Kendrick Lamar's Untitled Unmastered knocks The 1975 off top of Billboard 200

Kendrick Lamar has triumphed with his latest album, Untitled Unmastered, which has soared to number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. The Alright rapper dropped his fourth album as a surprise for fans almost a year after the release of his Grammy-winning record To Pimp A Butterfly.

According to Nielsen Music, Lamar, 28, sold a total of 178,000 units including downloads of Untitled Unmastered in the first week of its release with 142,000 of those generated from pure sales. It became Lamar's second chart-topping album in the US following To Pimp A Butterfly, which has sold more than one million copies worldwide and is certified platinum. The rapper is now only the third artist to have topped the Billboard 200 chart twice in one year, joining Drake and Future who have also achieved the same feat.

Untitled Unmastered, released on 4 March under Lamar's Top Dawg Entertainment and Interscope labels, is a collection of eight songs each titled after the date it was recorded. Although there are no collaborations on the album, one of the songs, Untitled 7, is credited with being produced by Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys' five-year-old son Egypt.

The album comes off the back of the success of Lamar's third album, To Pimp A Butterfly, which won the best rap album Grammy in February 2016. The Compton-native is still making waves with his critically-acclaimed single Alright, which was chanted by anti-Donald Trump protesters at the presidential hopeful's Chicago rally on 12 March.

Losing their place atop the Billboard 200 chart to Lamar are British band The 1975 who reigned for one week with their second album, I Like When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It, which sold 108,000 across North America. Holding position at number two is Adele with her record-breaking third album 25 which has shifted an additional 61,000 copies while Rihanna is a non-mover at number three with Anti.

Rapper 2 Chainz is at number four with his latest record ColleGrove, which has sold 53,000 units in the last week while Justin Bieber's Purpose rounds off the top five after selling a further 53,000 copies to enjoy its 17th week on the chart.

Watch Kendrick Lamar perform Untitled 2 on Jimmy Fallon: