Eminem’s Revival rollout may have been mired in turmoil, and the album may have been a critical bomb, but none of that stopped Shady from topping the Billboard albums chart for the eight time in his legendary career. Em leapfrogged upstarts like G-Eazy and veterans like Jeezy on the way to his eight No. 1 album, a figure that ties him with Kenny Chesney, Madonna and U2 for the sixth-most ever by one artist.
Billboard reports Revival tallied 267,000 equivalent album units earned, including 197,000 traditional album sales, the third-best first week sales numbers for a rap album this year behind Kendrick Lamar’s Damn and Drake’s More Life. While it might be because the album was panned critically, these numbers also represent a slip in relevance for the highest-selling rapper ever, as his last album, 2013’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2, sold 792,000 copies in its first week.
G-Eazy, fresh off a new Top 10 record in “No Limit” with Cardi B and ASAP Rocky, saw his new album The Beautiful & Damned land at No. 3 on the chart, 122,000 units moved, including 68,000 in traditional album sales. For Gerald, these numbers represent a shift upwards, as he now has three straight Top 10 debuts, and the Oakland rapper continues to prove his commercial success is no fluke.
