Eminem has now joined Drake as the only other rapper to surpass 50 billion streams on Spotify – though he is still a ways away to catching up to the 6 God.
On Monday (August 5), X blog HipHopAllDayy confirmed Em hit the 50b point on the streaming platform, putting him in the company of just six other artists who have achieved the feat.
Among them is Drake, who leads the pack with 101 billion all-time streams. Behind him is Taylor Swift with 88b, followed by Bad Bunny with 83b, The Weeknd with 67b and Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber with 54b.
The release of Em’s new album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) helped with the new milestone, as it topped the Billboard 200 with 281,000 equivalent album-units last month. It also had the second biggest digital launch of the year with 114,000 sales equivalent units.
The first-week sales make it the biggest rap debut of 2024, eclipsing Future and Metro Boomin‘s previous benchmark of 251,000 units sold with We Don’t Trust You.
The LP is Em’s 11th No. 1 album, putting him level with Kanye West, Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand. Only Drake (13), Swift (14), JAY-Z (also 14) and The Beatles (19) have more.
The album also had a bigger opening week than Slim Shady’s previous album, 2020’s Music to be Murdered By (279,000), as well as 2017’s Revival (267,000).
In related news, both Eminem and Drake are also among the names up for a Moonman this year at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Nominations for the awards show, which will air on September 10 at 8 PM ET and PT, were announced on Tuesday (August 6).
Taylor Swift had the most nominations, with 10. She was followed by Post Malone‘s nine. All of Malone’s nominations except one are for his collaboration with Swift, “Fortnight.”
Em’s half-dozen noms, except for Artist of the Year, are all for his video “Houdini.” Lamar’s Drake diss “Not Like Us” scored a nomination for Song of the Year, while his opponent Drizzy got two nominations for his Sexyy Red and SZA collab “Rich Baby Daddy.”
The nominees for the category of Best Hip-Hop are “Rich Baby Daddy,” “Houdini,” GloRilla‘s “Yeah Glo!” Gunna‘s “fukumean,” Megan Thee Stallion‘s “BOA” and Travis Scott and Playboi Carti‘s “FE!N.”
Check out the full nominations list here
