According to Anthony Tiffith, CEO of Top Dawg Entertainment that represents Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp A Butterfly, Kendrick’s second studio album that had a surprise release late Sunday night, has broken Drake’s record for single day album stream.
To Pimp a Butterfly was streamed 9.6m times on the 1st day. new global record 4 the most streams in a single day worldwide by a new release
— dangeroo kipawaa TDE (@dangerookipawaa) March 17, 2015
Once the number is confirmed it will have broken Drake’s record of 6.8 million streams. It would be hard to find someone right now not engaged in the “classic or not” debate about the album. The honor was given to his first album, Good Kid, m.a.d.d. city, by the masses and after slightly more than a day it seems his second album is also grouped in to that category.
Butterfly is different from Good Kid but in the best possible way: where Good Kid is a cinematic narrative of urban adolescent life in Compton Butterfly is a thematic movement of a commentary on black culture in America. The album impresses the most with it’s cohesiveness; each song is great but they are all so much better in the context of the entire album culminating with a heartfelt interview with Tupac Shakur.
To Pimp A Butterfly is available on iTunes and streaming on Spotify.