This man was really MJ level of fame in 2002, huge Star with 8 Mile movie and The Eminem Show and Marshall Mathers LP were getting 10s of millions of sales

There’s literally a sign that said “Eminem is GOD” it was really that serious

And then the d*** addiction got worse and he dropped Encore, which was only successful because of his fame off of The Eminem Show.

Imagine if he went a different route. He could’ve easily been on a Drake type run where he ran the charts effortlessly and dominated the 2000s, he would have definitely been bigger than Kanye and Wayne at their popularity primes (07 and 08)

And The Eminem Show was less edgy than his previous two releases, he was sort of putting on a cleaner and more mature image with the whole 8 mile thing.

Ktt2 told me eminem doesnt have fans

Eminem had a huge peak from 99-03. It was like Beatlemania.

I didn't get to fully experience it but I know it was huge. Eminem is still more famous than most rappers overseas too.

Just goes to show you popularity doesn’t equal good music

Inb4 some suburban white/asian says only white fans

Yes ur brothers and sisters were fans and you can see black people in the crowd as well

Proof dying really f***ed Em up

Its sad asf

"This man was really MJ level of fame in 2002"

He kinda was as was 50 Cent the following year.

MJ, of course, is way bigger of an icon overall but for that period of time, Eminem was the new MJ in a way.

Yeah true Eminem could have had a much more dominant hold on the later half of the 2000s but at the same time he still was selling more than everyone else even Drake for a good while

His sales didnt even see a real decline until Revival and even then he was still doing big numbers in general

nah, he was just on the "spotlight" because he kept using popstars as a mean to get famous

its no wonder someone from MTV would give that quote, they used to "depend" on him for views during that time

Dude dismantled his own career and he's the most made fun of disgraced former legend in music now, tough life

true tbh

if em never did d**** after 8 mile he couldve ran s*** for a solid 10 years like drake

Lose Yourself a Diamond Single and stayed #1 on the charts for 12 weeks

TES has sold 27 Million WW so it’s not a huge stretch

Obviously nobody will be AS big as MJ but he’s certainly closer than most artists

you do realize that in MJ times... people BOUGHT the albums?

Other than Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, and Pink Floyd, there is nobody in Michael's orbit

I think Em only had 2 choices. Fall off or be cancelled. No way 2002 Em would survive the media today.

and what did they do in 2002 ... ?

people bought albums in 2002 too, you f***ing idiot

True. Early 2000's still in the prime of album sales.

dont ever put mj and em in the same sentence

no stop this

Anytime I see one of you barnacle heads say this mean you really have no idea how big mj truly was

How did he fumble, when he sold 1 million first week pure before streaming was even a thing lol, still no rapper has even managed to come close

iTunes Store wasn't a thing til 03 lol

Limewire got popping in 05.

'02-'03 was like the sendoff for people buying albums

The Beatles?