Eminem points the way in hip-hop sales

Eminem’s latest album is serving as a barometer on several fronts for the Detroit rapper, and for rap in general.

Not only is the music industry watching to see if he can post another first-week sales figure in excess of 1 million copies, but many are also eager to see whether “Encore” can give Eminem his fifth album in a row to reach the 5 million sales mark. A question further down the road is whether it will make him the first artist to place three albums among the Top 20 bestsellers of the Nielsen SoundScan era, an achievement requiring sales above 9 million copies in the United States.

Eminem made it with his 2002 album, “The Eminem Show,” (9.3 million) and 2000’s “The Marshall Mathers LP” (9.7 million). Sales of his 1999 debut album, “The Slim Shady LP,” stands at 4.9 million, while the soundtrack to the quasi-autobiographical 2002 film “8 Mile” is slightly behind that at 4.7 million.

“Encore” went on sale ahead of schedule to combat piracy and Internet downloading and sold 711,000 copies in barely half a week in stores, easily debuting at No. 1 nationally. It’s expected to sell 700,000 to 800,000 additional copies this week.

An anticipated 10-day total of 1.4 million to 1.5 million is “a little bit slower” than what “The Eminem Show” did over roughly the same period in 2002, says Billboard’s director of charts, Geoff Mayfield.

Mayfield is optimistic about “Encore” joining Eminem’s albums that have sold 5 million or more. “It shipped very well -- at least 3.75 million units,” he says. “You don’t hear that number every day, especially in this climate. Retailers don’t want more stock than they can sell, so you don’t get to that number without authentic orders. They seem to have very high confidence in this record selling through.”

But, Mayfield adds, “when you talk about 9 million, there are not a whole lot of records that have done that.”

Only three acts besides Eminem have two albums in the Nielsen SoundScan all-time Top 20: Celine Dion, the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.

Perhaps more significant than the simple fact that Eminem has connected strongly with consumers more than once is that he’s provided additional evidence that rap as a genre can do so.

“For a long, long time, hip-hop had a real short shelf life,” Mayfield says. “Jay-Z helped break that, and before that Dr. Dre helped break that. Eminem looks to have the potential to be a multi-platinum artist over several years, not just for a quick span.

“I’ve often said it’s hard to stay hip in hip-hop,” he added, “but we’ve now had a few who have stayed incredibly relevant, and that’s a lot more than we used to expect.”

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-- Randy Lewis