Slim Shady has defeated the Swifties.
Eminem’s The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) debuts atop The Billboard 200 today, giving the Detroit rapper his 11th No. 1 album. It ends the 12-week reign of Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, leaving her a week short of tying a nearly 50-year-old record. Only Stevie Wonder’s Grammy-winning classic Songs in the Key of Life spent more weeks on top (13) after debuting at No. 1. It later added a 14th nonconsecutive week.
Eminem was the first artist to score 10 straight No. 1-debuting albums. The Death of Slim Shady is the 15-time Grammy winner’s first album since Music to Be Murdered By, which streeted just before the Covid lockdown. The new set’s lead single, “Houdini,” reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The rapper, who won a Best Song Oscar in 2003 for “Lose Yourself” from the movie 8 Mile, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
Tortured Poets Department is Swift’s 10th consecutive No. 1 studio album — a streak that began with 2008’s Fearless. She’s also had four chart-topped re-recorded albums, and last year’s Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is the top-grossing concert movie of all time, with $261.7 million worldwide.
Swift, who this year became the first act to score four Album of the Year Grammys, will be eligible for the Rock Hall in the early 2030s.