During the MTV VMAs, there was a Beats By Dre commercial which gave a release date and title for the new Eminem album. The date is 11/5/13 and the album is supposed to be called “MMLP2” or “The Marshall Mathers LP 2”, a sequel of sorts to the album that blew him up as a mega superstar.
Right after the commercial aired, our own Big Money said this to me, “When the sequel albums come out, it’s time to get worried.”
I thought the same. However, I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet on Eminem. It’s not a matter of skill. It’s a matter of inspiration.
In 2009, he released Relapse, which I personally thought was just as immature as the other parts of his catalog that I didn’t enjoy (even though many Eminem heads will stick up for that album). But the following year, Recovery was definitely an upgrade. It was as if he started to grow up with his own music.
That brings is to 2013 where a 40-year old Eminem (hard to believe right?) tries to get back on the charts and in the good graces of a genre he was the face of for many years.
Is Berzerk the right lane? The Rick Rubin track sounds like a throwback to the Beastie Boys. It starts out frenetically, but then slows down and loses its momentum and then lyrically becomes silly. It’s not a bad sound for him though and gives me intrigue as to what “MMLP2” will sound like. But like Big Money said, it might be time to get worried.
You can listen below.
8 comments
Big Money says:
Aug 27, 2013
At 3:19, I clicked on the video to see how much of the song was left.
I’m just gonna leave it right there.
John says:
Aug 27, 2013
It was rough at the intro, and it didn’t get any better from there. Concept was worthy, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
Big Money says:
Aug 27, 2013
Lyrically, it’s kinda boring. Dude has an amazing flow-always has, always will.
It’s funny, because the first thing that came to mind for me was that he spent most of the first part of his career dissing teen pop stars and top 40, yet it can be argued that the music he makes is now more mainstream than (to name a couple) JT’s or Xtina’s is.
GG says:
Aug 27, 2013
Chris Kirkpatrick was on the stage at the VMAs and Eminem wasn’t! How’s that for payback!
Okay, no one noticed Chris and he was held to 1 1/2 minutes but still.
Big Money says:
Aug 27, 2013
Chris looked like he ate about 10 bags of Eminems.
GG says:
Aug 27, 2013
I was more so focused on Joey’s big self, so maybe I didn’t see Chris.
Trey Stone says:
Aug 27, 2013
Regardless of whether “Recovery” was more mature than his previous work (and that’s not hard when it comes to “Relapse,”) I thought it was an incredibly generic album from a musical standpoint, like he had a meeting with his label and they wanted him to put out more of a Top 40 grab for that go-around. The opposite problem of “Relapse,” actually, which was more “Eminem” sounding and had a bunch of stale Dre beats. On “Recovery” he reached out to outside producers for the irst time but the results weren’t good. And the shout rapping, yeah…
i’ll remain skeptical, I don’t like the single and the guy hasn’t put out a halfway-decent album in more than 10 years. It is a little more interesting of a sound than something like “Love the Way You Lie” though, I’ll give it that.
GG says:
Aug 28, 2013
I’ll take slightly more generic as long as I’m not ashamed to listen to his music. Some of the songs on Recovery were down right embarrassing to listen to.