Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp A Butterfly' Released Early on iTunes; Was It Intentional or Interscope Mistake?

Hip-hop fans who were up late on Sunday got a surprise as Kendrick Lamar's new album To Pimp A Butterfly dropped on iTunes and Spotify more than a week earlier than when it was previously scheduled (from NME). It may seem like the latest in the trend of releasing albums early to beat hackers or just for generating publicity, but Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Anthony Tiffith says otherwise.

"I WOULD LIKE 2 PERSONALLY THANK @Interscope FOR F*CKING UP OR RELEASE..." he tweeted late last night, caps lock for emphasis. "SOMEBODY GOTS 2 PAY 4 THIS MISTAKE!!!! #TOP."

Some might argue that Tiffith is just playing into the storyline but some details from the drop suggest he might be telling the truth: The only version available on iTunes for a short time was the edited version, and few rappers outside of Talib Kweli and Lecrae go out of their ways to censor themselves. The normal version appeared a short while later, probably Top Dawg figuring that it might as well release the quality version.

Things have been a rush for To Pimp A Butterfly, which just received its title last week along with its album art.

So how does the early drop work out to Lamar's disadvantage? It's more about pride than anything else. If it had been released on its scheduled date, there's little doubt that it would have topped the Billboard 200 for that week. Now that might be in limbo, as thousands of fans probably jumped at the opportunity to buy To Pimp A Butterfly as soon as they could, sales information that will register on this week's final Billboard tally. Those numbers will be impressive for one day of sales but probably not enough to compete with last week's stacked lineup of releases, from Madonna to Luke Bryan, and the Empire soundtrack on top of that. Butterfly will continue to build sales for the next week, but the final tally for its "second" week of sales will be watered down from the first night.

Fans don't mind. Good Kid, M.A.A.D City never got to no. 1 and we're not complaining.

UPDATE: The album has been removed from iTunes since this story was first published, suggesting that yeah...it was a a screw-up over at Interscope.

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Kendrick Lamar