US rapper Eminem performs onstage during the 92nd Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, ... [+]
Eminem deserves a rest—or at least his listeners do.
The tireless rapper dropped a batch of 16 new songs without warning on Friday under the banner of Music to Be Murdered By - Side B, a “deluxe” edition to his latest studio album that’s more than long enough to qualify as a standalone release. It marks Eminem’s third consecutive surprise album after January’s Music to Be Murdered By and 2018’s Kamikaze. Unfortunately, the third time is not the charm for the 48-year-old rapper: In terms of quality and commercial performance, Eminem has finally exhausted his surprise album gimmick on Music to Be Murdered By - Side B.
Eminem’s latest effort contains all the hallmarks that listeners have come to expect from his late-career output: supersonic bars, self-conscious jabs at his critics, groan-inducing punchlines and politically incorrect insults that should have been left on the elementary school playground. (It only took Eminem 40-plus years to stop using homophobic slurs on his albums; perhaps he’ll stop using the R-word by the time he reaches 60.) Eminem’s post-hiatus catalog since 2009’s Relapse has been the definition of diminishing returns, and Music to Be Murdered By - Side B is no exception. He continues to rehash old beefs, enlist pop star features in pursuit of a “Love the Way You Lie”-caliber chart smash and construct increasingly elaborate rhyme schemes that are devoid of substance.
Despite being largely savaged by critics, Eminem had no incentive to change his approach. His albums continued to sell like hotcakes, and he and his fans—the original “stans”—created a successful, self-perpetuating cycle that consisted of releasing a chart-topping album, receiving tons of negative reviews for said album, then releasing another chart-topping album on which Eminem unleashed a torrent of disses at the critics who trashed his last chart-topping album. It has proven a historically lucrative business strategy: Music to Be Murdered By debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, making Eminem the only artist in history to launch 10 consecutive albums atop the chart.
With Music to Be Murdered By - Side B, it looks like Eminem’s winning streak will finally come to an end. The collection is projected to debut at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 behind Taylor Swift’s Evermore (which will spend a second week atop the chart) and Paul McCartney’s new McCartney III, according to HITS Daily Double. The album is on track to move 70,000-80,000 equivalent units, with 25,000-30,000 coming from pure sales.
The good news for Eminem is that, because Music to Be Murdered By - Side B is billed as a deluxe edition and not a new studio album, it technically won’t ruin his No. 1 debut streak. Still, it’s a dismal first-week haul compared to Music to Be Murdered By (279,000 units), which itself was a substantial dip from Kamikaze (434,000 units).
The reasons for Music to Be Murdered By - Side B’s lackluster projected debut are manifold. For starters, the album’s early streaming performance has been, frankly, abysmal. “Gnat” was the highest-debuting track on the global Spotify chart on Friday, reaching No. 56 with a meager 1.7 million streams. It climbed to No. 32 on the U.S. chart with just 681,000 streams. By comparison, Music to Be Murdered By’s “Godzilla” debuted at No. 2 on the U.S. Spotify chart in January with 2.573 million streams and No. 4 on the global chart with 5.773 million streams. The figures look even worse when compared to other chart-toppers like Swift, whose “Willow” debuted at No. 1 on the global Spotify chart with 7.268 million streams and the U.S. chart with 3.645 million streams.
Eminem will also suffer under Billboard’s updated merchandise and ticket bundle rules, which no longer count albums bundled with merchandise or concert tickets into the album or song charts unless they are promoted as an add-on to those purchases. Additionally, physical albums or singles bundled with digital downloads can no longer be reported as digital sales, and the physical product must be shipped before it can be counted toward the charts. (For proof of the new rules’ impact, look no further than Swift’s Evermore, which just debuted with 329,000 units versus Folklore’s 846,000.) Eminem, who is a holdover from the CD era and who continues to dominate in physical sales, can no longer capitalize off album/merch bundles, which juiced the sales of his last two albums. Meanwhile, the Music to Be Murdered By - Side B deluxe red vinyl could take up to nine months to ship, according to the rapper’s website, which means Billboard may not count those sales for a long time.
Of course, it’s natural for a deluxe edition of an album to sell less than its original version, as it is for an album released shortly after its predecessor. (See again Swift’s Evermore.) But there is still precedent for deluxe-edition albums, particularly rap albums, performing similarly well to their original versions. In March, Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake topped the Billboard 200 with 288,000 units; its “deluxe edition,” Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World 2 (which contained 14 new songs), topped the chart the following week with 247,000 units.
The most likely explanation for Music to Be Murdered By - Side B’s underwhelming performance is that casual listeners simply have no interest in or desire for a new Eminem album—especially not a surprise album. With Kamikaze—and, to a lesser extent, Music to Be Murdered By—Eminem used the element of surprise to dominate the news and social media for 24 to 48 hours before any negative reviews could emerge. But after three surprise releases in a row, the subversive strategy has become a tired shtick.
Stans will continue to devour Eminem’s new music, but casual listeners will roll their eyes and tune out, especially when he confusingly labels his new songs a “deluxe edition” of an old album and stuffs them with the same cringeworthy punchlines and instantly dated references. (The only thing worse than Eminem making COVID-19 puns in 2020 will be revisiting those puns in 2022.) With Music to Be Murdered By - Side B, the only victim Eminem can claim is the dead horse he has thoroughly beaten.
