Eminem releases The Marshall Mathers LP2, a belated sequel to the MMLP released in 2000. So what has changed for the confrontational rapper in the years past and can he still make plenty of noise?
If Eminem had taken a pap at homosexuals in the past, he now seems to have moved onto women; that is the entire population of women. So Much Better sees him rapping about the joy women dying would bring to him as they cause far too much trouble. A nice play on Jay Z’s 99 Problems is implemented to hammer home his ideology, crucially though it’s all executed with tongue-in-cheek humour. Tongue is kept firmly in cheek for Asshole, Skylar Grey lending her vocals to the lyrics ‘Everybody knows/that your just an asshole’. Survival, with its pounding drums and background chants, is a fist-pumping, crotch-grabbing monster of a tune. There is no escaping its ferocity and power, Eminem unloading all his passion into the song, thus making it an anthem of success over adversity. On Rap God Mathers pokes fun at his own detractors, those who say he is not as big as he once was and that he has become too mainstream, then obliterates them with fast as lightning rapping and sharp-as-a-knife lyrics. The speed displayed on the tune is nothing short of incredible, leaving the listener in awe.
Things slow down on Stronger Than I Was, the music stripped back allowing Eminem’s voice to take on a more sombre tone, resulting in a glimpse into the inner soul of Marshall Mathers. Rihanna warbles on Monster, and quite frankly she ruins the tune. Sure it’s catchy, but it has no substance or bite-why she is featured here at all is perplexing. Kendrick Lamar features on Love Game, a frantic, playful tune which rockets towards the end of the album, but not before Eminem buries the hatchet with his mother on Headlights. Nate Ruess guests here and his voice lends an almost angelic quality to this touching, gentle number. In what amounts to a love letter of sorts to his mother, the lyrics are concerned with accepting that life is life, bygones are bygones and that Marshall is alright.
Eminem may not be saying anything particularly new on this album, but it is rather the way he says it that is important. His craft and skill is quite frankly unequalled in modern music stakes. He is very much a man at the top of his game; a behemoth. He is, as Marshall might prefer, omnipotent.