THIS CHART GIVES US BUTTERFLIES

Kendrick continues to give us butterflies, as To Pimp a Butterfly (TDE/Aftermath/Interscope) tops the HITS Building Album Sales Chart with 102k and the Sales Plus Streaming (SPS) Chart with 118k.

If you're experiencing déjà vu, this won't help: Twentieth Century Fox/Columbia’s Empire soundtrack holds down the #2 spot, earning another 50k in album sales and seeing an 11k bump at SPS, thanks to an array of strong, plot-driven singles.

As for the debuts, it’s a kid’s world after all. The 28th installment of Razor & Tie’s Kidz Bop Kids nabs the #4 spot with 38k on the album side.

Columbia’s Earl Sweatshirt (of the hip-hop collective Odd Future) lands at #7 with 30k in album sales. We greatly relate to the title of said album, which is I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. Except we also don't like shit outside, so we go back inside and fire up a blunt.

Meanwhile, Van Morrison's 35th studio album, Duets: Reworking the Catalogue, produced by Don Was and Bob Rock, enjoys a Top 10 bow with 21k for RCA. The project features collaborations on classic Van tunes with guests like Bobby Womack, Steve Winwood, the aforementioned Knopfler, Taj Mahal, Michael Bublé, daughter Shana and more. Yeah, we're geeking out right now.

BRITs’ Critics Choice Award winner James Bay (Republic) sees his debut full-length bow just behind the legend at #11 with 20k. Speaking of Republic, the Fifty Shades of Grey ST sees another SPS bump that doubles its BAC number, bringing it to 50k, thanks to smash singles Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do,” currently #4 at Pop radio, and The Weeknd’s “Earned It,” currently #4 at Rhythmic.

That said, YMCMB/Republic’s Drake and Nicki Minaj prove to be big beneficiaries of SPS. The former saw a #13-8 difference between BAC and SPS with 19k vs 42k, due to strong presence at streaming services, while the latter saw a #33-14 difference with 7k vs 24k.

Powered by a $6.99 sale, Capitol's Sam Smith enjoys a nice bump, moving #12-6 with 32k on the album side and earning 46k at SPS.

Streeting this week are albums from Death Cab for Cutie, NOW’s Now That’s What I Call ACM Awards, Wale, RCA’s Three Days Grace, Def Jam’s Ludacris and Epic’s Jodeci.

In other news, Passover is nearly upon us once again, an opportunityfor us Jews to reflect on how our long-ago captivity in Egypt unites with all who struggle for freedom. Or, alternatively, an opportunity to mix Manischewitz with cough syrup for a heady cocktail we like to call Let My Purple Go.