Eminem makes history as Slim Shady LP surpasses 1 billion streams

30 December 2021, 18:20 | Updated: 30 December 2021, 18:46

Photo of EMINEM in 1999 — Eminem's 1999 album The Slim Shady LP surpasses 1 billion streams. Picture: Michel Linssen/Redferns/Getty

By Jenny Mensah

The US rapper has reached the feat on Spotify, with The Slim Shady LP becoming his eleventh record to do so on the streaming platform.

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Eminem has hit another huge digital listening milestone.

The US rapper's iconic album The Slim Shady LP may have been released before the turn of the millennium when there was no such thing as Spotify, but it has just surpassed a billion streams on the streaming platform.

The news makes the rapper the first artist with 11 albums to achieve the feat, with his greatest hits album Curtain Call: The Hits (2005) also being included in the tally.

And the rapper - whose real name is Marshall Mathers - could have broken the record with an even bigger lead, but his 1996 debut album Infinite (his only record not to achieve 1 billion streams) isn't actually available on Spotify.

The Slim Shady LP artwork. Picture: Press

The Slim Shady LP - which was first released on 23rd February 1999 - was Eminem's second studio album.

It included singles My Name Is, Guilty Conscience, 97 Bonnie & Clyde, Role Model and received huge commercial and critical acclaim.

The album won the 2000 GRAMMY Awards Best Rap Album, at the 2000 Grammy Awards and hit single My Name Is won the GRAMMY for Best Rap Solo Performance.

By 2000, The Slim Shady LP was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The controversial album and its equally controversial artwork sees Eminem stand with his daughter Hailie while a model, who is supposed to represent his ex Kim, poses lifelessly in the boot of a car.