It has been an incredible journey for rap superstar Eminem. A journey that can easily be expressed as starting from the bottom; from 8 mile to an iPod near you. Last week Eminem achieved hip-hop kingpin status as he entered unknown territory for rap. Eminem, arguably a top five rapper dead or alive, has now become the second-best-selling male artist of the SoundScan era.
With the continued success of Slim Shady’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2, his cumulative album sales have reached close to 45 million according to Nielsen SoundScan. A huge portion of these sales comes from two particular albums for Eminem. Slim Shady’s first major album release, The Marshall Mathers LP released nearly fifteen years ago and 2002’s The Eminem Show. Both have passed 10 million in sales. What is even more impressive is that all of Eminem’s albums have now each sold more than 2 million in sales.
Slim Shady now joins an elite group of artists. The only artists to have sold more than Eminem include the Beatles, Metallica, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and Garth Brooks who leads all artists with nearly 70 million albums sold.
To add more to this already huge week for Eminem, his latest single “Headlights” hit the Hot 100, making Eminem the seventh rapper to score at least 50 Hot 100 chart entries. This feat lands Eminem in yet another elite group, joining the ranks of fellow rappers Lil Wayne, Jay Z, Drake, Kanye West, Ludacris, and T.I.
Days ago in this already remarkable week for Eminem, he and R &B diva Rihanna shared the dates and venues for their summer Monster mini tour.
Rihanna will join Eminem for eight shows with no further dates currently scheduled. These shows will be held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, as well as MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, and Comerica Park in Detroit. Eminem and Rihanna are even taking this mini tour cross the border as they visit Logger Sports Grounds in Canada’s British Columbia. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 am local time and can be purchased through Live Nation’s website.
Regardless of your opinion of Eminem, whether Rap God, Rap Genius, or the illest white rapper to ever do it. Numbers don’t lie.
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