Eminem mixes his old angry Slim Shady persona with his current middle-age lifestyle on the sequel to his most acclaimed album, 2000s “The Marshall Mathers LP.” This album surprises listeners with its flashbacks to the original album and is also Eminem’s funniest and most entertaining album in years. He sounds more in tune with what his fans want and is derisive of his critics that have stated he has fallen off from his younger days.
When the album was first announced in late August, many of Eminem’s long-time fans were worried that calling this album a sequel was simply a marketing gimmick and that they were watching their longtime idol go soft with old age. His last two albums, 2009 “Relapse” and 2010 “Recovery,” while incredibly commercially successful, miserably failed with critics. Fans wanted the angry Slim Shady they had grown up with, not the 40-year-old trying to appeal to a larger audience. As the four singles were released over the past three months, fans’ worries grew even more. All the singles with the exception of “Rap God” were poppy and the complete opposite of their hopes. “Survival,” which was featured in the new Call of Duty commercial, was another gimmick with Eminem trying to expand his niche into the “gamer” circle. Rick Rubin-produced “Berzek” was supposed to celebrate “old-school hip-hop” with its Beastie Boys sample, but just grew annoying after multiple listens. The last single, “The Monster” has to be the worst Eminem song ever made, the Rihanna-laden hook is way too poppy to belong on this album and Eminem’s verses are “soft” and “feel-good,” not what his listeners wanted. The best of the singles, “Rap God,” features six minutes of Eminem spitting, very technically sound verses but also produces cringe-worthy line such as “They say I rap like a robot / Call me rapbot.”
As an aging artist, Eminem only has himself and his past – and moreso than any of his older peers such as Jay Z or Lil Wayne, Eminem has accepted that and been able to turn it into something positive.
This is an incredibly self-aware and introspective album. He recognizes the responsibility he has for all the influence he has had in the past, the effects that might have, the hypocrisy of what he has said about women in comparison to his own daughter, the fact that he is 40 and can no longer rely on shock and violence and the homophobic lyrics that have been a constant for the past fifteen years. Content-wise, he has clearly matured, and that allows him to bridge a gap between his old self and his now 40-year old single dad life.
But production-wise, he’s still imaginative and creative; he references the original “Marshall Mathers LP” and his past work in interesting ways, pulling out nostalgic, old-school samples show that his age and using a variety of styles, even singing on “Stronger Than I Was,” and bringing in humor as well as quite a few more serious songs.
The opening song, “Bad Guy” is a sequel to one of Eminem’s best songs, “Stan.” The beat switches before the last two minutes of the song start and instead of the song being about “Stan’s” younger brother coming after Eminem for revenge for “Stan’s” death, it is about how Eminem lacks any conscience in his choice of subject matter, and his lingering fear that one day this practice will catch up to him. Another somber highlight is “Headlights,” which features a hook by Fun.’s lead singer Nate Ruess. The song is an apology to his Mom for criticizing her in his songs over the years. He still loves her despite everything and he hates how they are estranged.
Eminem is old, he knows it and now he just wants to tie up loose ends. “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” does just that.
