Credit
ArticleSeo Seongdeok (Music Critic)
DesignKim Minkyoung

The Billboard 200 has a new number one for the first time in three months: Eminem’s new album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce). This marks the rapper’s 11th number-one album and puts him in a four-way tie for the fifth-most number ones in Billboard 200 history alongside Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, and Ye. Rounding out the top of the list are Drake (13 albums), Jay-Z and Taylor Swift (14 each), and the Beatles (19). Eminem’s also now top of the Artist 100 for the fifth time.
The Death of Slim Shady tallied up 280,000 units in its first week, the most of any rap album released this year. 165,000 of those units came from 220 million streams of the album, while sales made up 114,000 units, placing it at number one on Top Streaming Albums and number two on Top Album Sales. Notably, physical copies of the album aren’t yet available, meaning all sales came from digital downloads. Eminem’s album has been downloaded more than any other album this year other than The Tortured Poets Department (Taylor Swift), which sold 274,000 copies in its first week. The Death of Slim Shady is actually available in fewer digital versions than we see with most albums these days. There were just two digital versions, available exclusively from the official website, made available for preorder on July 12, each with their own unique bonus track. A third version, again with an exclusive track, was released on the 17th, the following Wednesday, while the CD and vinyl versions are coming out on September 13 and October 25, respectively.
After a 12-week streak at number one, Taylor Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department has dropped to number four. That’s not surprising, as TTPD moved 82,000 units this week, including 70,000 from streams and 10,000 from sales—just half of the 163,000 total copies it moved the previous week. The Death of Slim Shady has been dominating the streaming charts, with most of its tracks immediately shooting up in Spotify’s US rankings. In seems that the promotional angle Swift took with TTPD was enough to hold back Billie Eilish’s and Zack Bryan’s new albums but has since lost some steam.
A lot of names showed up in the upper echelons of the chart this week that weren’t there before. Sitting at number two is ENHYPEN with ROMANCE: UNTOLD after selling 124,000 units. ROMANCE is the group’s fourth album to break into the top 10 and their best standing yet. With 117,000 of those units coming from album sales, not only is it a personal best for ENHYPEN, but they also narrowly beat out Eminem on Top Album Sales for number one. ROMANCE also logged an impressive 9.53 million streams, equivalent to 7,000 units. ENHYPEN moved to number two on the Artist 100, too, a high-water mark for the group since debuting on the chart back in 2021.
Other top-10 debuts include Clairo’s Charm at number eight with 47,000 units and Megan Moroney’s Am I Okay? at number nine with 43,000 units. Both albums represent their respective artists’ highest sales and chart positions to date.

“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey reclaims the throne from its number-two position last week, marking the start of its second reign after it was also number one two weeks ago. Shaboozey’s single is number two for streaming, airplay, and sales, all of which determine the outcome of the Hot 100. While streaming and sales saw a decline, it looks like radio play helped close the gap.
The most-streamed song this week is Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”—just like last week, when it was also number one overall. The radio crown, meanwhile, goes to Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” for the fourth straight week. Number one for sales is “You Missed” by Tom MacDonald, a surprise single that, as its cover art suggests, is a direct response to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. His choice of subject matter is no surprise, given the rapper has become well-known for his alt-right sympathies. Debuting at number two on the Bubbling Under Hot 100, the single just missed charting on the Hot 100 itself. An older song that came back and went viral following the incident with Trump is “Many Men (Wish Death),” a 50 Cent song from 2003 featuring the line, “Many men wish death upon me.” The song saw a spike in streams and jumped up to the 14th-most sold song this week, returning it to the charts.
All 16 of the music tracks from Eminem’s album The Death of Slim Shady (which excludes its three short skit tracks) entered the Hot 100. “Houdini,” the lead single, is at number 10, the second single, “Tobey,” at 24, and the track “Head Honcho” is number 72. Eminem is now the 19th artist to have had more than 100 songs on the chart: the 11th-most of all time, with 112 to his name. Leading the pack are Drake with 333 songs and Taylor Swift with 264.
Other songs debuting on the Hot 100 include “Did It First” by Ice Spice and Central Cee (number 62) and Katy Perry’s comeback single, “Woman’s World” (63).

Katy Perry is a legendary figure in the world of pop music. After first charting on the Hot 100 with her number-one single “I Kissed a Girl” for seven weeks straight back in 2008, five of the tracks off her 2010 album Teenage Dream all took turns at number one. No one other than Michael Jackson, during his Bad era, has ever achieved such a feat. She boasts nine number ones, her most recent being “Dark Horse” back in February 2014. Now, a full decade later, she’s released “Woman’s World.”
“Woman’s World” is Perry’s first new song since 2021. Per the title, the single would seem to be about women’s empowerment, but there’s been intense criticism surrounding it. Critics have called it a worn feminist anthem on self-sufficiency that fails to hit the mark entirely. More specifically, the lyrics are overly simplistic and even evoke outdated ways of thinking (“She’s a sister / She’s a mother”). The music video objectifies women, relies on excessive sexual imagery, and takes shots at men rather than celebrating women—all to the point where some question whether it’s actually hurting rather than helping. On top of the lyrics and video, it’s also been questioned whether the song can really be called empowering for women considering the fact that Dr. Luke was involved in both the writing and production and that he faced accusations from Kesha of abuse and sexual assault in a legal case that stretched on 10 years and was only settled out of court last year. Kesha released “JOYRIDE,” her first single after getting out of her recording contract and going independent, on Independence Day, one week before “Woman’s World” came out. Reviews of Perry’s song have been so merciless that it wouldn’t feel right repeating most of them here. One review describes her as being “stuck in 2016”—and that’s about as kind a thing any of her critics have said.
‘Woman’s World’ serves as the lead single for her upcoming album, 143, slated for release on September 20. We’ll have to wait and see if she’ll be able to return to her former glory once the album comes out this fall.

We’ve already heard about ENHYPEN’s debut at number two on both the Billboard 200 and Artist 100, so let’s turn our focus now to how other K-pop artists are performing on the charts.
aespa’s first album, Armageddon, debuted at number 25 on the Billboard 200 last week and now sits at 134.
Over on the Top Album Sales chart, ATEEZ’s GOLDEN HOUR: Part 1 is at number 11, aespa’s Armageddon is number 14, TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s minisode 3: TOMORROW is at 22, and NAYEON’s second mini album, NA, is at 36. minisode 3 has been on the chart the longest—for 15 weeks now.
On the Artist 100, ATEEZ is at number 48 and aespa at 70.
Finally, ENHYPEN is also on the Global 200: Their track “XO (Only If You Say Yes)” debuted at number 84. The group was also on the chart last year with “Bite Me,” which went to number 109, and “Sweet Venom,” which went to number 104—their previous all-time high.

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