ALBUM REVIEW: "Music to Be Murdered By" - Eminem

Known to many as one of the most influential, most important, and most controversial white rappers in a highly competitive (traditionally black-dominated) music market, Eminem is back and has made a noise by surprising everyone with the release of his Newest album full of cameos. In his discography, this is 11th album and direct successor of the album Kamikaze, released in 2018.

Entitled Music to Be Murdered By, this newest work was released today at dawn without any notice. However, the hardest fans - those who follow his career more closely - were already suspicious that new material was coming and that the rapper would already be working on new songs. However, no one was expecting a new album to be released so quickly and to hear it in full, simply access some music streaming system and travel in yet another succession of indigestible subjects portrayed with the rapper's typical "hysteria".

Bloody Disgusting

Prioritizing controversial aspects that are inherent in his works, the highlight already begins gaining a very important visual weight, related to the cover itself and the album title. Both are very provocative and highly suggestive because they were inspired by a work (which even has the same title and was released in 1958) belonging to none other than one of the best film directors he has ever exhibited: Alfred Hitchcock (whom he made a point of also honoring two tracks on his new album, "Alfred" and "Alfred - Other" where the rapper uses excerpts by Hitchcock himself).

This new foray into the music world is made up of many ups and downs throughout its 20 tracks and just over 57 minutes long. In his best and most inspirational moments, the rapper is able to demonstrate skill in addressing in his lyrics controversial and extremely disgusting themes, as can be heard on the track "Unaccommodating" (where he makes reference to the bomb attack that happened at a concert of Ariana Grande in Manchester - England) and the reference to a massacre that took place in the city of Las Vegas in 2017 (which is even background of "Darkness" - first single / clip of this new project), where the shooter killed 58 people.

In addition, the album's music production - with the Dr. Dre touches on all sides* - is well refined (something that was already happening in more recent work, but is gaining a larger dimension here), the harmonization of sounds is consistently more worked out (for example, note that the arrangements of the musical notes are being more precisely paced and this reveals that special attention has been paid to this aspect) and the dialogues that the songs try to establish with the audience a more direct and intense contact with heavier rhymes and a darker climate (for example in the track "Godzilla").

There is also a highlight for a more introspective approach at times, where he lowers his tone and dares to bet on new sounds and changes in his written rhetoric. The result is initially a little strange to ears used to hearing other material coming from it, and even though this change is very subtle and not so effective, it is worth mentioning because it shows that the rapper is trying to explore new ways of making a different kind of music that has been so marked over the years. The rapper's niche has a fixed stamp and changing this requires a boldness that no one has yet fully tried.

Among the great appearances on the album, as well as Hitchcock's indirect - but illustrious - presence, are some of the duets Ed Sheeran, Black Thought, Q-Tip, Anderson .Paak and Young MA (plus a verse from Juice WRLD, passed away last year). They were all well explored (some better than others, of course), but I got the impression that the collaborations could have been more relevant and more incisive in bringing more intense aspects across the bridge than it once was. expected (considering the musical quality of each of the artists mentioned).

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On the other hand, if the album gets it right by interacting better with those who are listening and trying to bring about a greater diversification of content and musical production, it does not do it in such an innovative way because much of what can be heard throughout the constructions of the songs already was used before by the rapper (including some errors). In a way, he decided not to dare much (despite remaining faithful to the controversies he usually causes) and preferred to walk on a safer and known path... That is, something that works (even if it is not perfect).

What he tried to do here was a new recycling of something new and even if it can not be said that it is a work with such artistic creativity aspect so memorable (and that repeats some bad decisions in its general context), it is necessary to recognize that even reusing already known techniques and showing some flaws, Music to Be Murdered By is a confident album (although not the best in the rapper's career), frantic, perceptive, acidly fun (even if it has very insensitive moments) and worth listening to because it carries several themes - many of them already known for decades - that need to be commented on in modern society.

Perhaps the best of all aspects of this new album (being your most consistent argumentative tool) is the need to warn society of its most pressing problems which go far beyond implementing new social policies, because unfortunately, everything is still vehemently neglected by those who have the greatest power to try to solve them and when artwork can bring this kind of discussion back to the table, it's because there is so much quality to what it has to say.