Eminem’s Revival is, finally, less than a week away. The rollout has left plenty to be desired, sure, and the singles have received relatively lukewarm receptions, but any time one of the biggest rappers ever decides to release an album it’s a momentous occasion. And it seems like Em is pulling out all the stops, giving his fans a unique opportunity to purchase several special editions of the album, including one very expensive option that includes Shady’s own autograph.
Em unloaded a handful of ways for his fans to buy the new album on his website, including digital copies in tandem with either a t-shirt or a hoodie, but he upped the ante as well, offering copies of Revival along with collectors items like dog tags, or a steel print of the lyrics from “Walk On Water,” and finally, his autograph for a whopping $500.
This approach isn’t exactly groundbreaking, even if it is rare. Nipsey Hussle did something similar back in 2015 when he sold $1,000, limited edition copies of his mixtape Mailbox Money, which included, amongst other things, an invitation to a special listening session of an unreleased album, hosted by Nipsey himself. The strategy is simple: you sell the fans an experience, not necessarily the music they can already get for free with minimal Googling. Eminem is utilizing that line of thinking now too, and while $500 may seem like a lot for an album, there are going to be diehard Slim Shady fans showing up in spades for the chance to cop his John Hancock.
