So, Eminem has a new music video out this week for his single "Survival" that's going to be on the Marshall Mathers LP 2 next month. It's the same shtick we've heard from him for the past three years; dramatic/corny female chorus with rock instrumentals and him yelling stuff. What's got me puzzled is the music video's terrible product placement for Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Now, Eminem has done work with Activision before by performing for DJ Hero and Call of Duty: Black Ops as well as having his songs in Call of Duty trailers, but this is pretty bad and a new low for him in my opinion. I wonder if product placement for video games was ever done like this before. Thoughts?

This video is pretty corny and the song is not that great. I dunno man Eminem has been kind of bad for a while now. Rapping in front of a screen with video games in the background is kind of dumb.

Eminem is still ok I guess. It's interesting to compare what he's doing now, which is soulless mainstream rap, compared to what somebody like Kanye West does, which is continue to try and innovate and expand what he does.

Yup, this stuff happens. Why would video games be an exception? It's a tried and true formula. And this kind of thing isn't for us, it's for the guy who likes Eminem and it just so happens Eminem endorses the new Call of Duty so it MUST BE BAD ASS. We get out information from game previews, xXxQuickScopeMarshallMatthewsxXx gets his information from this music video. Done deal.

Yeah, it's pretty dumb. But there's probably a pretty significant overlap of people who care about a new Emienm album in 2013 and a new Call of Duty game.

Hasn't all rap been about product placement since Run-DMC?

Remember when hip hop was young brothers from the ghetto talking about how shitty it is to live there? Now it's millionaires writing songs about all the shit they have.

Oh well, I don't gotta like it cause the hood gon love it.

It sounds fine, I dunno. That's probably my next album to buy, almost skipping October.

I think the song is totally fine. The CoD gameplay as he is rapping about something a bit more serious and down to earth is a bit corny though. Berzerk is a much more professionally produced music video, though.

Love the song and video. It's getting me hyped for the album and Ghosts which is the point.

He's got some new song playing on popular radio. It's garbage and it makes me sad. This song is better, but still nothing special.

@toowalrus: I like Bezerk better myself, both are great though

Berzerk is just a fun song. Has me hoping the rest of the album is just as good.

Em's videos haven't been all that great for a good while now, but I like the song just fine. I don't like that it sounds like a Recovery b-side when the album it's representing is meant to be a "sequel" to one of the best rap albums ever, but I'll take Recovery Eminem over, say, Encore Eminem any day.

As for the CoD promo: We're in a time where Snoop is doing Hot Pockets ads, Dr. Dre is putting his name on painfully overpriced and ubiquitous headphones, and Ice Cube is doing cheesy comedies. The days of NWA, Slim Shady LP, and even the Up In Smoke tour are long gone. CoD footage in a music video almost doesn't seem worth mentioning next to what his colleagues are doing.

Now, if Em ever says "Gaming is like a religion to me, and CoD is the shit", then I'll rethink my stance.

I disagree. For a musician, music videos are part of your art. None of that other crap is part of anyone's art, except for maybe Cube, and he was great in 21 Jump Street.

This just saddens me, and Eminem should be far more shamed by this than the other examples that you gave.

Whatever haters. Ems dope. And so is Call of Duty.

@turboman: Kanye is as close to rap as the black eyed peas. Pop music.

@spaceinsomniac: Don't get me wrong, I don't like that Eminem is tying his name so strongly to CoD like this (nothing against the game, just that his association with it feels painfully fake), I just prefer it be done in a video than seep into his lyrics or something. Not counting his and D12's song for "The Longest Yard", which was wonderfully dumb in the best way.

As long as he's still killing it on the actual records, it's cool with me. Besides, the Chrysler ad was way more egregious.

The Black Eyed Peas used to make some fairly good music. They were quite similar to A Tribe Called Quest in the original incarnation of the group.

Em, on the other hand, make two amazing albums, and has only managed to make a handful of great singles ever since. It's kind of a shame, but I don't think he writes his own beats, and I think he needs to change his sound.

Then again, I have heard it last couple of albums, but his Bad Meets Evil work was pretty good. He's still really quite talented, though, which makes this COD tie-in nonsense all the more sad to see.