“RAP GOD” by EMINEM Has Gotten Over 1B YOUTUBE VIEWS

Marshall “Eminem” Mathers is undoubtedly one of the biggest names in rap not just in the US but around the world. While initially notorious and infamous for his foul-mouthed lyrics he nevertheless cemented himself as a major music artist, evidenced by “Lose Yourself” winning a Best Original Song Academy Award in 2003. Eminem could not perform the song at Oscar Night then, but finally did so in the 90^th Awards earlier this month. His songs are also big hits in YouTube, if the recent 1-billion-view milestone of a music video of his, the third to do so, is any indication.

CNN tells us that Eminem has a third music video of one of his rap songs pass 1 billion views on YouTube last week. Said song is “Rap God,” a selection from his “Marshall Mathers LP 2” studio album that was released in 2013. It thus took roughly over six years to reach the 1-billion viewing milestone on the video sharing giant, helped along by Mathers himself on Friday, February 14, when he shared a clip from the video on his official Twitter and Instagram accounts. He commented, paraphrasing one of his lines, "'Everybody loves to root for a nuisance' #RapGod countdown to 1 billion."

“Rap God” is considered to be one of Eminem’s most complex raps, the artist delivering his lines in rapid-fire staccato where he puts down his rapping rivals while boosting himself as the titular Rap God, a nickname many fans would declare to befit him. The song actually has a Guinness World Record for “Most Words in a Hit Single,” by count 1,560 individual words. It follows “Not Afraid” and Mathers’ collaboration with Rihanna “Love the Way You Lie” in breaking 1 billion YouTube views, a milestone made obsolete in 2012 by PSY’s “Gangnam Style,” the first song to do so.

Eminem’s third view-breaker on YouTube is, however, not the first over-1-billion view rap song music video. That achievement belongs to Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth, when their own song “See You Again” crossed the milestone in 2015. The song was helped along by the fact that it featured in the movie soundtrack of “Fast and Furious 7,” and dedicated to the memory of one of its lead stars Paul Walker, who died during its production.

Image courtesy of XXL Mag