So...Thoughts on the New Eminem Album?

I don't think I've heard an album peak so early and then roll downhill so quickly. When I heard it opened up with a sequel to Stan it only further fueled my skepticism, but it's probably my favorite track on the whole thing. The beat sucks at first but at the end when it switches up it's easily the highlight of the entire project.

But the rest of the album ranges from horrible to really forgettable. Em can still write and rap his ass off but his ability to put a great song together has pretty much vanished, not that it's really been around much in the last eight years. Also the album is probably the least cohesive thing he's ever done. None of the songs flow into one another and the production on all of them pretty much blows. He even sampled fucking Steely Dan. I fucking hate Steely Dan.

I can't tell if I like Rhyme or Reason because it's actually a good song or because I like the Zombies song it samples. I think it's the latter. Either way this was the disappointment I knew it would be. Not gonna lie though, I'll continue to check out everything with his name on it and will sell my right nut for a front row ticket if he ever decides to tour North America ever again.

Still upset this is being named MMLP2. Sounds more like a sequel to Recovery IMO. The beat selection has been horrible, and for some reason Em's flow can't stay on beat anymore. Fuck that Rihanna feature too.

Anything he has done in the last decade I can't really get with. Cept for Relapse. I LOVED Relapse.

Yeah, it's like Nas doing an Illmatic 2. I liked Recovery better than this, it was a forgettable album but wasn't nearly as outright awful as most of this new one. I don't think the Rihanna track is all that bad, but it seems forced since they've been swapping features back and forth between albums the last few years. I hate this new trend in rap where just because artists are friends off the mic they think they have to throw each other features even if they have no chemistry together. That ruined Pusha T's album for me.

Yeah er i like it. But then i know nothing about music i just let my ears do the talkin and don't over analyse everything. I find it helps to enjoy things.

He shouldn't have named it MMLP2, that just puts dangerous expectations on it. I'll give it a listen eventually but I'm in no hurry.

Crossing my fingers for a Ghosts cameo appearance like the Avenged Seven Fold one in BO2.

it sounds decent but he really shouldn't have named it MMLP2

Yeah I like how Pusha kept bragging about not singing hooks, but still had other people singing hooks on his songs. I assume that was more of the label suits than his choice though. Gotta make something for the radio. Plus that Ma$e throwback joint with Kelly Rowland was pretty dope.

1/10 if I'm being fair

Yeah it's ok... Few good songs but nothing memorable...

About to listen to it, but my hopes aren't high. Then again, I loved Recovery, so who knows? Surely it can't be worse than Encore.

Edit: I'm really liking Bad Guy. It actually sounds like his MMLP1 delivery. That last minute gives me chills. I'll keep adding my thoughts as I go.

Rhyme or Reason is fantastic. Like OP said, it's partially because of the sample, but it's a fun song anyway. So Much Better, on the other hand, I have no strong feelings either way about. I'll need to give this one a few more listens to see if it clicks. Survival is Survival, of course. I kinda like it, but as I feared, I can only picture CoD while I listen to it. Legacy... man... I'm in love with this one already. Don't much care for Asshole. It sounds blown out, and Skylar Grey's singing is annoying. Funny that Em disses ICP again, though... didn't they squash their beef? Berzerk is still kind of annoying, yet I don't dislike it. It's too fun to hate, even as I shake my head at it. Rap God has grown on me quite a bit. I still think the lyrics are pretty weak, but the delivery is muy, muy bueno.

Brainless... meh. Forgettable. Stronger Than I Was is interesting, but I don't know if I like it. Em does really strong "serious" tracks, but... I dunno. Maybe it'll grow on me. I really like Monster, but then Rihanna is one of my guilty pleasures. Em's strong on this, though, and I like the beat. So Far... hmmm... it's definitely a thing, as Alex would say. Heh... did he just dis Recovery? Interesting. Wait, is Love Game the same track? C'mon, Em, you can't do this kind of track twice in a row. Kendrick's killing it, though. Okay, as it goes along, I'm starting to like it. Again, too fun to hate.

Headlights is surprising. An apology song toward his mom? Wow. Never saw that coming. As a song, it's cheesy, but I like it anyway. Guess I'm a softie. And finally, Evil Twin. Maybe the most MMLP1 track on the album, but still feels defanged. Not bad, not great.

And that's my big issue with this album: MMLP1 was dangerous, dark, and brutal. It was funny too, but this album is largely humor, ballads, and "Hey, remember my early days?". If anything, the tone is closer to SSLP. Overall I like it, but it's not the album it was hyped up to be.

Edit: Okay, listening again, fuck it. This is a great album with a bad name. When I'm not tearing it apart, it's damn good stuff.

I was excited in the beginning but like you said, that excitement nosedived into disappointment but you're right about Bad Guy, that last third is incredible and should have been the whole album.

Haven't listened to it yet, but I feel like I should listen to MMLP1 before listening to this. But the way you put it makes it sound like there isn't really a need to.

Eminem had a new album?

Yes, and it hasn't been released yet, which makes this open discussion of it seem a little suspect

You can listen to the entire album online with a simple Google search. It's pretty common now.

Can you show me a legit stream?

Haven't listened to the whole thing yet but generally it's... pretty awful.

To be fair I haven't liked Eminem in a long time but I do like to check in and see how it's going. There's some OK production but really nothing I found memorable and, most importantly, I find his verses 90% tired/played/yawn-inducing.

I do not like it that much.

I like it. Not everything on it. But it's Eminem. I have all the albums and will always listen to them.

http://www.howflyhiphop.com/2013/10/30/eminem-the-marshall-mathers-lp-2-album-stream-download/

His beats are outdated.

He has a good flow and delivery, but he just isn't really saying anything new or interesting.

Eh.

I love Bad Guy. Like I really do. It's up there with the best stuff he's ever done in my books. The last three minutes. My god, I get chills every time I listen to it.

I also like Rhyme or Reason. Probably the most "enjoyable" song to listen to on that album. Everything else is preeeeeetty bad.

Eminem is hip-hop's Sonic the Hedgehog.

He's such a good rapper and sometimes he pulls you in with his flow and you have to be impressed, but his beats are so weak on this album, the hooks so unbelievably atrocious, and the concepts for the songs are just incredibly uninspired. It feels like a desperate grab for past glory that misses the mark by quite a lot, making it seem more sad than nostalgic.

When "Stronger Than I Was" came on I laughed for 3 straight minutes before hitting the skip button.

He did. It's called Stillmatic and it's great.

As a huge Beastie Boys fan I was really pumped when Berzerk dropped as the first single. I think it's a really fun song and I can't help but like it. I've also liked pretty much everything else I've heard off the album even though I've only hit about half of it.

It took me a while to reconcile the fact that Eminem now is not the Eminem I grew up on or originally loved, and it sucks a little that he will never sound like he did on MMLP or The Eminem Show. But I think this is the first album since Encore that's really interested me and I'm starting to respect the new Eminem, even if he's sometimes almost a different artist from what he was a decade ago.

It's one of my favorite albums of his so far. "Rap God" is one of the best Eminem songs ever and "Survival" is a close second. "Bezerk" has one of the best hooks I've heard in any of his songs. "Monster" is the only mediocre track I've heard from it so far.

Also, it's streaming on iTunes Radio: https://itunes.apple.com/us/station/idra.734578245?ls=1

Until he starts rapping about choking bitches and stabbing his wife again, I have no time for Eminem.
Alas the world has changed a lot since his music was what I call good, it would piss off too many people and Rihanna would be angry at him.

TL;DR I checked it out, didn't like it, disregarded album name.

From what I've listened, I like it so far. Survival and Monster are pretty damn good.

Bad Guy is ridiculously good, the rest of the album is trash.

Yeah, I'm finding myself pretty disappointed by this. Rap God seemed like we were getting back into the right direction, and Berzerk seemed like the single that needed to be there...must like The Real Slim Shady was. However, the rest is just...I don't know...it's not amazing. That's the only thing I expect out of something called MMLP2.

In general, putting out a "sequel" to your classic album results in disappointment. I'm looking at you, Operation: Mindcrime 2.

I honestly think that video games are the only medium that can routinely improve on the first shot due to a better grasp of technology and understanding your design philosophy better. Music and movies aren't really constrained by that sort of thing, whereas improving the frame rate and gunplay in Mass Effect 2 made it a better game (despite an inferior overall story arc).

But enough about Mass Effect, I liked Rap God. That's all I got.

Rhythm or reason, that is about it. Not a worthy sequel.

*cough* I actually think this is significantly better than anything he's released since The Eminem Show and I actually enjoy a lot of the material on here... some clangers though but it's a pretty strong album from an artist who I had assumed lost it a long time ago.

I haven't listened yet, but I actually really enjoyed Recovery so I'm hopeful for this one. Calling it MMLP2 was a terrible mistake no matter how good this might be. MMLP is one of the greatest albums of all time, he just doesn't quite have that in him anymore, but I still think I'll enjoy it. Guess I'll find out tomorrow when I grab it from the store in the morning.

I like it a lot. I was a big fan of Recovery, and it's not as good as that, but closer than I expected.

I've been listening to Em since Slim Shady, and to be honest I really like MMLP2. It's definitely a weird album with eclectic samples, but I find that this is probably the missing link between Eminem Show and Recovery. If that's a step back, or forward, I have no idea. I'm leaning toward a step "sideways" personally. I'm a pretty big fan of the venomous sarcasm and absolute fucking disdain for the zeitgeist's perception of who Eminem is, which seems to be a major theme of this album. I don't think it's an accident that Bad Guy (the oft-mentioned "Stan 2") opens the album. It spends 7 minutes building up the pop culture idea of Eminem, before it's absolutely torn to pieces throughout subsequent tracks. It may be less focused, cohesive, or pristine in production, but the haggard, erratic, raw energy of the album more than compensates for that double-aught gloss most listeners are accustomed to.

Also for people talking about how this shouldn't have been called Marshall Mathers LP 2, give the album a few more spins. It'll make sense if you pay attention to what he's saying.

As a huge fan of eminem since the beginning like you i was a litlle afraid of this album. I haven't heard it yet but this gives me some hope i will like it;)

Some of the songs needed to grow on me, but it's a good album. A solid mix of the different forms of Eminem/Slim Shady, with great, worthy callbacks to MMLP. He's lyrical ability and flow is in top form. I'd say 8.8/10.

Big Ghost Fase has entirely summed up everything I feel about Eminem's new album.

But I haven't liked Eminem for a long while.

I listened to it in its entirety today and I don't know that I could tell you anything I remember about a single track.

... Which I think about sums it up.

Listened to it earlier today and I can honestly say I have no desire to hear it again. Hands down the worst Eminem album released to date. 20 songs or so and about 2 of them were decent.

Eminem's alright - there were some songs of his way back that I totally dug. Just had a listen to that first song, Bad Guy, and the first 2/3s is not that great, but that last 1/3 is really great.

It's not good. It's a bad rap album. I suppose it's better than Recovery but that's a pretty goddamn low bar.

My biggest problem with it is that Em just sounds so, so old. He's STILL talking about ICP and Monica Lewinsky and Britney Spears and the Kardashians and all this other dumb outdated shit that he's been talking about since the last Marshall Mathers LP. It kind of reminds of the humor in GTA V to some extent. And there's something just profoundly sad about a 40 year old calling people faggots. How tired is that shit at this point? He's obviously a very technical proficient rapper (probably one of the best of all-time in that regard) and he definitely shows that off at times. But he's at the point in his career that no matter how flashy he says it, what he has to say just isn't remotely interesting.

I haven't cared about Eminem since The Eminem Show. Haven't heard or have any desire to hear his new album.

I'm a fan of eminem his musics were great but the title right now is no bueno not good at all to lame.

Listened to it this morning and OH GOD IT'S SO BAD

Big Ghost is probably my favorite person on twitter. I totally expected him to trash the album but his review has made me give it a second chance. I still think it feels disjointed but it could've been a whole lot worse...

I like the album a lot. His best since the Eminem Show for sure. I think the only two songs I wasn't feeling were Stronger than I Was and the butt-cheese Survival. Other than that, I'm really digging it. Kinda disheartening to see everyone shitting all over it. He's still a great rapper, I'm really not seeing what's so bad about it.

Some of the hooks are irritating to me, Asshole and Berzerk for example. But his verses are just unbelievable, you can tell Em is hungry to impress everyone again, and that's cool with me.