Eminem has joined Spotify's Billions Club yet again, thanks to an assist from a century-old lullaby and TikTok.
The Detroit rapper's "Mockingbird" is his latest single to rack up 1 billion plays on the streaming service, a milestone the song passed Thursday. It's Eminem's seventh song to cross the digital threshold.
The midtempo 2004 track, from Eminem's fifth studio album "Encore," is built around a nursery rhyme loop from "Hush, Little Baby" and finds Em addressing his daughter Hailie Jade and his niece, Alaina.
The song exploded in popularity in the last six months, thanks to a viral trend on TikTok. According to the social network, videos tagged #mockingbird have been viewed 1.5 billion times, while videos tagged #mockingbirdeminem have tallied an additional 380 million views.
"Mockingbird" joins "Godzilla," which crossed 1 billion streams in October, as well as "The Real Slim Shady" and "Love the Way You Lie," which both hit the 1 billion mark in 2022. Em's "Lose Yourself," "'Till I Collapse" and "Without Me" had previously entered the Billions Club; his top song on the service is currently "Lose Yourself," with 1.6 billion streams.
Barring any new TikTok trends, Eminem's "Rap God" will likely be his next single hit to reach 1 billion streams, with less than 70 million plays to go before it reaches the marker. Em has three more songs — "Stan," "The Monster," and "Not Afraid" — with more than 800 million plays apiece.
According to Spotify, "Mockingbird" is the 372nd song to earn more than 1 billion streams on the service. Other songs that recently joined the Billions Club include R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion," Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" and Queen's "We Will Rock You."
Eminem is Spotify's 12th most listened to artist in the world, one spot below Drake. The Weeknd is No. 1, followed by Miley Cyrus (No. 2), Shakira (No. 3), Taylor Swift (No. 4) and Rihanna (No. 5). Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, David Guetta and SZA round out the top 10.
