Early on Compton, Dr. Dre’s first album in 16 years, the producer/MC raps, “I’m very aware hip hop needed somethin’ to carry it/ So I married that bitch and swung down in that chariot.” The first week sales numbers are in, and it seems like Dre did a decent job of carrying his genre—The New York Times reports that the album racked up 25 million streams and half a million downloads. Compton also debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 behind country star Luke Bryan’s Kill The Lights.
The New York Times noted that Compton’s first-week numbers suffered relative to buzzed-about albums released earlier this year by hip-hop’s younger generation of stars. Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late racked up 48 million streams in its first week, and Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly amassed 39 million. Both were also on Spotify; Dre’s new album is only streaming on Apple Music.