This is Eminem’s best record in a decade – and one of the most impressive, entertaining and addictive hip-hop albums of the year.
Throw in a well-chosen selection of samples and collaborators and the result is a high-speed, volatile, free-thinking, dissertation on mental illness, family dysfunction and social alienation.
He’s grown up ... but not so much that we don’t recognize him: there are sequels to songs, and to skits, and we’re reminded throughout that Em’s one of the best all-time storytellers in rap.
MM LP 2 fits in well in the year of Yeezus and Magna Carta . . . Holy Grail, records by aging geniuses trying to figure out what the hell to do with their dad-ass selves.
The full MMLP2—a revisit, rather than a sequel, of his 2000 Marshall Mathers LP—is a much different animal than the first, and is also much more diverse than any of his other albums.
Sure, it may be one of the better LPs you hear in 2013, but make no mistake: The Marshall Mathers LP 2 only serves to tarnish the original’s legacy, whereas titling it something else could’ve just meant another passable addition to Eminem’s night-and-day catalogue.
This, the "sequel" (or whatever) to his landmark 2000 LP, is little more than a rapsploitation vehicle where practically every line is gratuitous, beyond ridiculous, an effortless and almost empty display of showboating, a carnival trick.
Love it or hate it, nourishing his same old murder fantasies is what drives Eminem to make the vital music found here, and yet there's room for polished and clever frivolity on the album.
In a year cluttered with high-profile hip-hop releases, The Marshall Mathers LP2 is undeniably the best of the best and it’s not close.
After years of stagnancy and tedious anger, he shows real growth on The Marshall Mathers LP 2.
What makes MMLP2 a success is that it sounds like Em is having a ton of fun with his craft, with no particular chip or devil on his shoulder.
The record feels like an unsuccessful attempt to revisit the acclaim of the first installment of The Marshall Mathers LP, which was fresh and fascinating when it came out. Had this record been released as a second disc it might have been equally as notable, but now, so many years later, it feels a little dated.
In other words, he sounds lost as an artist. Sadly, the production throughout doesn’t fare much better. MMLP2 is the most perplexing collection of beats of the year.
Eminem’s shock value has softened by dint of familiarity, but The Marshall Mathers LP 2 still features tantalizing moments of vintage performance.
All of his pioneering antics are still present, but few of them showed up in tip-top form. As an artist revisiting a previous masterwork, he’s chosen to add maturity in all the wrong spots.
The lesson here, if there’s one to be gleaned from this 80 minutes of cold, clinical lyrical acrobatics, is that rap sequels are a lot like trying on old prom clothes: chance one if you dare, but the only thing you’re liable to display is how much you’ve let yourself go since your glory days.
It’s impossible to take Em seriously on MMLP2, not because he’s a bitchy multi-millionaire but because he just doesn’t sound invested anymore.
MMLP2 seems more than a disappointment – it feels like a betrayal, a waste of everyone's time, including Marshall's.
Hahahaha I proved you all wrong. I am the greatest rapper of all time for I released the song "Rap God"
Coming back to this album, it made me realize a few things. The most important one is that this was the first moment we see Eminem losing his brain and trying to relive glory days.
This album feels like Eminem acting his age, believe it or not from the constant slurs. He is getting older, and this album holds a much different weight. It took 2 more bad albums to look back and realize just how solid of a release this album really was. It is not his most technical, and it is full of bad ... read more
You don’t have to tell me I’m brainless, I already am!
Album 8 is the sequel to Eminem’s most successful album. It came in a time where critics gave his previous three albums (Encore, Relapse, and Recovery) mixed reviews, and it received a lot of acclaim from people who liked Eminem’s rapping abilities. It was put on a lot of year-end lists and debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, just like the Eminem albums that came before.
It also won him another Grammy, a Guinness ... read more
By far his most unpredictable album yet. That I can say for sure.
Average Score: 69/100
Overall Score: 71/100
Favorites: Bad Guy, Rap God, The Monster, Headlights
Least Favorite: So Far...
This is pretty good tbh, i really wish this was his last album because after this his music really dropped in quality. This album, while corny at times, is endearingly so, and really shows how much eminem had changed and developed at this point in his carreer.
1 | Bad Guy 7:14 | 89 |
2 | Parking Lot (skit) 0:55 | 65 |
3 | Rhyme Or Reason 5:01 | 77 |
4 | So Much Better 4:21 | 67 |
5 | Survival 4:32 | 76 |
6 | Legacy 4:56 | 78 |
7 | Asshole 4:48 feat. Skylar Grey | 65 |
8 | Berzerk 3:58 | 79 |
9 | Rap God 6:03 | 80 |
10 | Brainless 4:46 | 78 |
11 | Stronger Than I Was 5:36 | 42 |
12 | The Monster 4:10 feat. Rihanna | 75 |
13 | So Far... 5:17 | 69 |
14 | Love Game 4:56 feat. Kendrick Lamar | 82 |
15 | Headlights 5:43 feat. Nate Ruess | 87 |
16 | Evil Twin 7:33 | 81 |
#2 | / | CraveOnline |
#6 | / | Complex |
#17 | / | FasterLouder |
#24 | / | Red Bull |
#24 | / | Rolling Stone |
#28 | / | Spin |
#48 | / | PopMatters |
#64 | / | musicOMH |