On November 5th, 2013, Eminem produced his eighth studio album titled, “Marshall Mathers LP 2.” This album was a sequel to a previous album recorded thirteen years earlier titled, “Marshall Mathers LP,” a record that to this day rightly considered to be one of the greatest rap albums ever made. However, much has changed since the release of the first album, and Eminem has remodeled and remolded his central rap lyrics and image. He was was star in his twenties, an icon of the adolescent punk, and the go-to guy for celebrity insults. He was a Detroit made rapper on the top of his game, dishing out verbal disses at anyone who crossed him.
When Eminem produced his original LP, he was 28. Now years later, in his LP 2, he’s 41. Now he throws out what it’s like to be old using rhymes about wrinkles and cleaning kool-aid off the couch. Although his raps have grown with age, he still has the other predictable and familiar lyrics about the worthlessness of the father who abandoned him, the double edged sword that is fame, and the insults thrown at pop icons. These nostalgic lyrics are not necessarily a bad thing. They give you the hateful, brutally honest, and at times socially taboo comic relief Eminem fans everywhere have identified with and grown to love.
Out of the 16 songs on the album, they all come to represent different facets of the young Slim Shady and the aged Eminem. Songs on the album such as “Bad Guy,” “Berzerk,” “Rap God,” “Legacy,” and “Brainless” are examples of his exceptional flow and crazy word play that will have you wondering how a mind can spit out these unique and complex verses.
In the first week of sales, Shady sold 779,000 copies alone of Marshall Mathers LP 2, making it the highest selling rap album of 2013, according to the Billboard Top 100.
Eminem has produced an album filled with the raw, non-censored emotion fans everywhere have loved for years in 2013, and the jokes, in places offensive, are relentless. There is no apology; theres just a demonstrated application of talent.