Eminem creates chart history once again with new album
Breaking records has become second nature to Eminem, with the rapper having spent a quarter of a century at the forefront of the music industry as one of its biggest and most popular stars.
The Detroit native has been setting benchmarks for pretty much that entire time, too, whether it’s becoming the first rapper to win an Academy Award for ‘Best Original Song’, being the bestselling music artist in America for the entire decade of the 2000s, or being the bestselling rapper in history.
Eminem is also the first hip-hop artist to have ten consecutive albums reach number one on the Billboard charts, with his latest record The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) adding another highly specific and unique accolade to the ever-growing collection.
His latest album has become such an all-encompassing sensation that even the interludes are charting, despite ‘Trouble’ running for just 42 seconds. As a result, it’s become the second shortest song of all time to find its place on Billboard’s Hot 100.
That places him behind only Kid Cudi’s 37-second intro ‘Beautiful Trip’, which made the charts in 2020. It’s not really a song in the conventional sense, either, but more of a plot point furthering the overall concept of the album, but it would appear plenty of folks have been giving it a listen nonetheless.
The Death of Slim Shady additionally knocked Taylor Swift off the perch she’s been holding for ten consecutive weeks, with Eminem’s latest dislodging The Tortured Poets Department from the top spot to deny Swift an 11th week at the summit, which nudged it out of the reckoning for a record of its own.
If Swift’s album made it to 11 weeks on top, then it would have tied for being the longest-tenured number one pop album in Billboard history, but Stevie Wonder’s 1976 classic Songs In the Key of Life continues to hold that distinction all to itself.
There are several tracks from The Death of Slim Shady holding the fort on the Billboard 200, but one of the by-products of his new album’s success is that several of his older songs have enjoyed a resurgence. In particular, lead single ‘Houdini’ has seen its spiritual predecessor ‘Without Me’ enjoy a 309 per cent increase in sales, and there are no doubt going to be several more dominoes to fall as Eminem continues setting records. It’s what he’s been doing his whole career, and there’s no way he’s done yet.