percent from last year’s show with Usher.
Michael Jackson previously held the record with 133 million viewers at the 1993 Super Bowl.
Additionally, FOX Sports confirmed that the game itself was also the most watched Super Bowl in history with an average of 126 million viewers tuned in as the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs. They peaked at 135.7 million viewers occurred around the game’s second quarter.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal this week, pgLang co-founder Dave Free detailed the creative process behind Kendrick’s historic performance, which featured cameos from SZA, Mustard, Samuel L. Jackson and Serena Williams.
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“We wanted this performance to have a cinematic and theatrical element to it. We can confidently say that there’s no Super Bowl performance that’s quite like this one,” he said.
Free added that he and Kendrick prepared for the event by watching every single Super Bowl halftime performance, drawing particular inspiration from Beyoncé, Prince and Michael Jackson’s shows.
“The feel of it is Black America. What does Black America look like, and how to control that narrative of what it means to be Black in America versus what the world’s perspective of that is,” he said.
The former TDE executive also addressed Dot’s setlist, which mainly featured Drake diss tracks and songs from his latest album, GNX: “It wasn’t about playing the hits.”
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Free additionally confirmed that it all began with a call from JAY-Z, who has helped organize the halftime show since 2020. He said he wasn’t sure if Kendrick would be asked to perform at the game having made an appearance during Dr. Dre‘s all-star set just three years ago, but “it felt like the right time for us.”
