Posted by Even Eminem has moments of apparent disbelief, when he looks back on his career and marvels at how far he’s come. On Monday (January 10), Slim Shady announced he’d just hit over 50 million YouTube subscribers and commemorated the occasion with a tweet.
Alongside a montage of some of Eminem’s most popular videos, he revisited some of his lyrics from the 2002 Eminem Show single “Sing For The Moment” and wrote in the caption, “‘Now how the fuck did this metamorphosis happen? From standin’ on corners and porches just rappin.’ 50 million subscribers and counting.” The text across the 46-second clip reads, “Over 50 million YouTube subscribers. Thanks for watching!”
"Now how the fuck did this metamorphosis happen? From standin' on corners and porches just rappin'" ? 50 million subscribers and counting @youtube @youtubemusic pic.twitter.com/TfaCico3E0
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) January 10, 2022
Of course, Eminem has smashed YouTube records before. In 2018, at the height of Slim Shady’s highly publicized beef with Machine Gun Kelly, Eminem earned the streaming giant’s biggest Hip Hop video debut and its third biggest overall debut in YouTube history with “Killshot,” his second scathing diss track in the MGK battle.
Last November, the 2002 single “Without Me” crossed the one billion views mark and Shady’s team celebrated by releasing a new HD version of the video. Just nine months prior, “Rap God” also hit over one billion views, his third video to do so.
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Eminem is one of the most successful musical acts of all time. As of 2018, he’s sold over 47.4 million albums and 107.5 million singles in the U.S. alone and another 220 million records globally. Judging by multiple interviews he’s done in the past, Eminem never imagined this type of success, and he’s had to adjust to being a celebrity.
“When I first got in the game, I didn’t understand a lot of shit,” Eminem told LL COOL J in December 2021.” If you were walking outside the venue outside the show and took some pictures, there’s always going to be someone you’re not going to get to. It was my first experience with it. I didn’t understand it. I think it was a combination of what I was going through at that time and experiencing fame for the first time.”