Album Review: Music To Be Murdered By Eminem

Eminem has mastered the art of delivering surprise albums when we least expect it. Music to be
murdered by is the rapper’s 11th album and just like ever, the Detroit rapper had a lot to rap about. So much that the album is 20 tracks long, which is rather way too lengthy in these times as we have continuously witnessed the lengths of albums drop from 20 songs to like 10 or 12 songs. Sometimes, it’s even lower than that. Another major change in recent times is the reduction in a song’s length. Shorter songs are the order for the day and for good reason to. In the streaming era, a shorter song will easily get repeated plays. Especially if it’s a hit.

All these changes in the music space are irrelevant to Eminem. His music and style has pretty much stayed the same over the years. It’s not that Eminem isn’t aware of the times he’s in, he’d rather just stick with the way it was done back in the day. On this album, we get a glimpse of the Eminem we all fell in love with as he flexes his skill all over the album. On the flip side, it gets tiring to hear Eminem rap as he has something to prove over a span of 20 songs averaging over 3 minutes for most of the songs. It’s clear that he placed less focus on enjoyable music and more emphasis on lyrical wizardry. The two should go hand in hand but for some strange reasons, this has eluded him.

Godzilla is one of the few songs on this album where you get to enjoy the music and also be impressed by Eminem’s rap technique. It’s a potential hit song that leaves a bittersweet taste in your mouth when you remember Juice WRLD’s early demise. Other songs where you get to experience this level of sonic ecstasy are Yah Yah( a combination of Royce Da 5’9, Q-Tip, Black Thought, and Denaun. Heavy lyricists going crazy on a heavy rock fuelled beat with heavy drums. How can anyone not love that?), Lock It Up(Anderson Paak has the musical Midas touch. I hope these two collaborate more in the future), You Gon’ Learn( Royce da 5’9 delivers grown man bars over a slow-paced beat that calls for introspection. There’s a bar about segregation/separation that will have you feeling woke for a minute or two. White Gold’s delivery on the hook is simple and effective) and Darkness( a wake-up call on the senseless gun violence in America). These are the best songs on the project. The remaining tracks are a combination of almost perfect songs (I Will, Those Kinda Nights, Unaccomodating) and songs that weren’t needed at all.

True to Slim Shady’s nature, the album offers shock value to a certain extent. Seeing people like Young M.A and Juice WRLD on the tracklist surprised everyone. If Joe Budden had been featured on I Will, the surprise would have really peaked. The real shock comes on songs like Darkness and Unaccomodating. On Darkness, Eminem takes a stand against gun violence with a riveting approach in which he raps as the lone gunman from the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. He takes us on a journey through the shooter’s mind before and after the shooting while on Unaccomodating, Eminem becomes the suicide bomber who killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in 2017 in Manchester, England. He raps “I’m contemplating yelling ‘bombs away’ on the game / like I’m outside of an Ariana Grande concert waiting”. This controversial bar sparked outrage on social media and even the mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, spoke out against the lyrics saying “This is unnecessarily hurtful and deeply disrespectful to the families and all those affected”

The positive from this album is that Eminem is still a rap machine whose technical skills are still as sharp as ever. He makes reference to his consistency on the intro Premonition in a bar about how the likes of himself, 2 Chainz, Tech 9ne and Jay-Z are still able to deliver on this level after many years in the game “Instead of us being credited for longevity / And being able to keep it up for this long at this level / we get told we'll never be what we were / Bitch if I was as half as good as I was / I'm still twice as good as you'll ever be”.

The downside is that he focuses way too much on impressing us with his bars and technique than giving us good songs. At this point in his career, it would appear that Eminem has hit a creative ceiling that he cannot cross. He needs to do something more challenging( may I suggest another joint project with Royce da 5’9). There’s a good EP inside this album. A couple of 5 to 6 songs that will resonate with listeners.

Music to be Murdered by reassures us that Eminem is still one of the greats but it falls short on delivering great music that will stand the test of time.