Dr. Dre's highly anticipated album, "Compton: A Soundtrack," was released on Friday in the U.S. and is competing with country superstar Luke Bryan's "Kill the Lights" album to take over the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart for the week of Aug. 29, reports Billboard.

Industry forecasters believe that Bryan's "Kill the Lights" will debut at No. 1 with approximately 340,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Aug. 13, earning the country singer his third No. 1 album.

Dre's "Compton" album, which is his third solo effort since 1999, is expected to reach No. 2 with about 300,000 units, according to Billboard.

While Dre is behind in the race for the No. 1 spot, things can change in his favor depending on promotions and hype by Aftermath and Interscope.

More than 15 guest collaborators worked with Dre on "Compton: A Soundtrack," including The Game, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, King Mez, DJ Premier, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, Jill Scott, Marsha Ambrosius, Anderson .Paak, Jon Connor, Ice Cube and more.

The featured artists could generate enough hype to tip the scales in Dre's favor for the No. 1 spot. The controversy sparked by Eminem's track "Medicine Man" certainly hasn't hurt the word of mouth factor. A line about rape in the track has created a firestorm of controversy: "Ain't no one safe from, non-believers there ain't none/I even make the b*tches I rape c*m."

Nonetheless, critics say "Medicine Man" is one of the album's standout cuts.

According to Billboard, Dre has yet to achieve a No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. His 1993 debut set "The Chronic" reached No. 3 for six nonconsecutive weeks. His second, "Dr. Dre -- 2001," spent four nonconsecutive weeks at No. 2.

He did have a chart-topper as part of N.W.A., when "Efil4Zaggin" topped the list for one week in June 1991.

Dre's first album in 16 years is expected to sell more than 250,000 in pure album sales.