Guess who’s back? Eminem is storming to the top of the charts again

Houdini, Eminem’s 62nd single, was released last Friday. Reviews ranged from awful to mediocre. The headline in the New York Times said, “Eminem loses the magic,” while Stereogum chose a more direct title, “Eminem’s New Song ‘Houdini’ Is Really, Really Bad,” criticizing everything from the “stilted” rapping to a satirical joke about the incident in which fellow rapper Tory Lanez shot Megan Thee Stallion in the foot.

The public responded in the exact opposite way. After one week, it is the UK’s most streamed song and is sure to become Eminem’s eleventh UK number one. In addition to being his best-selling single in 22 years, it is also expected to surpass Taylor Swift as the fastest-selling single in the UK this year.

 Whatever your opinion of the song, it’s obvious why Houdini has become popular. Based on an instantly recognizable sample from Steve Miller Band’s Abracadabra, it is extremely commercial. Furthermore, it capitalizes on the current trend of early 2000s musical nostalgia, which has been expressed in pop-punk’s resurgence and the growth in rap songs that sample pop and R&B records from the same era. Houdini, more than anything Eminem has released recently, takes listeners back to the artist’s formative years.