Lets Take it Back to Straight Hip-Hop and Start it from Scratch

Without a doubt, Eminem is the artist of the 00’s; the guy sold about forty million albums sold worldwide and even his weakest album that he even described as, “Eh” still went double platinum and featured two top ten singles. But Eminem was definitely getting stale circa Relapse, each album’s first single got cheesier and cheesier and We Made You while the rest of the albums got darker and darker to the point where Relapse was essentially horrorcore. A year later, Eminem got clean, released recovery and his biggest hit of his career with Love the Way You Lie. Still I met that album with a resounding “eh” too. But at least there was not a cheesy lead single which was instead replaced with Not Afraid, an apologies for the uninspiring Relapse album.

Fast forward three years and during the middle of an otherwise unwatchable MTV Video Music Awards, there were two promos for the upcoming new Eminem album featuring a Rick Rubin produced, Billy Squier sampling, Beastie Boys referencing song Berzerk. When it hit the internets the next day in its entirety, I was ready to call it the best Eminem song since Lose Yourself. Then he released the stadium anthem Survival (seriously, all high school and college bands better be learning this song as you read this) which is the second best song he has done since Lose Yourself.

So for the first time ever, I was excited for an Eminem album with his seventh release The Marshall Mathers LP 2. Why a sequel to his thirteen year old album? Who knows, probably marketing (segments of Stan and The Real Slim Shady do get resurrected). The album does have an old school feel to including Berzerk and Eminem name drops plenty old school rappers and jams on Love Game, yet another track produced by Rick Rubin which samples the sixties teen pop song Game of Love by Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders.

All four Rick Rubin produced songs are built around well known rock songs. Obvious first single Berzerk is by far the best but by the fourth Love Game, you start to wonder why they would sample this. The Zombies sampling Rhyme or Reason has Eminem answering the questions Time of the Season ("What's your name?" "Who's your daddy?") and is reminiscent of the last time he sampled classic rock on Sing for the Moment and takes aim at his absentee father who gets referenced occasionally but rarely gets his own song (especially compared to his mother). So Far… flips Joe Walsh’s Life Is Good which does not work as well as it should have. Maybe Rick should have saved that beat for Kid Rock who would have known to do with the southern rock jam.

The new album does not stay completely in the past. Rap God features a futuristic beat that Jay-Z would have loved to come across his desk during his Blueprint days (but could not handle it these days) and Em just slays it as one as his best flows to date. Even more impressive is the song goes six minutes and he never slows down and actually builds with every second. The album does slow down on back end. The Monster featuring Rihanna just falls flat compared to Love the Way You Lie. Headlights is another ode to his mother, but this one is a sincere apology made worse by the inclusion of the dude from Fun.. And for those wondering where the song that takes down pop tarts, on the album closer he admits he is bored with that, “So who’s left? Lady Gaga? Bieber? Nah.” But overall, this is the rare sequil that lives up to the original.

Song to Download – Berzerk

The Marshall Mathers LP 2 gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.