Tuesday, February 22

Eminem scores 1 billion YouTube hits

The rapper, who has over 28 official clips on the video staring website, will reach the digital milestone later today, Fame Count reports.

The 'Not Afraid' star becomes the third artist to achieve a billion online views, after Justin Bieber and Lady GaGa achieved the landmark just days apart from each other last year.

The website also ranks Eminem as the third most popular social media artist after becoming the second-most 'liked' artist on Facebook, behind GaGa.

Eminem recently denied being angry at receiving two of the ten Grammy Awards for which he was nominated.

Monday, February 14

Eminem once again shut out of top Grammys

Eminem won best rap album and best rap solo performance at Sunday's Grammys, but missed out on album of the year.

"I think Eminem is pretty happy with how everything else went in 2010, but it's pretty shocking that he didn't win," says James Montgomery, MTV News senior writer. "The Grammys are notoriously weird in selecting winners. But Eminem will ultimately be OK."
"His loss doesn't take away from the success he's had with Recovery," says Devin Lazerine, editor in chief of Rap-Up.com. "The 10 nominations alone is a major victory after his personal and professional bumps in the road."

The trophies that the Detroit rapper did win Sunday bring his career total to 13. Still, the most prestigious awards keep slipping away. He was up for album of the year in 2001 with The Marshall Mathers LP, but lost to Steely Dan's Two Against Nature, and again in 2003 when The Eminem Show lost to Norah Jones' Come Away with Me.

His Without Me also lost that year to Jones' Don't Know Why for record of the year. In 2004, his Lose Yourself lost song of the year to Luther Vandross'Dance With My Father and record to Coldplay's Clocks.

Eminem continued a recent trend among artists with the night's most nominations. Since 2005, BeyoncĂ©— who last year won six out of a possible 10 trophies, including song of the year — is the only top nominee to win more than half the awards for which he or she was competing. John Legend, who won three of eight in 2006, including best new artist, is the only other one to win a major category.

The experts say Eminem's defeat doesn't necessarily reflect a best-album bias against hip-hop, despite losses in recent years by Kanye West and Lil Wayne: Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill won in 1999 and Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below won in 2004. Both say strong cases could be made for this year's other album nominees.

"At this point, saying that (the Grammys aren't) recognizing hip-hop, both as an art form and as a commercial force, is a ship that has sort of passed," Montgomery says.