List Of Every Rapper In History With A Platinum Album

[Sccit]

Platinum albums don't mean what they used to. In the era of streaming services and download links album sales are no longer the best indication of a rapper's popularity, but they're still remarkable achievements, and for nearly the entire history of hip-hop that platinum plaque was the truest measurement of mainstream success.

That's why when we debate the legitimacy of an artist or an album the P word ("platinum") always comes up. Like homeruns or touchdowns for athletes they don't tell the whole story, they're the easiest, broadest, most direct point of comparison. But while platinum albums are so pivotal to so many discussions, there's oddly no publicly available master list of every hip-hop album to hit the one-million in sales landmark. Believe us, we've looked.

So for the past month and some change we have been creating that list, our heads simultaneously spinning and exploding as we compiled and analyzed a digital mountain of data containing every individual album to ever go platinum. Seriously, it’s been kind of an insane endeavor, but greatness demands sacrifice, even when you're attempting to be great at rap blogging.

Before we get to the results though, some notes on how we compiled the information:

- We went through the list of RIAA certified albums and pulled out all the ones from hip-hop artists. 99% of the time that was an easy task, but occasionally we had to make a judgement call. For example, we're still counting the Black Eyed Peas as hip-hop although, let's be honest, they started racking up the platinum albums once they went more pop. Everlast's Whitey Ford Sings the Blues went triple platinum and was far from a purely "hip-hop" album, but he raps on the album and was known primarily as a rapper for the majority of his career, so he's included. Lauryn Hill's Miseduction isn't a "rap" album persay, but she's widely known as a rapper, there's rapping on the album, so she's included. You get the point.
- All groups are listed as one collective whole, not broken down into individual artists, even when the group was clearly lead by one famous rapper. So the D12 album is credited to D12, not Eminem, and not Proof, Bizarre, etc. In that vein, we decided to count dual-collab albums as a platinum album for both artists since it was a one-time, special occasion album, not a group. That means Watch the Throne gave both Jay Zand Kanye West one platinum album point. Finally, to use Eminem as an example again, we did not count compilation projects like the 8 Milesoundtrack or Re-Up at all, since those were more genuine group efforts where assigning credit to a particular artist or artists would be so complicated it'd no longer make sense.
- Crucially, again, our source for this information was the RIAA, which is THE group that represents the U.S. recording industry and is THE most reliable and credible source of album sales information. So yes, we're aware that Wikipedia has other albums listed as platinum, but Wikipedia also once listed Eminem as dead, so you know, maybe not an unshakeable foundation you want to build on. That means that while it's certainly possible that this list isn't literally 100% accurate, we're confident that it's as close to accurate as possible, and we're open to updating it as credible new information surfaces.
And with that out of the way, let's get to the good stuff.

Inside The Numbers
Total Platinum Albums: 316
Total Number of Artists: 138
Most Platinum Albums: Jay Z (15)
First: Whodini Escape (1984)
Last: Drake If You're Reading This It's Too Late (2015)



The Complete List of Names With Number of Platinum Albums
2 Live Crew - 1
2Pac - 11
50 Cent - 2
69 Boyz - 1
8Ball - 1 (No 8Ball & MJG album has gone platinum)
Akon - 2
A Tribe Called Quest - 3
Arrested Development - 1
B.G. - 1
Beastie Boys - 7
Big Pun - 1
Big Tymers - 2
Biggie - 4
Black Eyed Peas - 3
Black Rob - 1
Bone Thugs - 6
Bow Wow - 2
Busta Rhymes - 5
C-Murder - 1
Cam’ron - 1
Chamillionaire - 1
Chingy - 2
Coolio - 2
Cypress Hill - 5
D12 - 2
DJ Clue? - 1
DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince - 2 (Will Smith solo albums counted separately)
DJ Magic Mike & Royal Posse - 1
DJ Quik - 1
DMX - 5
Da Brat - 2
Das EFX - 1
De La Soul - 1
Diddy & The Family - 2
Digital Underground - 1
Dr. Dre - 2
Drake - 4
E-40 - 1
Eazy-E - 1
Eminem - 8
Eric B. & Rakim - 1
Eve - 1
Everlast - 1
Fabolous - 2
Fat Boys - 1
Fat Joe - 1
Foxy Brown - 2
G-Unit - 1
Game - 1
Geto Boys - 1
Ghostface - 1
GZA - 1
Heavy D & The Boyz - 3
Hot Boys - 1
House of Pain - 1
ICP - 2
Ice Cube - 5
Ice-T - 1
J. Cole - 1
Ja Rule - 4
Jay Z - 15 (Does not include his Collison CourseEP with Linkin Park which was an EP, not an album)
Jermaine Dupri - 1
Juvenile - 3
Kanye West - 7
Kendrick Lamar - 1
Kid Rock - 1 (We did not count his more purely rock/country platinum albums)
Kool Moe Dee - 1
Krayzie Bone - 1
Kriss Kross - 2
Lauryn Hill - 1
LL Cool J - 7
Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz - 2
Ying Yang Twins - 2
Lil Wayne - 4
Lil’ Flip - 2
Lil’ Kim - 3
Lil’ Troy - 1
Lloyd Banks - 1
Ludacris - 5
Luniz - 1
MC Hammer- 4
Macklemore - 1
Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch - 1
Mase - 1
Master P - 3
Method Man - 4
Mike Jones - 1
Missy Elliott - 5
Mo Thugs - 1
Mobb Deep - 1
Mystikal - 3
N.W.A - 3
Nappy Roots - 1
Nas - 7
Naughty By Nature - 2
Nelly - 5
Nicki Minaj - 2
Onyx - 1
OutKast - 7
Paul Wall - 1
Public Enemy - 3
Redman - 2 (One collab album with Method Man)
Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock - 1
Ruff Ryders - 1
Run-DMC - 3
Salt ’N Pepa - 3
Scarface - 3
Shaq - 1
Silkk The Shocker - 2
Sir Mix-A-Lot - 2
Slick Rick - 1
Snoop Dogg - 8
St. Lunatics - 1
T.I. - 5
TRU - 1
Tha Dogg Pound - 1
The D.O.C. - 1
The Fugees - 1
The L.O.X. - 1
The Roots - 1
Three 6 Mafia - 2
Timbaland & Magoo - 1
Timbaland - 1
Tone-Loc - 1
Too Short - 6
Trick Daddy - 1
Twista - 1
Vanilla Ice - 1
Warren G - 1
Westside Connection - 1
Whodini - 1
Will Smith - 2
Wu-Tang Clan - 3
Wyclef - 2
Xzibit - 1
Young Buck - 1
Young Jeezy - 2
Young MC - 1
Well there you have it, a list of every single platinum artist in hip-hop’s illustrious history; shout out to Marky Mark and Shaq. Even in the broadest of scopes there is some great nuggets here. It really shows that a lot of people can stumble into a platinum album, some might catch and wave and have two, but by the time you get to four or five platinum albums you're in rarified air. Did you realize Snoop Dogg has more platinum albums than Kanye and as many as Eminem? Ja Rule has four platinum albums?! Frankly, I have no idea who DJ Magic Mike is, and I also didn't realize that Bone Thugs had six platinum albums, which trumps Biggie’s four. Again, while platinum albums break down as a point of comparison between generations more recently - it looks like the '90s really were a magical time where you could go platinum off one hit single - it does give us a fascinating overview of hip-hop history.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be really going inside the numbers, dissecting them in a number of ways and giving you more food for thought. This list is a gateway into some really interesting conversations about anything from regions to years to the careers of individual artists to specific albums. Keep it locked, we're just getting started.

http://www.djbooth.net/index/news/entry/2015-10-14-rappers-platinum-albums-hip-hop-history?noredirection=true

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

good thread

...and the 90's were really a magical time.  As it was an era where there was a few routes in which rappers could go platinum, some more dubious than others...

#1.  Just make a great album.  The 90's were a time when if an artist really worked hard and put in quality work they could go platinum.   Because the underground would support you and create enough buzz, where if just one of your singles managed to surface and bubble above ground you would go from gold to platinum.  Artists like Canibus, Mos Def, Talib Kweli who had solid debuts, bubbled on the underground and had singles that bubbled just enough to nearly push them to platinum.  They didn't official go platinum but they were around 800,000 which was certainly worth all the hard work. 

#2.  Just make a hot single.  Just make that one joint that everybody loves and you are platinum.  Like Coolio hit with "Fantastic Voyage" and just like that he was platinum. 

#3.  You could scheme your way to platinum with great hype and advertising.  Master P used the hype machine to push even B-team No Limit artists to platinum.  Jay-Z used the hype machine to turn out more than his share of platinum records in the 90's.  Claiming retirement, then comeback, get the hype machine to say your the greatest before you've even proved yourself.  Pay Benzino, get yourself on a Source cover, pay for radio play, a Timberland beat or something, there were several ways you could buy your way to platinum.

[doggfather]

good thread

[adi760]

They didn'y count EP? Cuz Eazy had platinum Eazy-Duz-It and It's On (Dr. Dre)

[WalterOhDim]

no notorious big?

Biggie

DMX had 5 platinum albums?  Was that all of them?  Heard he's making a comeback album with Swizz 

[WalterOhDim]

Music sales reached their PEAK in the year 2000.  So rap - as a genre - really exploded at the right time (sales wise).

"When music sales reached their peak in 2000, Americans bought 943 million CD albums, and digital sales weren't even a blip on the radar. By 2007, however, those inexpensive digital singles overtook CDs -- by a wide margin -- generating 819 million sales to just 500 million for the CD. "

Anyone want to read a great article A decade of iTunes singles killed the music industry check this out:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/25/technology/itunes-music-decline/index.html

[RingMan]

I thought Doctor's Advocate had a platinum too... strange thing is, that Game's albums and singles are not in RIAA database, same with 50

[DRGNBLZN]

8Ball - 1 (No 8Ball & MJG album has gone platinum)

how fucked up is this? I assume the platinum album is either Lost or Almost Famous?

[MOBNigga06]

There seems to be some errors in the data. I found one right away. DJ Quik has TWO platinum albums: Quik is the Name and Rhythmalism.

Pretty interesting list nonetheless.

[GangstaBoogy]

Snoop is tied with Eminem

[Blood$]

keep in mind some of these (Pac, Biggie, Bone, etc.) double albums count as 2 separate units sold

I'm thinking there's a few errors in there too but nonetheless an insightful list 

[HighEyeCue]

Music sales reached their PEAK in the year 2000.  So rap - as a genre - really exploded at the right time (sales wise).

"When music sales reached their peak in 2000, Americans bought 943 million CD albums, and digital sales weren't even a blip on the radar. By 2007, however, those inexpensive digital singles overtook CDs -- by a wide margin -- generating 819 million sales to just 500 million for the CD. "

Anyone want to read a great article A decade of iTunes singles killed the music industry check this out:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/25/technology/itunes-music-decline/index.html

streaming has also really killed sales these days, I think "Compton" had something like 20 million streams its first week out

[Sccit]

There seems to be some errors in the data. I found one right away. DJ Quik has TWO platinum albums: Quik is the Name and Rhythmalism.

Pretty interesting list nonetheless.

Rhythmlism is only certified gold by RIAA

[Mr. Theo]

There seems to be some errors in the data. I found one right away. DJ Quik has TWO platinum albums: Quik is the Name and Rhythmalism.

Pretty interesting list nonetheless.

i don't know about rhythmalism..

but in 97...safe+sound had already been sold like 900- 950 k

then in 98-99 Arista ( DJ Quik label at that time ) pressed more copies of S+S .

i think until today Safe+Sound was sold 1 million copies.

rhythmalism is like between 800-850k

Anyway, DJ Quik got 2 platinum albums...this riaa database info are outdated

[Sccit]

There seems to be some errors in the data. I found one right away. DJ Quik has TWO platinum albums: Quik is the Name and Rhythmalism.

Pretty interesting list nonetheless.

i don't know about rhythmalism..

but in 97...safe+sound had already been sold like 900- 950 k

then in 98-99 Arista ( DJ Quik label at that time ) pressed more copies of S+S .

i think until today Safe+Sound was sold 1 million copies.

rhythmalism is like between 800-850k

Anyway, DJ Quik got 2 platinum albums...this riaa database info are outdated

Labels pay to get albums certified, so if it wasn't certified, it's not in the database....these numbers are based on RIAA database.