The Return Of Eminem

I never really understood the Eminem phenomenom. Despite the Oscar, the Grammys, the millions of albums sold, and the props from some of the best MC's out there (Jay-Z, Nas, etc.) I've never gotten over the fact that he's a niche rapper with a mainstream rapper's career. Looking back on his music, it's amazing he's sold the amount of albums he's sold and earned the type of praise he's earned when you consider how juvenile and low-brow his music mostly is. Some of it is no doubt complex, and delve into very dark areas of the human condition ("Stan," "Guilty Conscience"), but for the most part, his records are of the National Lampoon variety ("The Real Slim Shady," "Without Me"). I don't deny the guy's got skills on the mic, particularly when it comes to freestyles, but he's catering to such a narrow audience - immature, twelve-year-old boys - and putting out fairly mediocre, for the moment, music; production-wise especially. At his best, he's a good episode of South Park; at his worst, he's a Family Guy repeat.

Still, I tried to approach the new Eminem album with an open mind. It's been almost five years since his last album Encore, an eternity in hip hop. In that time, his friend Proof was murdered, he married and divorced his wife Kim for the second time, and he became addicted to sleeping pills. That's a lot of shit to process, and he's certainly given himself enough time to do it.

The results aren't terrific The first single, "We Made You," and its accompanying video offer the same tried-and-true Eminem. His rapid-fire delivery is there, but so are all the pop culture references, the skewering of celebrities (Kim Kardashian, Sarah Palin, Amy Winehouse, etc.), the gross potty humour (i.e. Bobby Lee), and the requisite Dr. Dre cameo. The video is directed by the same guy who did "Without Me" and it's like nothing's changed. Shady sticks to the same formula so much I can't help but wonder if instead of being in seclusion all this time, he was in suspended animation (Sarah Palin? Really? That shit is so 2008).



I haven't listened to any previous Eminem album, so it's hard for me to gage whether or not he's matured as an artist in this respect, but after listening to Relapse, and based on singles from his four previous albums, I'd have to say no. The production work is all Dr. Dre (again), and the songs are all structured pretty much the exact same way, with Slim providing the annoying, chorus - a mix of him singing and rapping a drawn-out verse over Dre's beats. There are some dope punchlines in there of course, like on "Insane" ("I was born with a dick in my brain/Yeah, fucked in the head/My step-father said that I sucked in the bed"), and some scathing attacks on familiar targets, like his dear old Mom and Mariah Carey. But it's all been done before and at this time in hip hop, it's played out.

Of course this formula has worked before, so it's probable it will work again. If it ain't broke don't fix it, right? Still, beside the hardcore Eminem fans, I can't see many people flocking to cop this album. There are limits to a niche rapper's appeal, and I think Eminem is about to discover what those are.