Eminem had one of the best-selling albums of 2021, despite not releasing a new project this past year. What’s more, it wasn’t even one of his recent releases.
On Monday (December 27), HITS Daily Double published their list of the 50 highest selling albums of 2021, factoring in pure album sales, album-equivalent units, audio streams and video streams.
Coming in at No. 49 is an Eminem album that recently celebrated its 16th anniversary: Curtain Call: The Hits. Slim Shady’s 2005 compilation project sold a total of 673,000 units over the last 12 months, according to HDD.
That’s more than other major rap releases that came out this year including Tyler, The Creator’s CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, Nas’ King’s Disease II, Young Thug’s Punk, NBA YoungBoy’s Sincerely, Kentrell and Migos’ Culture III.
Of course, this is hardly surprising considering Eminem‘s status as a commercial juggernaut. The Detroit native remains the highest selling rap artist of all time with over 220 million albums sold worldwide, with two diamond-certified LPs (The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show) to his name.
Furthermore, Curtain Call: The Hits already holds the title of being the longest charting rap album in history having spent over 550 consecutive weeks (and counting) on the Billboard 200.
Released on December 6, 2005, Curtain Call: The Hits featured many of Eminem’s biggest tracks up to that point such as “Lose Yourself,” “My Name Is” and “The Real Slim Shady.” It also contained a handful of new songs including “When I’m Gone,” the Nate Dogg-assisted “Shake That,” “Fack” and a live version of “Stan” featuring Elton John, as performed at the 2001 Grammy Awards.
Curtain Call debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 after selling 441,000 copies in just two days as part of a truncated opening sales week. The album reached platinum status in three weeks and has since been certified 7x platinum.
Elsewhere on HITS Daily Double‘s end-of-year list, Drake‘s Certified Lover Boy ranks as the best-selling rap album of 2021. The 6 God’s sixth studio album lands at No. 3 on the list — behind only Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album and Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour — with 1.85 million total sales.
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Other rap albums that crack the top 20 include Pop Smoke‘s Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, Lil Baby‘s My Turn, Rod Wave’s SoulFly, Moneybagg Yo’s A Gangsta’s Pain, Juice WRLD‘s Legends Never Die and Polo G’s Hall of Fame.
J. Cole‘s The Off-Season comes in at No. 23, Lil Nas X‘s MONTERO follows at No. 24, while Kanye West‘s Donda ranks as the 30th highest-selling album of 2021.
Oh these comments gon be good!
But no one listens to Em I thought?
I’ll be damned yall actually reported something truthful
Let’s see these blacks hate on Eminem, keep them comments coming, time to laugh ?
And nobody said anything. STFU clown ass! Em is a top 5 emcee and you just wanna start some needless racial shit.
Ahmad your temper is “blowing up”. Black ppl hate on Em because he’s WHITE, it ain’t no secret.
Yea, I’m black and y’all hate on eminem so much its fuxxing disrespectful regarding the amount of work he put in…… Y’all go about saying no one bumps eminem like its the National Anthem or sum’
We don’t hate Em because he’s white. We hate YOU because you’re white.
Eminem might be a corny ass goofball.. but that don’t mean he ain’t a cuckold too.
Your comment had me rollin’ haha
Em needs more respect!! Top 5 DOA with Nas, Black Thought & André 3k
I guess the Gen Z is discovering how dope an MC Eminem is regardless of his age or the color of his skin. Its gotta be Gen Z streaming the sales. Its definitely not people over 40 streaming on spotify with silly $200 headphones.
I forgot how amazing this album was, This shit came out when ! was 15 and was on repeat with a few other albums that came out that year, tm101,boyz n da hood, most known unknown,534, who is mike jones and the documentary is what I can remember off the top of my head. That was an amazing year for music, But I remember Curtain Call came out a few weeks before Christmas and I was just hooked on it. Those were the good old day, People actual dressed good. Baggy clothes were the shit. Nothing could beat those days or the style the rappers has back then. If that shit was still in style today I would be more than happy with my oversized baggy clothes then this skin tight style that the rappers stole from the emo hardcore scene. How rappers dress today is how emo/screamo bands were dressing back in 2005. Fuck how the times have changed. I would so anything to go back in time and re live my youth, was the best time of my life. Didn’t mean to vent or ramble but that CD brought up a lot of amazing memories.
I thought nobody listened to Eminem though? A compilation album from 16 years ago ahead of a 4 month old NAS ALBUM… LMAO let that sink in.
Fr tho on fb groups they be saying that crap, when they favorite rapper ain’t even getting no plays.
That Gospel joint he just did with Dre was a diss to MGK. Took me two listens to realize it. Seems to get better every song.
No one can see him on verzuz…..
Em can see you in his rear view Jay
It will be diamond eligible next year. I think it’s currently sitting at around 9.5M copies sold in the US, so if it maintains it’s average numbers, that 3rd diamond album plaque should be ready mid-late 2022 (assuming his lazy ass management actually updates the certification).
It’s already diamond eligible – he has a few albums that are that they haven’t put in yet
No it’s not. It’s still on 9.5M sales. You need 10M sales in the US to get a diamond certification. He already has 2 diamond albums (MMLP &TES) and 3 diamond songs (Not Afraid, LTWYL and Lose Yourself). Curtain Call will be his next diamond most likely next year, and then Recovery is around 9M too, so that will be diamond in a few more years too. (You might be thinking world wide sales? To get a certification it’s sales in that SPECIFIC country only, not total global)
F A C K
I’m sure there will be an Asian rapper that will eventually become the highest selling rapper of all time considering the huge Asian population overseas but nobody will ever touch Eminem’s sales in the US. Not even Drake. Drake is still not even close. Everybody want to talk sales and longtime relevancy but never mentions Eminem. Funny how that works.
It’s because Fack is on there
Is that the track where he burps and farts on the mic? Or am i mistaking for those other two dozen tracks he does that on? Also screams angrily. What a clown he’s like 60 yrs old.
Eminem still ruling the game, even black boys are bitches to him
LMAO! This one is dedicated to the ones that insists that no one listens to Em
People that say only white people don’t realize that it’s the same exact people that listen to their favorite rappers