It’s not often that you hear comparisons or even sheer utterances of Eminem, rap’s bad boy, and the Beatles, the greatest pop band of all time, in the same sentence. But when it comes to selling records, the man from Detroit and the boys from Liverpool are goliaths at the top of the food chain.
Per USA Today (via Prefix Magazine), we’ve learned that the battle for the king of the 2000’s album sales is pretty neck and neck. Since 2000, Eminem has sold 32 million albums; the Beatles, despite having been broken up since 1970, have sold 28 million. The march to the mountain peak ends December 31st.
And sports fans, we might be in for one heck of a fight. With the Beatles box sets selling at a brisk pace, not to mention their Rock Band game hyping further album sales, Eminem could find himself out for the count. Bit with Relapse 2 maybe possibly hitting stores November 17th, it’s anyone’s ball game.
“This isn’t a one-week project,” says Keith Caulfield, Billboard‘s chart analyst, pointing to the inevitable holiday shopping boom. “Is it conceivable they (The Beatles) could catch up? Yes. I’m confident they’ll put up a good fight.”
According to Undercover, names rounding out the top 20 of the 21st century include Johnny Cash at No. 18 with 17,860,000, Metallica at No. 14 with 18,490,000 and Tim McGraw at No. 3 with 24,189,000. As always, we’ll have more on this once the dust actually settles.
Unfortunately, Axl did not make the cut.
