Kendrick Lamar's DAMN. may not be every fan's favorite album of his, but the record represents the scale and success of this catalog better than any other entry. Not only did it win him a first-of-its-kind Pulitzer, but it remains the Compton lyricist's most commercially successful album to date when it comes to streaming numbers.
According to Kworb and Kurrco on Twitter, the 2017 full-length just surpassed 10 billion streams on Spotify. This places it in an elite class of hip-hop (or rap-adjacent) albums to have reached that metric on the platform, which includes multiple entries from Kendrick Lamar's rap rival.
In ascending order, other projects on this list include Goodbye & Good Riddance by Juice WRLD, ASTROWORLD by Travis Scott, Views and Scorpion from Drake, ? by XXXTENTACION, and then beerbongs & bentleys and Hollywood's Bleeding by Post Malone: all hit parades.
Led by massive tracks like "LOVE.," "DNA.," "PRIDE.," and "HUMBLE.," DAMN.'s material is as accessible as it is ambitious. It's amazing to see this album maintain its relevance and momentum over the years, although Kendrick Lamar's dominant run over the past years probably helped speed this up at least a little.
Kendrick Lamar Monthly Listeners
Elsewhere, there haven't been many big updates from the pgLang camp in a while, with the "Grand National" tour taking up all their attention right now. However, now there's a short break before Kendrick Lamar hits Latin America for his next shows, which will precede his final 2025 dates in Australia. Maybe this will change soon, but we understand radio silence after such a relentless victory lap. Also, it helps that plenty of released material continues to generate cash.
More awards success for Kendrick Lamar will also sustain this hype for a while, although we all know the divisive conversations these achievements create in the discourse. Nevertheless, an album like DAMN. earned its place in the rotation a long time ago, and fans still treasure it as Kendrick's arguable masterpiece.
We'll see what the next K.Dot album to hit 10 billion Spotify streams is. With 79 million monthly listeners on the platform at press time, it's only a matter of time... Just like for any other rap album creeping on the milestone.
