Eminem: Not Quite As Popular As Flo Rida, But Still Setting Records

noah | February 11, 2009 3:00 am

Eminem’s “Crack A Bottle” sold 418,000 downloads in its first week at digital-music stores, setting a record for first-week download sales and propelling itself to No. 1 on this week’s Hot 100. That total is also third on the all-time list of single-week sales, behind Lady Ga Ga’s “Just Dance” (which moved 419,000 copies for the Jan. 10 chart week) and Flo Rida‘s “Low” (which sold 467,000 copies the week of Jan. 12, 2008). Those are nice numbers for the long-absent Slim Shady, sure, but if the current iTunes Store top 10 is a bellwether, his record could be short-lived—thanks to the combined power of Flo Rida, Dr. Luke, oral sex, and Pete Burns.

Here’s the iTunes Store’s current top 10:

Flo Rida’s new hit, “Right Round”—which is No. 2 on Amazon MP3—first surfaced last month, when it was credited to Flo and “Katy Perry.” The track, which is produced by the “My Life Would Suck Without You”/”I Kissed A Girl” mastermind Dr. Luke, is produced in such a way that amplifies all the innuendo in Dead Or Alive‘s 1985 hit “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” to ear-splitting levels. So it’s certainly annoying enough to include Perry on it, the singer barking her way through the hook is actually named Kesha. Listen to it below.

So while the other singles from Flo’s debut album Mail On Sunday—the wan Timbaland production “Elevator” and the even less memorable “In The Ayer”—sort of fizzled, the pre-release single from Flo’s R.O.O.T.S., which comes out in April, is burning up the 99-cent stores’ charts. Is this yet another example of the iTunes era turning artists from one-hit wonders to one-hit-before-the-album-drops wonders? Or are iTunes buyers just completely powerless when faced with being walked upon by a stompy Dr. Luke beat?

Eminem’s “Bottle” Breaks Digital Record [Billboard] FLO RIDA – RIGHT ROUND 2009 NEW HOT HQ [Dailymotion]