Eminem returns with nothing new

Eminem is 41 years old and it’s showing. Having released his debut album Infinite in 1996, he’s now taking his rightful place alongside Jay Z in leading the charge of legacy rappers who refuse to quit.

The Detroit MC’s new album, designed to be a direct continuation of 2000s seminal Marshall Mathers LP, puts him definitively in the category of so-called Dadrap.

Early in his career, the angst, violence, and pills that inspired the ire of parents and the admiration of teenagers the world over, were just as integral to Eminem’s success as his talents.

 Without the controversial lyrics that detailed hatred for his mother, his wife, and the Justin-Britney-Christina axis of pop, he could easily have ended up just another marginal battle rapper.

 So when he graduated from antihero to pop stalwart in the mid-aughts, the world largely lost interest.

MMLP2 is Eminem’s attempt to reverse that narrative. And while he gets some of it right, the album is mostly an abrasive, inconsistent reminder that he’s further from his original story than he’s ever been.

After nearly two decades of honing his craft, Eminem remains a superb rapper, arguably the world’s best.

With its dense, impressive amalgam of internal rhymes, tricky flows, and assumed characters, MMLP2 confirms that.

But, despite his lyrical and vocal dexterity, Eminem falls short in recreating the spirit of the first Marshall Mathers LP; the absurdity that, by his own admission, made him White America’s favourite public enemy, is no longer convincing.

 Really, expecting 41-year-old Eminem to channel his late-20s self was an impossibly ambitious demand.

For all the syllables crammed into its 79 minutes, very little is actually said on the Marshall Mathers LP 2.

 In between gratuitous puns and punch lines, Eminem relies more on surface-level references to MMLP—he has even returned to his signature bleached-blonde hair.

And just in case you forgot what he set out to do, Eminem borrows plenty of lyrics and samples from MMLP for use all over MMLP2.

That overpowering, but ultimately ill-placed, nostalgia seems to also ring true for executive producer Rick Rubin.

On “Bad Guy,” the album’s seven-minute introductory track, Eminem lays out the two themes that are revisited consistently on MMLP2: a wrenching heartbreak courtesy of an unnamed ex (he hates her) and an act of reflection that reads more like self-consciousness .

 Elsewhere on the album’s 18 tracks, beats from DJ Khalil, Frequency, and DVLP are solid, polished pieces of music that disappoint largely because they aren’t particularly progressive in a year of major rap releases.

Some songs, such as “The Monster” and “Legacy,” which feature Rihanna and Polina Goudieva respectively, pander obviously to pop radio, with hooks designed to lodge themselves into your brain unsolicited. It’s a ploy that will definitely work.

Other tracks, like “So Much Better,” “Brainless,” and “Rap God,” are great feats of rap, substantiating Eminem’s boasts.

In terms of technique, his only real competitor is Kendrick Lamar, incidentally the album’s sole guest rapper, who appears on “Love Game” to do his best to win  Eminem’s impression.  bbHowever, the handful of enjoyable listens go south thanks to his dependence on misogyny and homophobia-premised punch lines. “Little gay lookin’ boy / So gay I can barely say it with a straight face lookin’ boy” he taunts on “Rap God” for no apparent reason and to no comedic effect.

Now that it’s no longer shocking, Eminem’s calling card of yore—unrelenting misogyny and homophobia—falls absolutely flat.

Whereas the dark, sadistic, hilarious lyrics of MMLP were translated as the honest expressions of a misguided young man, similar attempts are wholly difficult to stomach coming from a grown man who seems to enjoy calling opponents faggots just because he can.

 The hatefulness parading as authenticity on MMLP2 is neither entertaining nor successful without Eminem’s once-signature wit.

In true dad rap form, his complaints about technology—“My apologies, no disrespect to technology. But what the heck is all of these buttons?  You expect me to sit here and learn that?” he asks on “So Far”—make up one of the album’s few earnest bits.

The other heartfelt moment is a sincere apology to his mother, formerly the primary target of his rage and whose dysfunction was immortalised in the autobiographical film 8 Mile.

On “Headlights,” alongside a grating hook sung by fun’s Nate Ruess, Eminem puts forth the apology no one expected: “To this day we remain estranged and I hate it though / ‘Cause you ain’t even get to witness your grand baby’s growth / But I’m sorry mama for “Cleaning Out My Closet” / At the time I was angry / Rightfully maybe so, never meant that far to take it though.”

This tiny sliver of adult Eminem is far more compelling than most of MMLP2.

Amidst the inconsistency, though, what’s clear is that Eminem truly enjoys rap as sport.

 Once you get used to that idea, the Marshall Mathers LP 2 serves mostly as a reminder that there are much stronger records in his catalogue that you’d rather be listening to.