One of Eminem’s earliest political songs gets more traction, remaining eerily relevant.
Released in 2002 on “The Eminem Show”, the message of “White America” was not fully appreciated for quite some time. The song earned the 100 million streams milestone only in 2021. Its streams have doubled since then, showing that an unflinching depiction of hypocrisy and racism penetrating the nation finds greater understanding. Surely, we can also credit a powerful, pulsating beat that propels the song forward – “White America” is an unshakeable earworm in the best sense.
American Abroad
Until recently, “White America” had only the RIAA certification, getting Gold in 2018 and Platinum in the 2022 mass update. However, in 2023-2024, its international sales earned the song Platinum in Australia, Gold in New Zealand, and Silver in the UK. It seems the song’s popularity rises alongside the political turbulence. And Eminem still perfroms it live (watch a video from his 2019 Abu Dhabi show).
Who’s Next?
Meanwhile, the song’s milestone means even more in the bigger picture of tracking the success of Eminem’s streaming catalogue. “White America” is Eminem’s 50th song as a lead artist and 59th of all credits to earn this milestone. What’s up next?
While in absolute numbers, “Walk On Water” feat. Beyoncé, with 184,379,001 streams gained by February 23, 2026, is close to the mark, its daily gains are minimal. Yesterday, the song had fewer than 8,000 plays. At this rate, it will take the star collaboration over five years to get to the point. At the same time, the next one in line, “Those Kinda Nights” feat. Ed Sheeran, despite having 1 million fewer streams, gets over 20,000 new plays daily. It will easily take over “Walk On Water” in a year.
And yet still, this is not the strongest contender for the crown. “Fuel” (155 million streams) and “Somebody Save Me” (151 million) rank at No.73 and 74, respectively, and each clocks in over 100,000 daily plays. Of course, as songs from Eminem’s latest album, “The Death of Slim Shady”, they have more attention than old records. However, they have been around for roughly 20 months, and still make these very decent numbers. If they maintain momentum, one of them will be the first to arrive at the next big milestone. So, if you have a favourite in this race – go stream it now.
