![]() ![]() He raps about how he can’t figure out how to download Luda on his computer and waves the Nineties-geek flag with references to Jeffrey Dahmer and the Unabomber. He’s still a solipsistic cretin, but in a more general, everyday sort of way. Yet Em’s former obsession – his own media image – has been replaced with a 41-year-old’s cranky concerns. The Marshall Mathers LP 2 is about reclaiming a certain freewheeling buoyancy, about pissing off the world from a more open, less cynical place he even says sorry to his mom on “Headlights,” where he’s joined by Nate Ruess of fun.Įminem Honors the Hip-Hop Village That Raised Him in Rock Hall Induction Speech But some subsequent albums felt hermetic, perverting rage into rock-star griping on 2004’s Encore, horror-show shock tactics on 2009’s Relapse and 12-step purging on 2010’s Recovery. During the 13 years since The Marshall Mathers LP, he’s never lost his acrobat-gremlin skills on the mic. “How’s this for publicity stunt? This should be fun/Last album now, ’cause after this you’ll be officially done,” Em raps, playing his own killer.Įminem could use a publicity stunt, and The Marshall Mathers LP 2 is just what the therapist ordered. The first song, “Bad Guy,” is seven white-knuckled minutes of psycho-rap insanity in which Stan’s little brother comes back to chop Slim Shady into Slim Jims, tossing him into the trunk and driving around Detroit – listening to The Marshall Mathers LP, of course. "Evil Twin" is more or less a direct attack at Shady's persona in 2000, a different character than exists in his own mind now, and contains his most telling lines of the whole album: "Sometimes I listen and revisit them old albums/Often as I can and skim through all them bitches/To make sure I keep up with my competition/Hoarder of beats, hoarder of rhymes/Borderline genius who's bored of his lines/And that sort of defines where I'm at and the way I feel now.The Marshall Mathers LP 2 is the kind of sequel that gets people shouting at the screen in disbelief before their seats are warmed up. But for the most part, the way he addresses his own demons-particularly on "Bad Guy" and album closer "Evil Twin," both of which see him battling alter ego Slim Shady-see Em delving into his intense issue within himself, a dichotomy which only he can articulate with such an uncomfortable clarity. ![]() ![]() There are still problems with some of his lyrical content: the overt homophobia is still there, even though it's addressed (albeit briefly) on album opener "Bad Guy," and at this point it feels pointless to take issue with the violent content in his words. ![]()
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