Kendrick Lamar’s “GNX” Loses Top Billboard 200 Spot To Taylor Swift
Kendrick Lamar‘s newest album, GNX, has fallen back to the No. 2 spot on the Billboard 200 chart in its second week after release. Its sales dropped down to 165K over the last seven days. On the other hand, Taylor Swift and her Tortured Poets Department has regained the top spot after moving another 405K units. She dropped the original version of the project all the way back in April.
Lamar’s fans on social media have been having disappointed responses to the news. “You mean Taylor swift selling 405k unit but we are yet to hear a single song from the 100x version deluxe EP. Rap and GNX won. Taylor is a fraud,” one user wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Another posted: “Taylor Swift be doing numbers off the same album multiple drops is crazy.”
Kendrick Lamar Accepts Grammy Award For Best Rap Album
Kendrick Lamar accepts the award for best rap album for “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers during the 65th Annual Grammy Awards at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. © Robert Hanashiro, Robert Hanashiro / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Lamar dropped GNX as his sixth studio album by surprise on November 22. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, making it Lamar’s fifth album to reach the top of the chart. It moved 319,000 album-equivalent units during its first week of availability to help it get there. The project features guest appearances from AzChike, Dody6, Hitta J3, Peysoh, Roddy Ricch, Siete7x, SZA, Wallie the Sensei, Lefty Gunplay, and YoungThreat. The collaborators have also been enjoying success in the streaming department after appearing on the highly-publicized album. As noted by Billboard, Lefty’s catalog has spiked 84% in the time since GNX’s release while Dody6’s catalog is up over 110%.
In other news, Drake recently took legal action against Universal Music Group, accusing the company of defamation. He says they should’ve blocked the release of Lamar’s diss track, “Not Like Us,” over allegations he made in the lyrics. Additionally, Drake alleges that UMG artificially boosted the success of the song, which the company has already denied.
About The Author
Cole Blake is a current staff writer at HotNewHipHop based out of New York City. He began writing for the site as an intern back in 2018 while finishing his B.A. in Journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s covered a number of breaking stories for HNHH. These include the ongoing YSL RICO trial, the allegations surrounding Diddy, and much more. His work also extends outside of hip-hop, having written extensively about a myriad of topics including politics, sports, and pop culture. He’s attended several music festivals to provide coverage for the site as well, such as Rolling Loud and Governors Ball.
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