Latin Music Week

CHART BEAT

Kendrick Lamar's 'DAMN.' Rockets 236% in Sales After Pulitzer Prize Win

4/26/2018 by Trevor Anderson

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Clara Lionel Foundation
Kendrick Lamar performs onstage at Rihanna's 3rd Annual Diamond Ball Benefiting The Clara Lionel Foundation at Cipriani Wall Street on Sept. 14, 2017 in New York City. 

Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. album ballooned 236 percent in sales following its Pulitzer Prize win in the music category on April 16. The set sold 11,000 copies in the week ending April 19, according to Nielsen Music, up from 1,000 the week prior.

In total, DAMN. has now moved 1.1 million copies since its April 14, 2017 release.

DAMN.’s win made Lamar the first non-classical or jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize for music since the award’s inception in 1943.

Song sales and streams also saw significant bumps in the wake of the announcement. The album’s 14 tracks collectively sold 11,000 digital songs in the week, a gain of 29 percent compared with the period prior, while U.S. on-demand audio streams of the album's songs surged 25 percent, from 21.6 million to 26.9 million. 

The gains pushed DAMN. back into the top 10 on both the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top Rap Albums charts (dated April 28) with a 12-8 ascent on the former and an 11-7 bump on the latter. The set also rebounded on the all-genre Billboard 200, climbing 20-13.

DAMN. previously ruled all three charts, spending four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, 10 weeks atop Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and 11 frames in charge of Top Rap Albums. The LP was named the top-performing album of 2017 on all three rankings in Billboard's year-end recaps.