Every Eminem Album, Ranked
Eminem staged the death of his Slim Shady alter ego on a 2024 album, 25 years after the character made him a star; rank each studio album in that stretch. Each Eminem-credited studio album, however weak, is on the ballot bar Infinite (1996): Spotify has its title song as a single, no album, the one reason it's missing. Links target Spotify's oldest copy whose songs match the original one for one by name, otherwise its oldest complete copy, though one ListWorld links keeps its link; entries name additions or drops, not retitlings. EPs, compilations and other acts' records (soundtracks, D12, Bad Meets Evil) stay out, and reissues or deluxe and anniversary sets ride on the parent album unless songs cut for them, not leftovers, were sold separately in album or EP form. Seven rankings (Louder, Complex, RESPECT., REVOLT, Stereogum, WhatCulture, HotNewHipHop) do the sorting: a record placed third or better by 3 or more published after it, records outside this gate ignored, takes the upper tier, others the lower, votes order both, each entry giving count, total and printed positions.
Eminem — The Eminem Show (2002) is #1 on “Every Eminem Album, Ranked”.
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Eminem — The Eminem Show (2002)
Bootlegs were already circulating, so Interscope pulled the release forward from the planned June 4 into late May 2002, after sessions that ran from February 2001 to April 2002 in Burbank, Ferndale and his own Detroit house. Till I Collapse, featuring Nate Dogg, sits third from the end. Complex ranks the album first, as does RESPECT., and only Stereogum, at fourth, keeps it outside the first three, so the count stands at 6 of 7 eligible.
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Eminem — The Slim Shady LP (1999)
Cut at Studio 8 on 8 Mile Road in Ferndale, Michigan, it came out on February 23, 1999, and its success took him from underground rapper to celebrity. My Name Is rides a Labi Siffre sample, from I Got The..., and got him onto the Hot 100 for the first time. Louder, REVOLT, Stereogum and HotNewHipHop place the album second and WhatCulture fourth, its lowest, for 6 top-three finishes out of 7 eligible rankings.
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Eminem — The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
Executives heard no lead single on the finished record, so he went back in and wrote The Way I Am, which he also produced, explaining that he couldn't give them another My Name Is. HotNewHipHop, Stereogum, REVOLT and Louder put the album first while RESPECT., like Complex, has it second, 7 of 7 inside a top three, and the linked copy carries the original 18 tracks plus a bonus 19th, The Kids.
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Eminem — The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013)
Rick Rubin shares the executive producer credit with Dr. Dre and produced Berzerk, and US sales past 792,000 in the album's opening week made it a Billboard 200 chart-topper on arrival. Stereogum and WhatCulture have the record third, 2 top-three places from 6 eligible rankings, with RESPECT., posted on the eve of release, ruled out, and the 7:33 Evil Twin - Skit closes it.
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Eminem — Kamikaze (2018)
No announcement came before it appeared on August 31, 2018, eight months after his previous album, and much of it hits back at critics and other rappers. The cover is a nod to the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill, and Venom - Music From The Motion Picture, promoted with the film's logo, closes it. Complex prints the album fifth, its best placing, and with RESPECT., WhatCulture and HotNewHipHop all running earlier, the tally reads 0 from 4.
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Eminem — Recovery (2010)
It began as Relapse 2 until a sequel stopped making sense to him, and a majority of its producers came from outside. Not Afraid became the sixteenth song to debut atop the Hot 100, and per the IFPI the album was 2010's best seller worldwide. Louder and REVOLT print the record fourth while Complex has it twelfth, a top-three count of 0 of 7, and a hidden track listed as Untitled ends it.
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Eminem — Relapse (2009)
Coming out of the hiatus that followed Encore, it has Déjà Vu, about his 2007 overdose, and closes on Underground, while the accents he raps in caused arguments on release. RESPECT., like HotNewHipHop, slots the record fourth while Louder has it twelfth and last, so its count reads 0 of 7, with fourth its best showing anywhere.
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Eminem — The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) (2024)
Ahead of release he put out a mock Unsolved Mysteries segment asking who killed Slim Shady, and the record plays out as a fight between Eminem and that alter ego. Houdini, the lead single, samples the Steve Miller Band's Abracadabra, and Somebody Save Me closes the 19-track run. Just Louder and Complex postdate the album, and with their ninth and eighth places the record scores 0 of 2.
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Eminem — Encore (2004)
Leaks moved the release up from November 16 to November 12, 2004, and he later said he recorded it toward the height of his addiction. Mosh urged listeners to vote George W. Bush out that year, and Encore/Curtains Down ends with a skit in which he turns a gun on his audience. The album's spot is sixth at HotNewHipHop and RESPECT., tenth and last at Stereogum, 0 of 7 in all.
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Eminem — Music to Be Murdered By (2020)
Hitchcock's voice runs through it: the title is borrowed from a 1958 album, Alfred Hitchcock Presents Music to Be Murdered By, and he is sampled on the interludes, Alfred - Outro included. It dropped without notice on January 17, 2020, and Godzilla was Juice WRLD's first posthumous release. REVOLT prints the album seventh, Louder tenth and Complex thirteenth, which is 0 of 3, every ranking that came later.
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Eminem — Revival (2017)
Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keys and Pink are among the guests, and Remind Me samples Joan Jett and the Blackhearts' I Love Rock 'n' Roll. The last three songs, ending on Arose, turn to his personal life. Of the 5 rankings published after the album, 0 place it top three: WhatCulture's sixth is the highest any of them goes, and Complex prints it nineteenth.
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