Eminem’s undisputed classic keeps earning new milestones on its way to the massive streaming achievement.
We celebrated The Eminem Show reaching 9 billion streams last November. Since then, the album has not slowed down. It keeps clocking in at way over 3.5 million new streams every day. At this rate, we’ll have to write a 10 billion celebratory article this autumn, not like anybody’s complaining over here.
The Eminem Show has a very special place in the fans’ hearts, Marshall’s catalogue, and music history.
Leap to maturity
The Eminem Show is his fourth album, the third released on the major label in quick succession. The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP landed as a sharp one-two for the American audience. Slim Shady was pulling himself by the bootstraps from the hole of poverty and desperation. When he had finished the task, he found himself on the top of the world, looked around, and didn’t like what he saw.
Eminem began talking about politics and broader social issues, expressing more than just personal frustration. However, there was no lack of the latter. Marshall was going through his second divorce; he had just stood trial and narrowly missed some real prison time. Critics were picking apart his previous release, The Marshall Mathers LP. Em took all of it and used it as a fuel for, arguably, the most layered and complex album in his catalogue.
Moreover, in his quest for greater control in his life, he took greater control over his creative process. Dr. Dre remained the executive producer on the album, but Eminem took the front seat, producing his own sound. And the audience lapped up the result.
Audience response
The good thing about the audience response is that it is measurable. As long as listeners buy the albums, spin the music, and press that play button, the response is positive. In the case of The Eminem Show, it was overwhelmingly positive. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 after several days of sales. It sold over 1.3 million copies after its first full selling week. It had not left the Billboard No.1 for six consecutive weeks, 443 weeks overall, more than any of his studio projects.
The Eminem Show topped the national charts in 16 different countries. That year, it became the best selling album both in the US and internationally. It remains the best selling hip hop album of all time and only the second best selling album of the century.
Streaming numbers paint a similar picture, while, understandably, giving priority to the projects released in the streaming era. Among the albums released the same year, it has almost twice as many streams as the next in line, A Rush Of Blood To The Head by Coldplay (5.5 billion).
Among the most streamed hip hop projects, The Eminem Show is the only one released in the 2000s. And it will be the first of its era to cross the 10 billion mark. Only because it is no less important now than it was 24 years ago, when parents of Em’s young fans first bought a CD with a cover, referencing The Truman Show poster.
