We just reported on the first-week album sales for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' This Unruly Mess I've Made, and we've now got the initial projections, courtesy of HDD, for the batch of albums that will hit next week's chart (for the week beginning on March 21). Thankfully, that chart will boast some more exciting additions from the hip-hop world, including Kendrick Lamar's surprise album, untitled unmastered., as well as 2 Chainz' and Lil Wayne's joint album, ColleGrove.
Kendrick Lamar's compilation album is projected to sell 140-150k in equivalent album units, and 175-185k including streaming data. Billboard's chart now factors in streaming, so expect those numbers to mirror more closely to the latter HDD approximation. While the projections don't match up to the first-week sales of Kendrick's last album (324,000), they are certainly impressive for an album made up of untitled, mostly unfinished cuts that didn't quite fit onto To Pimp a Butterfly.
Lil Wayne features on 8 tracks on ColleGrove, though the album is technically credited to 2 Chainz, released via Def Jam and not Cash Money. ColleGrove is projected to have a significantly more modest debut than that of Kendrick, with a predicted 35-45k in album units and 55-65k including streams. The figures are surprising, though likely a result of the lack of promo leading up to the album's release. And they're certainly not indicative of its quality. Give ColleGrove a listen here.
