Eminem exceeds the lofty projections for “Kamikaze.”
Billboard has officially released its sales tally for last week and as everyone projected, Eminem dusted off the competition. In fact, Eminem’s numbers for Kamikaze were so good they exceeded the revised total of 400K sold by about 34,000 equivalent units, 252,000 of which represented traditional sales figures (actual purchases). By comparison, Eminem’s last album Revival sold 267,000 units when it debuted at no. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Kamikaze represents Eminem’s ninth album to climb as high as no. 1 on the Billboard 200. Only his major label debut The Slim Shady LP failed to hit no. 1, and only by the narrowest of margins. He now shares the distinction of nine no. 1 albums with Garth Brooks and The Rolling Stones, good for 5th place all-time. Only The Beatles, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Barbara Streisand and Elvis Presley stand in his way.
Kamikaze’s haul holds yet another distinction worth noting. Only Drake’s Scorpion, Post Malone’s beerbongs & bentleys and Travis Scott’s Astroworld handed in a stronger one-week performance. Remarkably all of the albums I’ve just listed still occupy spots in the Billboard 200’s Top 10. Eminem’s sales figures will retain their resilience once a mournful moratorium is lifted, and Eminem responds to Machine Gun Kelly’s brazen diss record. Until then, there are plenty of hip hop to rediscover in 2018, a fruitful year compared to last some would argue.
