CHART STORY:
COUNTRY TOPS COMPTON

After a dramatic and closely watched race, Luke Bryan’s Kill the Lights (Capitol Nashville) prevails over Dr. Dre’s Compton (Aftermath/Interscope) on the HITS Album Sales and SPS (Sales Plus Streaming) charts.

Bryan’s fifth "official" studio album—not including his famed spring break records—bowed at 326k, while Dre’s inspired-by soundtrack debuted with 279k.

That said, the theatrical bow of Universal's Straight Outta Compton, which earned around $5m overnight and has so far received glowing reviews, may very well give Dre the edge in snagging next week’s top spot. So be sure to save some of that theatre popcorn for the second-week rematch. We'll bring the cannabutter.

Over at SPS, Lights' final number was upped to just north of $350k and Compton, which was rolled out as a two-week Apple Music exclusive, was boosted to about 300k.

As for the rest of the sales chart, NOW/Legacy’s Now 55 rounds out the Top 3 with 76k, while Forefront’s tobyMac rounds out the Top 5.

Thanks to the movie boost and a $5.99 sale at iTunes, NWA's Straight Outta Compton (Priority) re-enters the chart at #23; also priced to move: Shawn Mendes' Handwritten (Island), which re-enters at #30, and Sia's 1,000 Forms of Fear (Monkey Puzzle/RCA), which does the same at #34.

Meanwhile, Dre's The Chronic (Death Row/eOne), which was not on sale—and which Dre controls—appeared at #37.

And on that note, we're gonna go blast The Chronic and simultaneously blast our brains with some chronic. TGIF.