This year’s hip-hop-focused Super Bowl Halftime Show — featuring Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, and 50 Cent — was generally well-received. It also managed to renew interest in some of the performers’ music, as the new Billboard 200 chart indicates: On the chart dated February 26 (which accounts for listening activity from February 11 to 17, while the Super Bowl was on the 13th), albums by Eminem and Dr. Dre have returned to the top 10 for the first time in years.
Eminem’s Curtain Call: The Hits (a former No. 1 on the chart) had a major rise, as it ascended to No. 8 this week, up from No. 126 the previous week. That’s thanks to about 31,000 equivalent album units earned, an increase of 256 percent. Meanwhile, Dr. Dre’s 2001 rose from No. 108 to No. 9 with about 30,500 units (a 220-percent increase). Its previous peak was at No. 2 on the chart dated December 4, 1999.
This is the first time Curtain Call has found itself in the top 10 since the chart dated March 11, 2006, when it was No. 8. The last time 2001 was in the top 10 was on the May 13, 2000, when it ranked No. 9.
Those albums were well-represented during the halftime show: Eminem performed “Lose Yourself,” while three 2001 songs — “The Next Episode,” “Forgot About Dre,” and “Still D.R.E.,” made the setlist.
Elsewhere on the chart, the smash hit Encanto soundtrack is once again No. 1, for a sixth total week. That ties it with Adele’s 30 for the third-most weeks spent at No. 1 in the last five years (since January 2017). Ahead of those LPs are Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album (ten weeks) and Taylor Swift’s Folklore (eight weeks).