In 2013, when Ye, aka Kanye West
, kicked off his first solo tour in five years, he brought Kendrick Lamar along as his main opening act. At the time, Lamar had already made his mark as a rising star with 2012’s ‘good kid, m.A.A.d city,’. Even so, many in the industry saw the opportunity to tour with Ye as a big step up for the Compton emcee. Fast forward to a little over a decade, and the tables have turned. Kendrick Lamar is now going head-to-head with Ye on the streaming charts. But that is not all.
Lamar has also outdone the ‘Vultures’ rapper by breaking a major Spotify streaming record with his new release, ‘GNX.’
Kendrick Lamar and Ye face off on the music charts
Kendrick Lamar surprised the world with ‘GNX’ on November 22, and ever since, the album has been making a lot of noise on streaming platforms. In just its first four days of its release, ‘GNX’ pulled in over 242.3 million official on-demand streams in the US. And reportedly, the daily streams never dipped below 50 million, according to Billboard. By the end of the first week, the album has scored over 336 million streams, overtaking Ye’s ‘Vultures,’ which earned 278 million Spotify streams in its debut week.
Biggest Rap Album debut week on Spotify, in 2024:
#1. “GNX” — 363M
#2. CHROMAKOPIA — 340M
#3. VULTURES 1 — 278M
#4. WE DON’T TRUST YOU — 257M
#5. The Death Of Slim Shady — 254M pic.twitter.com/geRO96n8tV— Kendrick Lamar Updates (@KendrickChart) November 29, 2024
With those numbers, ‘GNX’ had the biggest debut week for a rap album. Even Tyler, the Creator’s ‘Chromakopia’ surpassed ‘Vultures’ with 340 million streams, pushing Ye to third place. Ye’s ‘Vultures’ still managed to stay ahead of Future and Metro Boomin’s ‘We Don’t Trust You’ and Eminem’s ‘The Death of Slim Shady.’ But the ‘Donda’ rapper is not the only artist Lamar has been giving a run for their money.
Read More: A Kendrick Lamar X Ye Album? Internet Loses It Following Consequence’s Wild Claim About Rappers?
Lamar was also accused of trying to steal the spotlight from Ariana Grande’s Wicked
soundtrack, which also debuted recently.
Kendrick Lamar allegedly timed GNX’s release for maximum impact
Kendrick Lamar dropped ‘GNX’ on the same day Ariana Grande’s Wicked
soundtrack hit the waves, and the two musical collections have been battling ever since. The Wicked
soundtrack has done well with more than 7.7 million official on-demand streams every day since its release. On November 25, it even had its biggest day yet, earning over 10.43 million streams. But despite all that, it could not outshine Lamar’s ‘GNX’.
Kendrick Lamar’s ‘GNX’ to potentially block The Wicked Soundtrack from going #1. pic.twitter.com/bQCPWtGU2y
— 🏁 (@concertleaks) November 22, 2024
This led many fans to wonder if Lamar’s album drop, just hours after Grande’s musical, was a clever move to keep Wicked
from taking the top spot on the charts. Fans also took to social media to discuss and debate over the same, and speculate if a new beef has been sparked
. Either way, Kendrick Lamar is clearly climbing to the top, knocking other music moguls down a notch.
Read More: Kendrick Lamar’s Industry Overtake Comes With a Crush Confession From Courtney Love
What do you think about Kendrick Lamar surpassing Ye? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
