Eminem is once again the proud owner of the record for most Billboard No. 1 albums in a row, a record he held until Kanye West tied him for it last November with Jesus Is King. Billboard reports that its next top 200 albums chart will be topped by Eminem’s surprise release, Music To Be Murdered By, giving Eminem his 10th No. 1 album on the chart in a row. The new album raked in 279,000 equivalent album units in its first week, with 154,000 streaming equivalent units, 117,000 straight sales, and 8,000 track equivalent units.
The feat puts Eminem in rare company; only six other acts have 10 or more No. 1 albums. The Beatles (with a record 19), Jay-Z (14), Bruce Springsteen (11), Barbara Streisand (11), and Elvis Presley (10) are the only other musical icons to have crossed that threshold. Eminem and Kanye both have the distinction of all their No. 1 records being consecutive, only missing out on their respective debuts. Both The Slim Shady LP and The College Dropout debuted and peaked at No. 2 — way before streaming was even invented, let alone counted toward Billboard charts.
Just like each of his albums since then, Eminem’s latest has kicked up a dust cloud of controversy, including a fan outcry against a questionable line referencing the 2017 Manchester bombing and a Scottish rapper’s insistence that Em’s album sounds remarkably like one the Scottish rapper put out five years ago. That doesn’t seem to be stopping Slim Shady, who remains a a juggernaut of popularity well into his second decade of chart dominance. Check out the full results on the week’s Billboard counts here.
Music To Be Murdered By is out now on Shady/Aftermath/Interscope.
