Eminem a.k.a. Marshall Mathers, just turned 41 last month. In hip hop years, that number practically makes him ancient and by most people's standards about the point when retirement should be near. Even if that isn't the case, a sense of maturity should be presented that should mess with commercial success. Yet somehow, much like his rise to fame with "the Slim Shady LP," his popularity remains unexpected as being a minority in the category of white respectable rappers. With "Recovery," he managed to escape the traps of his shock rap past and made powerful, radio-ready jams that showed he could persevere rehab, criticisms, and most importantly: age astigmatism. With his music serving as a mix of profane jokes and angry diary entries, he never seemed to lose his spark. That is why his "Recovery" follow-up "the Marshall Mathers LP 2" may be one of the more interesting career moves he could make.
When compiling iconic rap albums, Eminem's magnum opus remains "the Marshall Mathers LP," which shook the world with homophobia, misogyny, carelessness, and a young man with a gift for slinging words together. The personal touch made the album timeless in a sense and his career only skyrocketed there with multi-platinum albums that continued to chronicle his life. He has been through a lot of public turmoil and while he has said most of it before, it made theoretical sense for him to make a sequel to his most iconic album that at least put a stamp on his career in the spotlight. Even if he doesn't have the energy to create a trilogy when he's 50, this album at least has the distinct honor of summing up everything about Eminem since the first album through the eyes of Eminem in ways that only he could.
One of the most surprising moves is that he brings back the dark, edgy persona that had felt abandoned on "Recovery." The album opens up with "Bad Guy," which puts aside any notion that he was going to play it safe. In fact, it almost serves too much as a primer of the other album by spending the last half of the seven minute long song referencing tracks such as "Stan" and "Criminal," in ways alluding to the idea that he hasn't changed all that much. There's also homophobic comments, violent imagery, and an attack at Frank Ocean for some reason. Even the second track, "Parking Lot" is just a continuation of a moment in the "Criminal" song, suggesting that this album isn't so much going to cover new ground, but just be a greatest hits package.
In a way, that is pretty much the truth for the rest of the album. With "Rhyme or Reason," he samples the Zombies' "Time of the Season" and uses it as a jumping off point to discuss his relationship with his father. Lyrically, it reflects a performer who still knows how to put words together, spinning them in dizzying circles and having the flair that made him such a hot entity in the first place. The issue is more in the production side, which features plenty of distracting classic rock songs, including Joe Walsh and Billy Squier samples that are massacred for the sake of a beat that doesn't entirely work.
This is problematic, especially since the lyric work is often interesting. With his earlier material, there was a sense of craft and effort put into the music. While it occasionally sampled from other artists, it was in a modest fashion that focused more on rhythm and tone. The production on this album is distracting and annoying in regards to aggression and choruses that reflect a performer who probably shouldn't have begun singing. Doubling vocals on a chorus as a crooner was never Eminem's most successful gesture, and along with the rest of the production, sucks the life out of what could have been a playful, fun album.
In fact, while it is great to see Eminem loosening up and feeling somewhat dangerous, he does so in very predictable ways. His disses are often old hat and familiar targets from past records. Beyond the proverbial women and "faggots," he goes after everyone ranging from Justin Bieber and Lady GaGa to Jessica Simpson and Kim Kardashian to Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. He covers three decades worth of insults over the album, but they don't feel as clever as they once did. Fans of his albums may be able to piece together these lines more as references to his old albums than as actual quality disses, but seeing as he also makes references to NASCAR and a questionable Scott Pilgrim and Breaking Bad shout out, he does have some sense of a lack of focus. There's even a shout-out to Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman, though Kendrick Lamar provided the latter.
He isn't the angry young man from his past, though he raps like he is. Majority of the songs play as though he is suffering from an emotional loss. There is a sense that he has broken up with someone and is heartbroken for most of the tracks to the point of bitterness and questionable violent tendencies. Unlike his past albums, this isn't presented with clever narrative tricks, but just as rants thrown angrily into a lackluster, overproduced chorus. There are gems within it, but the monotony drags it down. Even his attempt to suggest survival ("Survival") feels like a nod to "Lose Yourself," a song that Eminem references on the album when he mentions his Academy Award.
The thing is that with time, society has grown to know who Eminem is, and he has become respected in unprecedented ways. He moved the game forward for whites in the rap field and remains one of the most respected artist. "Recovery" felt like a huge step forward for him as a performer and his consistent amount of collaborations with younger artists only showed a performer who still had something to prove. "The Marshall Mathers LP 2" only feels like it has something to say, but it is more a Rolodex of everything you heard before, literally. Not only are old songs referenced, but snippets of songs such as "Criminal" and "the Real Slim Shady" are used to establish points of how his life has been influenced by the songs.
Even when he tries to be edgy, he produces "So Far...," a song that is supposed to be the sequel to "The Way I Am" down to a reference to a fan interaction in a bathroom, but along with the dumb Joe Walsh sample, it just seems too goofy to be taken seriously. There are too many tonal shifts on the album from hostile and careless to a necessity to care that doesn't feel as crafted as it could have been. Even trying to establish his ego in "Rap God" does manage to produce some of his most acrobatic skills of rapping, but after several songs about being the best, it just feels a little too excessive.
Even the fact that he seems to reference every rapper in history from Rakim and the Beastie Boys to Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Waka Flocka Flame to Jay-Z and A Tribe Called Quest all seem to just suggest that he has nothing to say anymore. He feels like a man who has now lived the life and is fine looking back on it. His references lack any punch of aggressive, dark humor and it almost raises the question if Eminem's attempt to be edgy and commercial will pay off simply because what he has presented is such a dated kaleidoscope of pop culture that he paved the way for. In fact, it is possible that he is the only one talking about Kevin Federline in 2013, which alone suggests his downside.
The album isn't entirely problematic. It has a strong sense of where it came from and even if it keeps the album from feeling fresh, it does feel like a sequel that clashes together in-jokes from every album he has ever made. We get to explore his psyche and it is definitely damaged and not pretty. Still, on "Brainless" when he compares himself to serial killers, it doesn't feel believable. If anything, the album's sincerity is absent this time around. What we do get on the album's best song is "Love Game," which sees him rap with up-and-coming Kendrick Lamar with a fresh sound over a whimsical beat. Maybe it is because the rest of the album feels more mundane and aggressive, but the lighthearted flow of the track remains the high point while his attempt to regain his danger streak on songs such as the lackluster "Evil Twin" only sink the album of potential.
It is a shame that with the assistance of Rick Rubin that this album didn't turn out better. His lead single, "Berzerk," has the energy that Eminem usually has, but mixing Beastie Boys with Billy Squier at very least was an ambitious failure. It showed an identity crisis that attempted to sink this comeback album by being overproduced and drawing attention away from the performer. The guitars don't work and only suggest that Eminem's secret passion nowadays is to retire from rap and just collect vinyl. It is the only points in the album where things seem jarringly off and reflect that while this is a decent sequel to his diary of a mad man classic, it isn't necessarily able to be digested as a quality album for those not familiar with everything else that he's done. On the bright side, he doesn't rap about doing coke anymore (and no shout-out to his daughter, which may be a first), so there's that small progress.
Rating: 3 out of 5
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