Eminem – Marshall Mathers LP 2 (Interscope Records)

‘TL:DR: Eminem is a sellout, MMLP2 will be as bad if not worse than Recovery, and a sizeable aim of the release is to promote Dre’s ‘Beats Electronics’ company.’

Eminem has announced that he will be releasing Marshall Mathers 2 on 5th November 2013 with much excitement surrounding the release. However I am alot more skeptical as to the real purpose of this release and instinct tells me MMLP2 will differ greatly to the original Marshall Mathers LP. Let me explain.

Let us inspect the way this release has been announced. This release was announced at the MTV VMA’s. Any music associated with MTV in this day and age already makes me skeptical, however it is important to note that there is a history of a relationship between Eminem and MTV, and perhaps Eminem felt most comfortable announcing the release with a familiar party. What has become apparent to me however, is that MTV have used Eminem here to stay relevant and to tap into a demographic that would perhaps otherwise be unaware of the VMA’s or would have completely avoided the awards.

Now there are two videos circulating at the moment and both include heavy affiliation with Beats headphones. This affiliation causes me the greatest concern as to what the release will entail. I will explain more as to what I mean further on into this article, but first I want to analyse the lyrics we hear in these promo’s, and perhaps if we can predict what we can further expect.

Eminem – Bezerk Single Promo:

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Lyrics:

“Take your shoes off, let your hair down
All Night Long!
Grow Your Beard Out Just Weird Out
All Night Long!
Gonna work this house until we knock it down
So turn the volume loud cos it getting to the AM
So crank the bass up like crazy and let yourself go,
Let yourself gooo.
*inaudible* before we kick the bucket
Lifes too short to not go for broke
So everybody, everybody *deck scratch sounds*”

MTV VMA Awards Trailer

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Lyrics:

“Now this *bitch?* is about to kick off this party looks whack
Lets take it back to start hip hop and start it from scratch
I’m about to bloody this jack up, everybody get back
Thats why my pen needs a pad, cos my rhymes on a rag
Just like i did with addiciton..”

It is blatant from these lyrics that there is no way this release covers the topics we encountered in the first Marshall Mathers LP. But why?

Well the answers simple, Eminem’s situation has changed. He used to be white trash in a broken society, and because of his position he poured the hardships he endured into his music along with a fuck you atitude, because frankly, he had nothing to lose. Now, Eminem is a 40 year old Multi Millionaire, with kids who are old enough to be understand his content, so it is of no surprise his content has changed. It was not long ago Eminem was hounded as a villian by the media and politicians alike, used as a scapegoat for a variety of problems due to controversial subject matters in his lyrics and his ‘influence’ on kids. He simply doesn’t want the attention that would come with criticizing popular figures, name dropping controversial events and mentioning taboo topics.

Steve Berman Skit from the Marshall Mathers LP, discussing the subject matter of the release:

[audio:https://www.thepurplebay.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/06-Steve-Berman.mp3]

One only has to look at the commercial affiliations with Eminem and the breed of artists Eminem has been collaborating with of late (Rihanna, Pink and Lil Wayne). No way in hell would Eminem ever have collaborated with an artist like Rihanna on the Marshall Mathers LP. Eminem has identified an easy demographic to go for, and has used big pop collaborations to further establish himself, and has profited through strong sales of Recovery, and the bookings he receives for performances.

But why have they not called it Slim Shady LP 2 or come up with a new name, why have called it Marshall Mathers 2? Well the Marshall Mathers LP was Eminem’s best selling release ever, and so to capture a larger audience I assume they hope to gain sales from a pool of people who loved the first album. All in all this is a great marketing move, as they will be able to promote the album more efficiently than had they given it a new name, and also Beats will be able to gain great exposure.

Eminem has become a marketing tool. One only has to look at his twitter page to see the affiliations (CoD, G Shock etc.) and the Beats product placement in both promo videos for MMLP2 was so prevalent that one could be forgiven for thinking they were adverts for Beats headphones. Beats Electronics has been manufacturing its own products since late 2012, and it is a well known fact that the company is Co-Founded by Dr. Dre. Undoubtedly Eminem will be given a healthy share for co-operation, and I have a gut feeling telling me, this release will be tailored to trying to promote Beats as much as possible. Therefore whatever hope there was of Eminem surprising us are dashed, as companies simply don’t want to be affiliated with controversy. This is the exact reason why Reebok dropped Rick Ross for having rape lyrics. So we can oversimplify and conclude that this album is also being used as a tool to boost sales of Beats Electronics.

There is an important lesson to learn from the story of Eminem, people and figures change. Whilst we may have upheld previous work, there is no reason to assume any further work would be of the same quality. It is important to recognise achievements where they are made, however even artists and individuals with important and radical views are ordinary human beings.