ebro-darden-sza-eminem-2024

Ebro explains why Apple Music ranked SZA album higher than Eminem

Posted on By

About a week ago, Apple Music announced their 100 greatest albums of all time with Lauryn Hill’s 1998 iconic “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” claiming the top spot. Hill’s debut album outpaced other classic records from Beyoncé, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Eminem, 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Prince, Stevie Wonder, Kendrick Lamar, Amy Winehouse, Frank Ocean and Nirvana.

The process started several months ago when Apple Music’s editorial team of editors and music experts – including Zane Lowe (global creative director and lead anchor for Apple Music 1) and Ebro Darden (global editorial head of hip-hop and R&B) – generated a list of candidates from the past 65 years. Members from Apple Music’s internal team submitted their personal lists of albums through the company’s voting microsite. The votes were weighted according to an album’s placement – the higher the ranking, the more votes assigned. Apple Music used the same voting methodology for a select group external voters that included artists, songwriters, producers and some media.

During one of the recent episodes of Rap Life Show on Apple Music, Ebro Darden read some comment reactions from fans. One of the users said: “SZA higher than Eminem and Missy Elliott is wild to me as well.” On which, Ebro replied: “SZA’s album is about to break Michael Jackson’s long-standing record for an RnB album being in the Billboard Top 200 for consecutive months I think, or weeks, it’s about to be. I Love Supa Dupa Fly Missy Elliott and I love Missy Elliott. It didn’t do that at that time.”

Then he continued: “And Eminem as big as Eminem has been with his singles, I don’t know if his albums did those numbers. That kind of longevity. And there is recent history bias in this list because you have such an young panel of people voting inside Apple Music. I think this won’t be the last time we do this. This was not based on sales and streaming.”

One of Eminem’s fans, @SonaShady8 replied: “Ebro is trying to tell us why SZA is higher than Eminem and Missy Elliott, because she was about to break Michael Jackson’s records then he says: oh this list isn’t based on streams or sales… Seriously? Are you okay, guys!” Check the video below.