Grammy-winning rapper Eminem may finally have gotten his wish for respect as an emcee as renowned music publication Rolling Stone has crowned him King of Hip-Hop.
After compiling factors like album sales and social networking, Em easily outperformed his competition.
With his dominant album sales, YouTube views and social-media scores, Eminem takes the title as the current King of Hip-Hop. Unlike our Queen of Pop ranking, which Lady Gaga took in a walk, Marshall Mathers’s win was somewhat closer – note the fairly tight point range among our top three. (Rolling Stone)
Close contenders included rap stars Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West.
The magazine ranked 20 solo rappers, including Drake, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Rick Ross, Snoop Dogg and more. The publication looked at album sales, social media presence, YouTube page views, concert grosses, industry awards, critics’ ratings and more. Em, who was the world’s best-selling musical artist of the first decade of the 2000s with more than 32 million albums sold, had 7.5 million in album sales during the period Rolling Stone examined, more than 1.3 billion YouTube views and 48 million Twitter and Facebook followers. That was enough to land him ahead of Lil Wayne (No. 2) and Drake (No. 3), though Rolling Stone cited Drake as the artist to watch in the year ahead. (Detroit Free Press)
In 2009, Em earned the title of artist of the decade.
1. Eminem, 31,127,000. First charted: 1999. Eminem, 36, is the top male artist and the top rap artist so far in this decade. His 2000 album The Marshall Mathers LP is his best-seller. It has sold 10,178,000 copies. 7. Nelly, 21,206,000. First charted: 2000. Nelly, 34, is the #1 new artist to emerge in this decade, edging out Linkin Park. He’s also the #1 African American artist, edging out Jay-Z, and the #2 rap artist. Nelly’s 2000 debut, Country Grammar, is his best-selling album. It has sold 8,454,000 copies. 10. Jay-Z, 19,379,000. First charted: 1996. Jay-Z, 39, is the #3 rap artist of the decade. 2003’s The Black Album is his best-selling album of this decade. It has sold 3,338,000 copies. Jay-Z was the #152 album-selling act of the ’90s. (Yahoo News)
Despite the sales success, Em previously talked about not focusing on the numbers game.
“I don’t think I’ve actually stopped to think about it,” Eminem said referencing being named artist of the decade. “I never thought that my life would amount to this. But to be able to sit back and digest it is so strange to me, because I still feel so regular. I don’t understand what people think the big deal is about me. It’s a very strange relationship that I have with fame…Honestly, as long as people enjoy the music, that means the most to me. I could sell 80 million records in the first week, and if my peers or fans of real hip-hop didn’t like it, it really wouldn’t mean anything.” (Billboard)
Check out a past Eminem interview below: