Eminem is adding more feats to his resumé.
The Detroit rapper’s record “Rap God” passed 1 billion views on YouTube on Sunday (Feb. 16), according to XXL. Em revealed that he was close to hitting a billion on Twitter Friday (Feb. 14), tweeting, “‘Everybody loves to root for a nuisance’ #RapGod countdown to 1 billion- http://rapgod.eminem.com.”
Em released the video back in 2013.
Eminem and Wiz Khalifa are the only rappers to amass 1 billion views on YouTube. Wiz’s “See You Again” video, which was released in 2015, has over 4 billion views.
Eminem has also seen a spike in sales recently, thanks to his “Lose Yourself” performance at the Oscars. According to Billboard, the song sold 4,000 downloads in the U.S. on Feb. 9, which was a 1,894% increase in sales. His entire catalogue sold 7,000 downloads, further increasing his sales by 307%.
The rapper won an Oscar for Best Original Song for “Lose Yourself,” which appeared in his 2002 film, 8 Mile. However, he did not attend the Oscars at the time, so he did not receive his award. Em hit the stage 17 years later and performed the record.
“Look, if you had another shot, another opportunity… Thanks for having me @TheAcademy. Sorry it took me 18 years to get here,” he said after his performance.
Eminem’s surprise “Lose Yourself” performance had been in the works for some time, according to ET Online. “We talked about it with the Academy that Eminem, the fact that he never performed that song and it’s such an anthem, and it’s one everybody knows and it won the Oscar. Wouldn’t it be great to figure out a way to get him to come and do that?” said Robert Mills, Senior Vice President of Alternative Series, Specials and Late-Night Programming at ABC.
Mill continued, “It had to be the right time, it had to be in the right place in the show. This year the producers… had a relationship with Interscope, his label and really made it happened — and it surprised us up until a few days before because it really was keeping the circle tight so that nobody would ruin it.”