Is this Shady Music Fact or Shady Music Fiction? This delightfully specific claim feels true. Kim Kardashian's sex tape has more views than roughly a third of her husband's videography. That seems right, but is it actually?
Let's start with the "last nine videos" part of the "fact." Assuming the folks behind Shady Music Facts mean official music videos they're talking about the following clips:
1. "Only One" (2015) — 24,087,381 views
2. "Bound 2 (Explicit)" (2013) — 53,657,245 views*
3. "BLKKK SKKKN HEAD (Explicit)" (2013) — 15,003,770 views
4. "Mercy (Explicit)" (2012) — 77,631,702 views
5. "No Church In The Wild" (2012) — 35,327,753 views
6. "Lost In The World (ft. Bon Iver) [Explicit]" (2012) — 7,394,849 views
7. "Ni**as In Paris (Explicit)" (2012) — 100,071,353 views
8. "Otis (ft. Otis Redding)" (2011) — 79,073,846 views
9. "All Of The Lights (ft. Rihanna and Kid Cudi)" (2011) — 123,891,190 views
* Combined total for both the clean and explicit version of the video.
The interesting thing about this list is that “All Of The Lights” isn’t just the most-watched of Kanye’s last nine videos, it’s the second most-watched video of his entire career. The only video with more views is "Stronger." Which means that if Shady Music Facts is right and Kim's sex tape has more views than "All Of The Lights," the porno is more popular than Kanye's last 14 releases and Shady Music Facts is actually guilty of not being shady enough.
Last year, Vivid Entertainment told TMZ that Kim Kardashian Superstar is the "best-selling sex tape of all time" and has grossed over $50 million since the company first released it in 2007. Notably absent from that victory lab? A view count! Shady Music Facts implies that the tape has been viewed somewhere between 123 million and 154 million times. The truth, however, is more complicated.
"The difference is people have to pay to watch Kim's movie," Vivid founder Steve Hirsch told BuzzFeed Music in an email. "[But] the five-minute free clip has been viewed over 300 million times. Pornhub alone over 150 million times. And still going!"
So, a more accurate version of this tweet would read: "The trailer for Kim Kardashian's sex tape has more views than Kanye West's most-viewed music video." Which, honestly, is way shadier.