As you may have heard, Eazy's (get it? like Weezy but Eazy cuz his name starts with an E? do you love me yet?) back in the lab, and his latest experiment's called... The Marshall Mathers LP 2. A sequel to an early album. Hmm. Not automatically a bad thing, but imagine for a second, if you will, another artist saying their next album's gonna be a sequel to a hyper-acclaimed first-ish album of theirs. The Joshua Tree (U)2. Blood Sugar Sex Magik Returns. Highway 61 Visited For A Third Time. Son of the College Dropout (actually...).
First reactions? None of these would sound like awful ideas, but they're not really necessary and it feels like they're kind of grasping at straws, or at least taking a jump backwards after all these years of growth. That's how part of me feels about The Marshall Mathers LP 2. However, the rest of me has very high hopes. Em's already proved a few times that he's no slouch when it comes to concepts spanning multiple albums, no matter how tight or loose
they may be. The Eminem Show and Encore. Relapse and Recovery. So what if he's a few years late on this one? I'm sure he'll whip something up that's at least on par with the past few years.
That being said, these are a few hopeful "predictions" or educated guesses as to what we could see on the TMMLP2, based on what Eminem's been trending towards, what it feels like he's trying to recapture, what's happened in the world of popular culture these days.
Collaboration with a younger up-and-comer (and by young I mean like, close-to-my-age young). My vote goes for Childish Gambino cuz he's a personal favorite, but somehow I don't think that's happening. I really have no idea what they think of each other. More likely, I'm leaning towards Hopsin or Danny Brown.
A song rife with Breaking Bad references, or at least with an accompanying video that lampoons it. I just hope he's playing both parts (meaning Walter and Jesse... maybe Gus too... and Skyler... and Walter Junior... yeah, I think I'd enjoy that). I don't think it's too far of a stretch. Em's very up on popular culture (as any artist should be, IMO), and I'd think he's no stranger to as big a phenomenon as Breaking Bad. Not to say I think he should jump on the bandwagon and start publicly advocating for the show for the hell of it. Nothing against the show or its fanbase, but I feel like that would come across as kinda weird and forced, and very un-Eminem. I just think there's a lot of connections to be drawn between his persona/phrases/aesthetic and the show, enough to make a song out of.
A sequel to Stan? I'm talking more "spiritual sequel" here, like Love The Way You Lie Part 2 - doesn't continue the exact same narrative per se, but it's a further exploration of the pairing of those themes with that aesthetic. Unless... a song about Stan's little brother having grown up over these past 13 years, fostering a burning hatred for the negligent star that (from his perspective) drove his brother to murder-suicide, now ready to take revenge? Think about it.
Riffage and grooves worthy of the Mike Elizondo days. We miss you, Mike (yeah, he was on like 4 tracks from Relapse, but he hasn't exactly been a series regular in years). Don't get me wrong, I love everything Eminem's ever done (musically). But his more recent albums seem a bit... I dunno, busy? On a similar note...
Re-exploration of the pop-rap sensibility we saw on Recovery. Maybe take a few tricks from that and apply it to the old grit and snarl of first-few-albums Eminem. I know, pop-rap (a la Kanye, Gambino) and good old Midwestern horrorcore doesn't sound like the most homogeneous of mixtures, but sleek and aggressive go together better than you might think. Black Skinhead, anyone?
M0ar juicy genre-bending. Eminem's no stranger to including a variety of sounds in his albums, but he's generally hovered in the realm of popular music these days (hip-hop tropes, some pop here, some hard rock there, sometimes a garage aesthetic like in Won't Back Down or his latest, Berzerk). Let's go batshit with this one. He's already going for broke by making a sequel to an album almost 15 years later - why not go ass-crazy with it? Not to say he should up and make this the bastard child of a David Bowie and Brian Eno record. But hey, with the right balance of the familiar and the alien, this album could do for modern rap what Sandinista! did for punk, what Nevermind did for alternative. Sure, rap's had several contenders for an album like that since Y2K - but nothing quite there, I'd argue. Something minimalist and almost resembling spoken word. A self-lampooning dance beat. A collab with a metal guitarist. Rapping in 6/8 over something Mumfordy. There's endless possibilities in hip-hop, and I think Eminem's got the dynamite to blow that gold mine wide open.
And lastly...
A collaboration with Marilyn Manson that isn't a remix. Okay, this isn't actually going to happen. Ever. But I said a-god-damn momma, I can dream.
Well, I think six predictions and a fantasy's enough for one day. 'Til next time!
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