Eminem’s latest album has reached another huge streaming milestone. It has become Marshall’s 10th solo studio album to reach over 2 billion streams on Spotify, making Eminem the first rapper to achieve this.
The newest addition to the list
Eminem’s solo studio catalogue on Spotify now looks like this:
1. The Eminem Show – 9.7 billion
2. The Marshall Mathers LP – 6 billion
3. Recovery – 5.8 billion
4. The Marshall Mathers LP 2 – 4.7 billion
5. Music To Be Murdered By – 4.6 billion
6. Encore – 4.4 billion
7. Kamikaze – 3.7 billion
8. Relapse – 2.7 billion
9. Revival – 2.1 billion
10. The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) – 2 billion
11. The Slim Shady LP – 1.9 billion
Of course, the list is even longer if we add compilations. Curtain Call: The Hits has surpassed 18 billion streams, Curtain Call 2 – 15 billion, and STANS (The Official Soundtrack) has over 5 billion Spotify plays.
Steady gains
For comparison, Music To Be Murdered By reached the 2 billion milestone in 18 months. The Death of Slim Shady took almost two years. In its defence, Music To Be Murdered By received the Side B expansion, which added an entire disc of new material to its stream count and also boosted interest in the original album. The Death Of Slim Shady got its Mourner Edition rather soon after the main release, and with only one relatively fresh track, the “Fuel” remix with Westside Boogie and GRIP. Even so, Em’s latest album is only several months behind its predecessor to get to this milestone.
Daily performance
In terms of daily streams, The Death Of Slim Shady gets around six hundred thousand to seven hundred thousand streams daily. Actually, it’s the same amount that Music To Be Murdered By and Relapse make, placing it in the middle of Eminem’s current streaming pack. At the same time, The Eminem Show, The Marshall Mathers LP, Recovery, Encore, and The Marshall Mathers LP 2 all make over a million streams a day. The Eminem Show here is in a league of its own, gaining almost 3 million daily streams. And yet, the middle is performing much stronger than the albums near the bottom of the ranking: The Slim Shady LP, Kamikaze, and Revival (the latter stayed below 190,000 streams on May 18).
A rare achievement
To have this many albums reach the 2 billion streams milestone is no small feat, especially in hip hop. So far, only Drake and Eminem have shown 10 projects with over 2 billion streams on the platform. The comparison becomes even narrower once collaborative albums and mixtapes are excluded. And until last week, Drake only had eight official solo albums. Last week, Drake pushed that number to 11 after adding three more releases on one day, and they will eventually reach 2 billion streams. But for now, Eminem beats Drake in this category with his 10 solo studio albums.
In total, Drake has 12 projects on Spotify with over 2 billion streams. However, two of them are collaborative albums. So, Drake and Eminem have an equal number of projects above 2 billion streams – 10. Kanye is one album away from matching them. Of his 11 projects with over 2 billion streams, two are collaborations.
Since ending his hiatus in 2009, Eminem has mostly paced himself, releasing an album every three to four years (with some rare exceptions). The size of his catalogue is unlikely to grow dramatically in the near future. However, steady interest in his music is just as unlikely to disappear. His legacy will grow alongside his influence, and the streaming numbers will continue to reflect this.
Listen to the album below: