'Trash list': Eminem fans berate Billboard's song ranking of 'The Death of Slim Shady' album

Eminem dropped his 12th studio album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) on July 12, 2024. The album opened to mixed reviews from the critics, but the fans lapped up the project from the moment the first single "Houdini" dropped on May 31. TDOSS debuted at number 1 on the US Billboard 200 with 281,000 album-equivalent units in the first week.

On the day of its release, Billboard compiled a list of all the songs, ranking them from worst to best. However, their list didn’t get much attention until it was recently posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. Upon going through the rankings, Stans were enraged, and they expressed their frustration in response to the post.

Billboard deemed the Dr. Dre-produced track "Lucifer" to be the worst song on the album, putting it at number 16. The list was followed by "Evil," "Road Rage," "Head Honcho," featuring EZ Mil, "Brand New Dance," "Bad One," "Trouble," "Habits," "Tobey," featuring Big Sean and BabyTron, "Houdini," "Antichrist," "Renaissance," "Guilty Conscience 2," "Temporary," featuring Skylar Grey, "Fuel," featuring J.I.D, and "Somebody Save Me," featuring Jelly Roll, in order.

Fans believe that the list was compiled by someone who had no idea what the album was about. One fan wrote, “Maybe hand ur acc to someone who actually listens to hip hop?” Another fan echoed a similar sentiment, taking a dig at the lack of understanding about the album and the theme Eminem was trying to execute.

“Hang it up, man. Stay away from hip-hop, especially Eminem's work. Go rank those fruity rnb and pop albums. This is clearly not for you,” the fan wrote. The biggest issue that fans saw with the songs' ranking was the fact that both the songs with deep personal connections with Eminem were ranked in the top three.

This indicated that the overall theme of the album was ignored during the selection. Before putting the album out, Eminem had informed his listeners that it was a “conceptual album.” Eminem posted, “Public service announcement: the 'death of slim shady' is a conceptual album, therefore, if you listen to songs out of order they might not make sense. Enjoy.”

Stans believe that the instruction was ignored by Billboard, which led to the terrible ranking of songs. Tracks like "Evil" and "Lucifer" were carefully placed on the album, allowing Eminem to play along with the overall theme. However, they were ranked at the bottom of the list, indicating that the ranking was done solely on audible experience and not how well crafted they were.

One fan went as far as saying it was a “trash list. Might be one of the worst ones” ever.

Since its release, the album has held its position in the eyes of fans. In September 2024, TDOSS surpassed the 1 billion streams mark on Spotify. On the 13th of the same month, Eminem released Expanded Mourner's Edition of the album with three new tracks and a skit.