The Shady Lab Dre Mathers Eminem Recovery's Back Back Again LP 15

Yeah, it's another "what to expect" post.  Well, kind of.  I guess it's more of a "this is what I'd not only like to see, but what I think is at least semi-likely considering what's happened since his last album"... post.  About Eminem.

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!

A Song About Music

Hey y'all, here's a song!  It's about 90s music, and how I got into it.  With some metaphory stuff.  Turned out to be waaaayyyyy shorter than I thought, but I feel like if I bullshat a bunch more verses, it would just get repetitive.

Also, this whole process of recording and uploading this thing has been rife with technical difficulties, soooooo anything you don't like about it, chalk it up to that.

Since my singing voice is stupid-hard to understand (hey, I'm no Aretha Franklin), here's the lyrics.

It started at my school; the chick who looked like Slash
She played the drums to System of a Down
My branches grew from there

I came down with the sickness
But I was brought to life

Offspring, my skatepunk jams; a town that swallows lives
I'm not a fan of sand; a camp for suicides
Oh Stan, why you so mad
Just to try to understand

Jump ahead to school, do not pass GO
There was a Serbian boy who brought me to Nirvana
There's writing on the walls

Jimmy gave me my feelings
They're both inside this box

Our lady Alice of peace; her chains and garden jams
Marilyn's abyss; together ever since
And it stared back at me
And it stared lovingly

Now let's play Spot The Reference!

And by "let us", I mean you do that.

I don't wanna play with you.

That's right.  I heard the stories.

Very special thanks to Tyler Priest, without whom this project would not be possible!  He does music too and he does it better than me, so go check it out right nnaaooooooooo!

Manson

All ye of the Christian Right persuasion, you oughta leave now, cuz I'ma be jerking over the Antichrist Superstar himself for a while here.  So unless you wanna catch some 21-year-old fanatical spunk in your eye, I suggest you backdafuqup.  If you aren't one of these silly conservative types that hates those doo-wopping rapscallions and their "rock and roll" doodads where they move their hips and buy each other malts... well, you'll probably still get spermed on, but I'll try a bit harder not to.

Well, now that I've alienated about half of you by talking about sperm, let's begin.

Uh, the whales?  Obviously?

Though I didn't really get into Marilyn Manson until freshman year(ish), I was never part of the other camp, people who took the two things they knew about Manson (plays some kind of heavy music with a lot of swears that no one's actually tried to listen to, and... I don't know, wears makeup?) plus the things they think they know about Manson ("Eewwwwww he's creeeepyyyyyy!"  Your mom's creepy.  "Hurr he got a rib removed."  No, that's not a thing that happened.  "They're the guys that started that riot, right?"  No, that was Limp Bizkit.  "URRRRR He's responsible for Columbine!" eye twitch) to equal: a frightening and unnecessary hatred normally reserved for Osama Bin Laden and exercise.

We'll find a way to get you too, Exercise.  Just you wait.  Smug bastard.

Somewhere down the line I Limewired (yeah, remember that?) a random sampling of his songs on a whim.  I'd heard people speak fearfully of his music, describing it as "crazy death metal" and other surprisingly-stupider epithets.

Yeah.  I've heard numerous people call THIS GUY "death metal".

Teenage-me, even when I barely knew what "death metal" was, figured that had to be stupid on some level or another.  Yeah, whatever, call it teenage arrogance, but it's not hard to tell when someone (or many a someone) has an uninformed opinion.  So I netted a random bunch of songs, mostly singles, and listened to 'em.  I liked the FUCK out of them.  Somewhere in the next sometime (this ain't no history lesson), I went down to my local FYE (sigh... auf wiedersehen, old friend) and, on kind of a whim, bought two of his albums: Eat Me Drink Me (cuz I liked "Heart-Shaped Glasses") and Antichrist Superstar (cuz I liked "The Beautiful People").

The rest of my day after I got home went something like this:

Shut myself in attic (my hangout)

Popped in Antichrist Superstar (came out first, so hey, why not?)

Listened

Did little else

Was like "WTF?"

Stared at jewel case for a minute

Listened again

Fucking "got it, man"

I mean no, I didn't, because Manson fills his lyrics with so much imagery and symbols and crazy artistic shit that I don't think I could wrap my head all the way around it without the assistance of psychotropics, but I "got it" enough.

Mr. Marilyn knows how to write a freaking song, to be sure.  But his strength lies in the albums as full-on sit-and-ponder hour-or-so-long experiences.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnndd Blogger's having a shit-fit and suddenly can't post images.  Sucks, cuz I was about to put something funny.  Now you'll just have to imagine it.

The themes, the way the songs flow into one another, the hidden (and not-so-hidden) narrative, how they end and begin... there's something really special there, something that never fails to captivate me and put me in some mystic, if unsettled, place.

Point is, even if it may not show up in my songwriting (not like there's anywhere to hear my songs... or like I have songs recorded), Marilyn Manson's music is what pushed me into wanting to knuckle down and get serious about it.  Not like "I think I'm gonna be a rock star" serious, but serious like I want to actually be good at it, I want to write a ballston of songs, I wanna have bands, I wanna know bands, play shows, spit beer on my fans, bring down das houses, have people hear my shit, and ya know what?  Maybe even inspire someone like Manson inspired me.  Fuck I gotta go record.