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.
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.
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