Eminem is set to debut with first week sales of 300,000 units with his new album “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce),” Hits Daily Double reports, which would likely net him a No. 1 album, ending Taylor Swift’s 12-week run at the top of the charts.
Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” has been No. 1 since it was released in April, and it has blocked new albums from Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish and more from reaching the top spot. This week’s chart sees Swift (163K) edging out the latest from Zach Bryan, “The Great American Bar Scene” (137K).
Should it reach the top, “The Death of Slim Shady” would mark Eminem’s 11th No. 1 album. Every studio album he’s released since 2000’s “The Marshall Mathers LP” has hit No. 1, and he also hit No. 1 with his 2005 greatest hits set, “Curtain Call.” (The soundtrack to 2002’s “8 Mile” also made it to No. 1, but that’s not credited as an Eminem album.)
Em’s second greatest hits collection, 2022’s “Curtain Call 2,” reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200, and his 2014 Shady Records compilation “Shady XV” hit No. 3. “Eminem Presents: The Re-Up,” another Shady Records comp, peaked at No. 2 in 2006.
“Music to Be Murdered By — Side B,” the companion album to his 2020 set “Music to Be Murdered By,” arrived at No. 3 on the chart. Eminem’s 1999 major label debut album, “The Slim Shady LP,” peaked at No. 2, kept from the top spot by TLC’s “FanMail.”
“The Death of Slim Shady” was released Friday. The 19-song set is a concept album that finds Eminem wrestling with his alter ego, Slim Shady, as well as Gen Z, cancel culture and his past as an artist. It features guest spots from Big Sean and BabyTron (on the album’s second single, “Tobey”), Jelly Roll (“Somebody Save Me”), Skylar Grey (“Temporary”) and even WDIV-TV (Local 4) anchor Devin Scillian, who reads a fictional news story about Eminem on the track “Breaking News.”
“The Death of Slim Shady” is Eminem’s first ablum since 2017’s “Revival” to receive a traditional promotional rollout; 2018’s “Kamikaze” and the dual 2020 “Music to Be Murdered By” sets were all surprise-released.
“Houdini,” the album’s first single, was released in May and debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart.
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