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04 Nov 2022

Arctic Monkeys’ ‘The Car’ Zooms to No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums Chart

Arctic Monkeys return to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart dated Nov. 5 with the debut of their first album in four years, The Car.

In its first tracking week dated Oct. 21-27, The Car earned 38,000 equivalent album units, according to Luminate. The set is Arctic Monkeys’ third to top the chart, following 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino and 2013’s AM.

The Car also debuts at No. 1 on the Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums rankings. Concurrently, The Car starts at No. 6 on the all-genre Billboard 200, tying AM for the band’s best rank and marking its fourth top 10, dating to its first, the No. 7-peaking Favourite Worst Nightmare, in 2007.

Two songs from the new album reach the multi-metric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. “I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am” debuts at No. 36 (1.9 million official U.S. streams) and “There’d Better Be a Mirrorball” re-enters at No. 39 (1.7 million).

The tracks concurrently place at Nos. 22 and 25, respectively, on Hot Alternative Songs, and “Quite” is bubbling under Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart.

In all, the band has three songs on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and Hot Alternative Songs. “505,” the closing track on 2007’s Nightmare, is currently charting due to TikTok virality over the past few months, putting it at No. 10 on the latter and No. 13 on the former. In the Oct. 21-27 tracking week, “505” accumulated 4.7 million streams, down 3%.

04 Nov 2022

From Selena Gomez to Drake & 21 Savage, What’s Your Favorite New Release of the Week? Vote!

As spooky season gives way to the lead-up to Thanksgiving, we’re grateful, as always, for the new slate of music the end of each week brings. And Friday (Nov. 4) is no exception.

With tunes ranging from an emotional new Selena Gomez single to a collaborative album by Drake and 21 Savage, we want to know which new release will be soundtracking your first weekend of November.

The two rappers team up on Her Loss, a 16-track joint effort that features Travis Scott on “P—y & Millions” and takes a jab at Megan Thee Stallion in the lyrics of “Circo Loco,” on which Drake spits “This b—h lie ’bout getting shots, but she still a stallion. She don’t even get the joke, but she still smiling” over an interpolation of Daft Punk‘s “One More Time.”

Meanwhile, Gomez lays her mental anguish bare on “My Mind & Me,” the spare, vulnerable ballad that shares its title with her new Apple TV+ documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me, which delves into the pop star’s mental and physical health problems, from the cancelation of her 2016 Revival Tour to the present day.

Other new albums include Joji‘s Smithereens, a follow-up to 2020’s Nectar that contains singles “Glimpse of Us,” “Yukon (Interlude)” and “Die For You,” as well as the soundtrack to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever with contributions from Rihanna (“Lift Me Up”), Tems (“No Woman No Cry”), Burna Boy (“Alone”), Stormzy (“Interlude”) and others.

Plus, P!nk comes raring back with “Never Gonna Not Dance Again,” her most upbeat single since 2016’s “Just Like Fire,” and Lindsay Lohan finally cements Christmas classic “Jingle Bell Rock” into her discography with a post-Mean Girls cover from her upcoming Netflix holiday movie Falling for Christmas.

Vote for your favorite new release in Billboard‘s weekly poll below!

04 Nov 2022

Major Labels Win $46M Piracy Verdict Against Internet Service Provider

A federal jury in Texas decided Thursday (Nov. 3) that an internet service provider must pay the three major record labels and others more than $46 million in damages over music illegally downloaded by the company’s subscribers.

After a month-long trial, jurors found that Grande Communications was legally liable for copyright infringement committed by its users — and that it owed separate damages for each of the more than 1,400 songs that were pirated on the company’s network.

The case is one of several such cases filed by music companies against ISPs, aimed at forcing them to take more proactive steps to eliminate piracy on their networks. In 2019, the labels won a shocking $1 billion verdict against Cox Communications in a similar case.

Grande’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday on the verdict. Mitch Glazier, the head of the Recording Industry Association of America, called it “the latest validation by US courts and juries that unchecked online infringement will not stand.”

“The jury’s strong action here sends an important message to Internet Service Providers,” Glazier said. “Artists, songwriters, rightsholders, fans and legitimate services all depend upon a healthy digital music ecosystem that effectively protects creative works online.”

Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment teamed up to sue Grande in 2017, claiming the company had put itself on the hook by failing to take action against users who repeatedly pirated music.

“Defendants have been notified that their internet customers have engaged in more than one million infringements,” attorneys for the labels wrote at the time, but “have permitted repeat infringers to use the Grande service to continue to infringe plaintiffs’ copyrights without consequence.”

Internet service providers are typically not liable for individual infringements by their millions of users, thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s “safe harbor.” But starting in the mid-2010s, music companies began arguing that ISPs had forfeited that immunity by ignoring the DMCA’s requirement that they terminate “repeat infringers” from their network.

Starting with a landmark case filed by BMG Rights Management against Cox, those arguments have repeatedly proved successful. Major labels have filed similar cases against Cox, Charter, RCN and other ISPs in courts around the country, winning huge verdicts like the $1 billion award against Cox (which is currently pending on appeal).

Facing such a lawsuit, Grande fired back that the music industry was wrongfully trying to turn ISPs into “copyright police.” Grande said such claims should really be targeted at the actual people who steal music, but that record labels had stopped pursuing them “due to bad publicity.” That was a reference to a series of controversial lawsuits filed in the 2000s, including one that ordered a Boston college student to pay $675,000 for pirating just 30 songs.

But the federal judge overseeing the case denied Grande’s motions and sent the case to trial, which kicked off last month. Following Thursday’s verdict, the company can appeal the ruling — first by asking the judge to overturn it, and then by taking the case to a federal appeals court.

Read the verdict form here:

04 Nov 2022

HYBE Revenue Up 31% But Losing BTS Will Squeeze Margins in 2023

Even with BTS on hiatus, the band’s label and agency HYBE grew revenues 445.5 billion KRW ($308.7 at the Sept. 30 exchange rate) from July to September — up 30.6% from the year-prior period, according to the company’s third-quarter earnings report released Thursday. But compared to second-quarter revenue of 512.2 billion KRW ($354.9 million), revenue was down 13%.

The “artist direct-involvement” segments of the business showed mixed results in the quarter. Music sales of 129.2 billion KRW ($89.5 million) were 0.4% year-over-year and 38.7% lower than the previous quarter. Concert revenue of 47.2 billion KRW ($32.7 million) was a vast improvement over zero in the third quarter of 2021 but lower than the first and second quarters. Revenues from ads, appearances and management fell 11.7% year-over-year to 29.8 billion KRW ($20.2 million).

HYBE saw better performance from its “artist indirect-involvement” segments that are less dependent on the timing of music releases and tour dates. Merchandising and licensing revenue grew 49.5% year-over-year to 144.7 billion KRW ($100.3 million). Contents revenue climbed 22.9% to 107.2 billion KRW ($74.3 million). And fan club revenue improved 27.5% to 17.3 billion KRW ($12 million). 

Though the first nine months of the year, HYBE’s revenue improved 55.7% year-over-year to 1.24 trillion KRW ($859.2 million) and its operating profit increased 59.% to 185.9 billion KRW ($128.8 million). Operating margin improved from 14.6% to 15%. 

Despite the impressive growth, HYBE is facing a dilemma. The company is without its biggest artist, BTS, after members went on hiatus earlier this year and will soon face mandatory military service in Korea. Losing its cash cow — until “around 2025,” according to an Oct. 17 letter to shareholders from CEO Park Ji-won — leaves Hybe with a tricky balancing act: In the absence of BTS new music and tours, the company must make up the difference with individual members’ solo projects and a slate of successful and up-and-coming artists. With only a retrospective album, Proof, and no concert dates since April, BTS will still account for 60-65% of HYBE’s 2023 revenue, Park said during the earnings call. The remaining 35-40% of revenue will come from a growing roster of young artists and Ithaca Holdings, which HYBE acquired in 2021. 

In recent years, HYBE has diversified to reduce its reliance on BTS and build a more stable portfolio of companies and artists. Through its nine record labels in Korea, Japan and the U.S., HYBE has built a diversified roster that “helps us avoid a risk of concentrating on a certain country, a certain genre, and allows us to flexibly respond to the changing external situations and trends, thereby reducing the overall business risk,” said CFO Lee Kyung-Joon.

Ithica Holdings added both recorded music catalog (through Big Machine Label Group) and artist management clients (through SB Projects). Its founder, Scooter Braun, is now co-CEO of HYBE America. When asked by an analyst what synergies Ithaca provides more than a year after the merger, Park pointed to the newfound ease and efficiency of launching projects in the U.S. under Braun and co-CEO Lenzo Yoon. Also, Ithaca’s U.S. artists will join HYBE’s WeVerse social media platform in 2023, Park added, and HYBE is pursuing opportunities for the businesses of Ithaca artists Justin Bieber (Drew House) and Ariana Grande (R.E.M. Beauty) in Asia. 

In Korea, HYBE’s roster includes such up-and-coming artists as Le Sserafim, released through its Source Music imprint, whose first two albums have surpassed a combined 1 million units sold. NewJeans, released through HYBE’s ADOR imprint, has cumulative sales of 620,000 of its debut, self-titled EP released in August. Outside of Korea, HYBE is taking its model for discovering and developing new artists to the world’s two largest music markets. In Japan, HYBE Labels Japan is prepping the December launch of &Team, a nine-person, multinational boy band. In the U.S., HYBE has a joint venture with Universal Music Group’s Geffen Records and is developing a global girl group.

Hybe’s plan for global growth goes beyond its growing artist roster. A broad strategy termed by Park as “expansion through cooperation across boundaries” includes mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, equity investments and partnerships. “In order to expand the multi-label strategy, we’re considering various partnerships and investments with labels, catalog companies and talent management companies in overseas markets such as the U.S. and Japan, thereby strengthening our music I.P. portfolio,” Park said. “Through this approach, we except that greater synergies will be created with our superior solutions capability on concerts, merchandising and content to deliver greater results.” 

But in the short term, HYBE doesn’t have a quick solution for replacing BTS, and Park warned that declining BTS revenue — namely lost concert revenue — will put pressure on HYBE’s margins in 2023. That should change as groups such as Seventeen and Tomorrow X Together gain popularity and perform in larger venues. Compared to BTS, those artists’ margins are “not very different from the margin of BTS — other than concert revenue,” he said. “Therefore, as these groups continue to grow, I believe that margin will improve accordingly…starting from 2024.”

With HYBE’s share price down 64.9% year to date, mostly due to BTS’s hiatus, the company is considering additional ways to improve shareholder return, including share buybacks and dividends. Park said the company will reveal more about those plans in early 2023. 

04 Nov 2022

The ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Soundtrack Is Here: Stream It Now

Wakanda forever! The soundtrack to Black Panther‘s latest installment arrived on streaming on Friday (Nov. 4), ahead of the movie’s release in theaters across the globe on Nov. 11.

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The soundtrack — officially titled Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Music From and Inspired By — features a star-studded list of contributors, which was unveiled on Wednesday (Nov. 2). Tems, Fireboy DML, OG DAYV, Future, CKay, PinkPantheress, E-40 and more are on the OST, including Rihanna and her glimmering track, “Lift Me Up.”

“Lift Me Up” — the lead single from the soundtrack — is a tribute to the late Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, who died in 2020 at 43 after a battle with colon cancer. The song sees the pop star going the ballad route, accompanied by an acoustic guitar as she sings “Lift me up/ Hold me down/ Keep me close/ Safe and sound” on the chorus.

Following the Oct. 28 release of “Lift Me Up,” the track landed at No. 1 on Billboard’s relaunched Hot Trending Songs chart, powered by Twitter and sponsored by Xfinity Mobile, dated Nov. 5.

“Ryan [Cooler] and I talked about the importance of creating an immersive journey of sound and voice,” said the soundtrack’s co-producer, Ludwig Göransson, in a press release. “If we used a song in the film, we wanted it to be the entire song, and to be connected to the story. Thematically, we wanted to move the audience from grief to celebration. When you listen to the soundtrack, you can close your eyes and relive the experience of the movie. That was the intention.”

Listen to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Music From and Inspired By below.

04 Nov 2022

Iluminati Hotties’ Sarah Tudzin on the Importance Of Tapping Into The Independent Community

As part of our annual Indie Now package, we asked notable figures in the independent scene to offer advice on how to succeed in the industry. Below, Illuminati Hotties’ Sarah Tudzin talks to Billboard‘s Jason Lipshutz.

I think the label “DIY” is a little misleading — like you’re out on this island, fighting your way toward some sort of success or fame. To me, it’s really about doing it with all the people around you. The DIY community is what sends artists into the next levels of their careers, so it’s about surrounding yourself with people whom you believe in, who believe in you and want to support you. For me, that was mostly going to shows, meeting people who liked music that I liked [and] being open to new situations.

When you place yourself in a community, you learn about your own skill set and what other people are really good at — you realize you’re not an A-plus graphic designer but know how to record a band. Being able to produce and write with people comes naturally to me, and I like being around musicians, so it becomes this endless feedback loop of, “How can we help each other?”

Recording is more accessible than ever [right now] — if you have a laptop, or even an iPhone, you can do so much. It’s so easy to jump in with a limited set of tools, and the best way to get comfortable in that setting is to just do it over and over again: Practice, sit in your room with a guitar, record yourself, and listen back. Some of the music that I’m most blown away by is from high school kids with Ableton on their laptops, making crazy stuff. Or someone who went to a Goodwill, got a tape recorder and started there.

There’s a lot of talk on the internet now about the sustainability of the music industry — it’s hard to tour, and it’s often not fiscally rewarding while also taking a lot of time and energy. With live music feeling a little tenuous, I think DIY could come back stronger than ever because nothing beats a basement show. And that’s what will come back if middle-tier artists can’t afford to put on shows at a 500-capacity venue with sound and lights. We’ll get to go back to the basics of finding a warehouse and a community and feeding the scene.

This story will appear in the Nov. 5, 2022, issue of Billboard.

04 Nov 2022

Producer-Artist Pat Lok on Why You Need to Understand NFT Clauses (And What They Even Are)

As part of our annual Indie Now package, we asked notable figures in the independent scene to offer advice on how to succeed in the industry. Below, electronic producer/digital artist Pat Lok talks to Billboard’s Katie Bain.

I was lucky enough to write an NFT clause into an indie single deal of mine back in February 2021, via the Australian label Club Sweat [a subsidiary of Sydney-based record label Sweat It Out]. Verbatim, the contract said, “Licensers shall retain exclusive rights to create and exploit NFTs in connection with license masters.” I actually did exploit that for my Alaska drop, a collaboration with Party Pupils, on [NFT marketplace] Catalog in October 2021.

[These clauses] allow you to be versatile in a way that’s reminiscent of the SoundCloud and Hype Machine era, where the energy was, “Who knows what we’re going to do today?” You can talk to your audience and get them excited about something you’re dropping tomorrow. That’s something labels traditionally shy away from. Often, it’s hard to get even a same-day response from a label because they’re so busy.

The thing to keep in mind is that a lot of NFT collectors are already following artists they like or have found [out about] through the Web3 space, so the marketing of NFTs is really driven by artists doing the legwork. My perspective is to consider the value-add [of a label]. There are a few different scenarios of how they may be involved with an NFT project, but a lot of labels are not even really thinking about it yet because even the majority of artists don’t yet know how to do this. It’s cool if you’re able to say, “We agreed upon 10% for the gross of my share.” That seems super fair, as it’s similar to an agent contract. Meanwhile, the manager/artist split on this stuff is also all over the board, and that should be as important [as a conversation with a label] because the manager is going to be talking to the label side.

These clauses are niche, but very important, and I think the standard is being built deal by deal right now. It’s important we have conversations about NFT clauses so that artists, especially new artists, don’t just give up their NFT projects before knowing what they’re worth. It’s just like with your masters.

This story will appear in the Nov. 5, 2022, issue of Billboard.

04 Nov 2022

NPR’s ‘Planet Money’ Podcast Launches Label to Boost ‘Inflation’ and Demystify the Music Biz

Legendary lawyer Don Passman has likened the music biz and its transformation in the digital era to a Rubik’s Cube. It shifts so much that there have now been 10 editions of his industry bible, “All You Need to Know About the Music Business.”

The industry’s challenges, however, did not deter the lay economists at NPR’s Planet Money podcast after they heard an old song called “Inflation.” The funky, moody track with lyrics like “Inflation is in our nation… I can see a depression coming on” was written in 1975 when inflation was at levels slightly higher than today. A cassette tape of the song by Earnest Jackson‘s Sugar Daddy and the Gumbo Roux showed up in Planet Money hosts Sarah Gonzalez and Erika Beras‘ mailbox one day, and they “got a little obsessed” — so obsessed they embarked on an 8-month effort to start a record label and publish the song.

Gonzales and Beras discuss the challenges of creating a label, striking deals with different stakeholders and promoting the never-before-published song over two episodes of the podcast, this week.

Describing their reporting to Billboard, Gonzalez and Beras say that in the course of creating a contract that split revenue between the label and musicians, they came up with what Passman describes as “possibly the worst record deal I’ve ever seen, from a record company point of view.” (Passman was interviewed for the podcast.)

“We are not doing this to make money. We are really doing this because we want to explain the music industry,” Gonzalez says. “It’s just really difficult to make money in this industry, which we all knew. But it’s not until you get into it that you really understand it.”

If a typical deal gives 80% of revenues generated by a song to the record label and 20% to the musicians, Planet Money proposed giving 80% to the musician, namely singer and songwriter Earnest Jackson, and keeping 20% for their label. The hosts felt that was a fair deal given that even if the song was streamed 1 million times, they could only expect to collect around $4,000 total.

After much back-and-forth with Jackson’s old bandmates, which included Journey bassist and American Idol host Randy Jackson and others who went on to successful music careers, they landed on a deal that gives about 67% to Earnest Jackson, 15% to the bandmates and the remainder to the label and others.

Any revenue generated from the song that goes to NPR will go back into producing more shows, Gonzalez and Beras say. They say they do not plan to recoup expenses from publishing and promoting the song, which included at least $10,000 in legal fees.

Once they uploaded the track to TuneCore and started promoting their first, possibly only hit, they learned that “Inflation” had to be streamed 5,000 times in the first week for the label to be able to pay for promotion. Fortunately, the song crested 65,000 plays in its first few days, but it still has some way to go to reach 1 million plays.

“No one ever makes money on streaming,” Beras says, when asked what she learned from her reporting. “I feel like I’ve repeated that a thousand times and never understood what I said.”

“We put all of our effort behind this song and behind Earnest Jackson and are going all in,” Beras says.

Next, they plan to make it a ringtone — which earns a bit more than streams — and they are trying to land it in a Netflix documentary.

Since launching their label last week, Planet Money has received two more submissions from musicians, according to Beras. For now, they are focused on “Inflation” and have no aspirations to “become music moguls,” Beras jokes.

04 Nov 2022

First Out: New Music From Brockhampton, Pabllo Vittar, Cavetown & More

As we head towards the end of the year, take some time to listen to some new tunes from your favorite LGBTQ artists. Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of First Out, our weekly roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ artists.

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From Brockhampton’s lead single of their final album, to Pabllo Vittar’s victory song, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:

Brockhampton, “Big P—y”

With the looming release of Brockhampton’s final album The Family later this month, the group is prepping their fans for what’s to come. “Big P—y,” the first taste of the project, sees Kevin Abstract taking center stage, rapping openly about the fact that, no, this is not a joke — after The Family, Brockhampton is done. With a bombastic beat and some of Abstract’s best flow to date, “Big P—y” promises an explosive finish to a dynamic career from this fan-beloved hip-hop boy band.

Pabllo Vittar feat. Gloria Groove, “AMEIANOITE”

After a contentious election in Brazil over the last few weeks that say right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro get unseated by leftist trade unionist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, drag superstar Pabllo Vittar is ready to celebrate. She’s doing so on “AMEIANOITE” (translated to “ATMIDNIGHT” in English) with fellow Brazilian drag queen Gloria Groove. Taking on the persona of a witch being burned at the stake, Vittar brings a hard-hitting club vibe to the new track, basking in revolutionary ideals and nonconformist messages. It’s a fitting theme song for an important moment in her country’s history.

Cavetown, Worm Food

The cosmic insignificance of the human condition has long been a running theme of art — so it’s fascinating to watch as indie-pop star Cavetown takes the concept and carefully examines it on Worm Food. On what could have been a deeply nihilistic album, Robin Skinner instead looks at life through a semi-hopeful lens, comforted by the understanding that we’re all headed for the same destination (as he spells out on the title track, serving as the album’s thesis). Skinners takes listeners on a journey through love (“Frog”), heartbreak (“Wasabi”), anxiety (“Heart Attack”) and so much more, on an album as sonically diverse as the subject matter being tackled.

Fletcher, “Suckerpunch”

Fletcher may have just gifted her fans with an entire album of heartbreak-to-healing anthems with Girl of My Dreams, but that doesn’t mean that she’s done. “Suckerpunch,” the first song off the upcoming deluxe version of the album, builds on the project’s narrative, this time taking listeners back to the origins of the relationship that inspired the entire album. Walking fans through the emotional euphoria of first love, Fletcher delivers a dance-pop anthem for anyone feeling themselves falling in real time.

Billy Porter, “Stranger Things”

Singer/actor Billy Porter doesn’t hold back, ever — so it’s fitting that his latest single, “Stranger Things,” takes a maximalist approach to its call-to-action. The soulful new anthem sees Porter flexing every inch of his impressive vocal range, while commenting on the state of affairs around the world (in summary: things are looking bad). But in the brassy, exhilarating chorus, Porter makes clear that to despair in the face of hard times is to relinquish control; and he’s not willing to do that. “I’mma make the world see/ And be more than a memory/ ‘Cause stranger things have happened to me,” he wails.

Carlie Hanson, “Illusion”

“We plan, God laughs” may as well be the tagline of Carlie Hanson’s new single “Illusion.” On the revelatory new pop anthem, the singer-songwriter contends with feeling stuck in a life that she didn’t anticipate, despite her best efforts. Putting her pen to good use, and her voice to an even better one, Hanson speaks for anyone who has ever felt lost when she belts on the infectious chorus, “This isn’t what I thought it’d be like/ Just an illusion, doesn’t sit right.”

Bob the Drag Queen feat. Ocean Kelly & Basit, “Black”

On “Black,” Bob the Drag Queens’s pounding anthem to Black pride featuring fellow stars Ocean Kelly and Basit, the Drag Race winner and TikTok phenom laces her stellar bars with gas for her people and venom for anyone who would try and shame her. Not only does Bob flex her lyrical acuity with lines that land (“Cause this Mary is a Mac, and I’m sick of wearing black/ Keep dodging silver bullets, cause they coming for my back” stands out immediately), but her production (courtesy of Kelly and longtime collaborator Mitch Ferrino) is on a whole new level. Bow down, because the queen has arrived yet again.

04 Nov 2022

Paul Rosenberg Reflects on Eminem’s Place in the Rock Hall Ahead of Rapper’s Induction

Eminem’s manager is the first to acknowledge that the rapper is not exactly rock n’ roll by definition — but also that he deserves his upcoming spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“In the traditional sense does Marshall [Mathers] do rock n’ roll? Of course not,” says Paul Rosenberg of Goliath Artists, who met Eminem in 1995 at Detroit’s famed Hip Hop Shop and began managing him shortly thereafter. “But I think if you look at what rock n’ roll came from and what hip-hop was created from, they stem from the same musical roots, the same musical tree — but at the same time very different in style, form, culture. If you think about those aspects and just the emotion, and then you combine that with how many rappers there already are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I would say that he certainly fits.”

Eminem will be part of the Rock Hall’s class of 2022, inducted on Saturday (Nov. 5) at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. He’ll join the other performer inductees that night — Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie and Carly Simon — and he’ll become part of the Hall’s hip-hop corps that also includes Run-D.M.C. (whom Eminem inducted in 2009), LL Cool J (whom he performed with during last year’s ceremony), The Notorious B.I.G., N.W.A, Public Enemy, Tupac Shakur and Jay-Z.

In doing so, he also becomes part of the ongoing discussion about whether rappers belong in the Rock Hall.

“It’s an odd sort of thing, sure,” the New York-based Rosenberg, who partners with Eminem in the Shady Records label and clothing line and other endeavors, tells Billboard. “It’s something that I think a lot of people are struggling with, especially as time goes on because the face of music has changed a lot, and it continues to evolve. If it were just strictly rock n’ roll by traditional standards I think they would be hard-pressed to find enough people to induct 10, 15, 20 years from now. So I think they have to change with the times and not bend their beliefs but change their way of thinking a bit. I think the fact that they have inducted people like LL and Run-D.M.C. is great. I think (Eminem) would like to see a lot more rappers get recognized in the same fashion.”

Rosenberg — who is careful to state that he does not speak for Eminem — says the two of them first thought about the rapper getting into the Rock Hall back when he inducted Run-D.M.C. “We had thought about it – ‘Wait a minute, eventually this is maybe gonna be you…’,” recalls Rosenberg. But the thought quickly faded. “I didn’t even think about something like this for many years,” he says, “until at some point somebody mentioned to me, ‘Y’know, eligibility for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is 25 years after you release your first album.’ This is probably three, four years ago, and I was like, ‘Wait a minute…Oh boy, that’s not too far away.’”

Eminem’s credentials are certainly manifold – five No. 1 Hot 100 hits, 22 top 10 Hot 100 hits, 10 albums that have debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, 15 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award and an Emmy (which means he’s just a Tony Award shy of an EGOT).

To Rosenberg, meanwhile, the Rock Hall induction is “not just one of the trophies in the case — it’s one of the big trophies in the case. It’s a significant milestone. It’s a big part of somebody’s legacy, I think, to get that recognition. And it was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is the first time on the ballot.’ That’s a big honor. When you look back at your resume it’s up there with saying you won an Oscar, that level of recognition.” And without putting words in the rapper’s mouth, Rosenberg does acknowledge that Eminem was not displeased.

“As you know Marshall is an extremely humble guy and he doesn’t love people fawning over him in that way,” explains Rosenberg, who was also CEO of Def Jam Recordings from January 2018 to early 2020 and now heads Goliath Records in joint venture with Universal Music Group. “But like anybody else who works hard at what they do, he appreciates being recognized for it. So he felt good about it. To say what it means to him, you have to hear him when he gets up on stage.”

The induction caps a busy 2022 for Eminem that’s included a Super Bowl LVI halftime performance (which brought him the aforementioned Emmy), collaborations with Snoop Dogg, DJ Khaled, Cordae and CeeLo Green (the latter a Dr. Dre-produced track for the Elvis film soundtrack), a second greatest hits album, Curtain Call 2, and a recently announced 20th anniversary edition of the 8 Mile film soundtrack. “It’s sort of a big, celebratory, legacy year,” Rosenberg notes, “but at the same time Marshall is continuing to be a frontline recording artist. You don’t want to look like you’re always looking back when at the same time you’re trying to create and move forward. It’s a little bit of a difficult balance, and for him it can get a little frustrating. He doesn’t want to seem like he’s done being a current recording music artist, because he very much is. It’s just about figuring out the right way to walk that line.

“If you look back in most recent years, his output has been pretty significant in terms of how many albums he’s released. I don’t think he needs a reason to continue to record. He’s very consumed with the process of creating, and he never really stops recording.”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be simulcast Saturday (Nov. 5) on SiriusXM’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Radio channel (310) and on Volume on the SXM App. HBO will film the event to air at 8 p.m. ET on Nov. 18.