Eminem's 'The Marshall Mathers LP' sells 1.76M first week — the fastest-selling rap album ever

Why it matters

1,760,049 copies. That is the first-week sales number for The Marshall Mathers LP, reported by Billboard on May 30, 2000. The number broke the all-time first-week record for a solo album in any genre. It also broke the first-week rap-album record, which had previously been held by Snoop Doggystyle (806,000 in 1993). The 1.76 million number stood as the rap-album first-week benchmark for almost five years, until 50 Cent's The Massacre in March 2005 sold 1.14 million in its first week and Eminem's own Encore from late 2004 had peaked at 711,000. (50's number was lower, but the album-sales era was already collapsing under early digital piracy.) What Marshall Mathers' first week actually means is that a rap album, in May 2000, was the biggest album in America by a wide margin, in a week when the rest of the genre was Big Tymers and No Limit and Bad Boy's late period. You should let that one sit. Most genres do not crown their biggest commercial moment with their most provocative artist. Rap did. The numbers prove it.