I truly believe Marshall still has it in him. You can here it lyrically in some of his freestyles such as ''The Art of Rap.'' It's not a matter of getting extremely pissed off again, it's about his ability to channel his energy in the right place. In other words, it's a matter of focusing correctly and letting things come natural. Eminem's life is rap. Here we have MMLP2 about to come out, this is one of the most exciting announcements and surprises in hip hop. Almost the equivalent of Tupac coming back ( at least for some of us).
How much I respect ''Berzerk'' really depends on how well MMLP2 turns out to be. All along I predicted that Eminem would go back to blonde, start flipping off the camera, and make another MMLP, despite everyone saying it would be impossible. So that means Marshall might be on the right track. But now he has to execute. This album has to be a classic. It would be a shame to make a mediocre album and name it after the MMLP.
''Berzerk'' has really thrown me off. It has elements of ''The True Slim Shady.'' But it also has elements of The Beasty Boys. And then fortunately, we were able to comprehend that 2nd verse and what he was trying to do with it, because on first listen, that was the most cringe inducing 2nd verse I ever heard at
FACE VALUE. But once you understand what's underneath it, you just start to appreciate it more and more.
I'm really at the point where I don't know What the hell Marshall is going to do. I'm hoping Eminem did this (throw us off) advertently for good reason as opposed to doing this inadvertently. It would be completely ambiguous and stupid to call an album MMLP2 and just put tracks like ''Survival'' on it. Or intricate tracks that have no structure at face value such as ''Berzerk.'' I can understand if Eminem is trying to ''tease'' us. Then the track 'Berzerk' will make perfect sense, in
hindsight.
I truly believe that Eminem has wanted to go back to his roots for a longer period of time than we really believe. And if that's the case, then 'Relapse' was genius. Because 'Relapse' is also a teaser. He kind of went back to Slim Shady, but also NOT really, if you will. But I can understand that after years of struggle with the drugs and going through peaks and valleys, losing his best friend, I can understand why he would just want to have fun with rap and make a ''fun'' album. He wanted to alleviate some of the pressure. The other benefit to doing that is that it made us fans doubt him. We really started to believe that at his age, he would never be able to come back and make anything close to his old material. We start to believe that he'd never even think about naming an album after his classic Marshall Mathers LP.
So of course if Em planned this all along, he'd make references about how he's coming back to full form. You have songs like ''Hello'' which suggest that he's still here, you just have to wait a bit. Then in My Life, you can clearly hear it in Em. He's aware of the critics. He knows what's going on.
''Thought he was finished, it's only the beginning. He's straight thuggin, F-- who he's offending''
I doubt he's going to say such a thing if he doesn't have something big he's cooking up. Unless of course he didn't mean it.
This all makes sense now. Go back to ''Encore.'' That album was pretty bad ( I have said in the past I liked it better than Relapse) but the album was still pretty natural. Anyways back to my point, Em does give us hints. That last song on 'Encore' suggested that he would be out of the game for quite some time. That held true. Part of the reason Encore was terrible, was it reflected Em's mindset. Em could have made another classic. He chose not to since it's his life and he wasn't into it. His mindset was clearly not there.
Then fast forward to ''Recovery'' which is a 360 degree turnaround on paper from ''Relapse.'' For the first time in Em's career, he wanted to make an album that had pretty much nothing but mainstream pop songs and pop artists. I mean even though Recovery totally blended in with the rest of the mainstream albums, who would have ever thought he would have put Lil Wayne, Rihanna, and Pink on the album? So in a way, yes he did surprise us with Recovery, and probably on purpose. He wanted to make an album that was much more normal. He wanted to blend in instead. Not necessarily for sales, but again to sort of change our perception on where he would eventually be heading to in rap.
Fast forward 3 years later. Who in the world thought he would be making a MMLP2? I for one did because I recognized his pattern and all his little clues. But 99 percent of people did not thing Em would be making an album called the MMLP2. Now will we get the dark Marshall? That remains to be seen. But if what I have been examining holds true, we sure will get dark Shady. Absolutely. I feel that he might mix it up a tad though and possibly through in some rock inspired tracks. But that is okay if they quality is there. For one, they cannot sound like ''Survival.'' There is nothing wrong with that track in particular, but that is not the caliber we need on this album.
So he releases his lead single ''Berzerk.'' And like I said, he has really really thrown me off here. And maybe that's why he called the song Berzerk. Because it really is out of control and I sure as hell don't know what to make of it. If the albums a classic, ''Berzerk'' is great. When I listen to that song, I'm trying to pick up hints. And there are some hints. The Beasty Boys style hints he's not following a trend. The 2nd verse hints that he has a lack of respect for many mainsteam rappers. And the 3rd verse gives us a little tease of Vintage Shady.
One thing I will say about ''Berzerk.'' Eminem for the FIRST TIME (in my opinion) since Encore has made a track in which he does
not sound like a robot! He does sound forced for the most part. Even though his track is throwing us off and so many lyrics are going over our heads, he does seem like genuine Eminem. In a VERY odd way though, which just makes this whole situation VERY intriguing. Without any doubt, ''Berzerk'' is absolutely the oddest single I have ever heard from Eminem. But at the same time, it's one of the most enjoyable tracks to listen to. Not because it's a classic, but because it's a possible indicator of what's to come next.
Conclusion: Perception is not always reality. We really don't know what goes on in Em's mind. But if I were Eminem, I could imagine loving my first 2 albums so much, that one day I would definitely want to give myself a challenge and try to top it. Because Eminem is so competitive with rap. He will try to do the impossible. And I believe that Eminem has been stirring up a MMLP comeback longer than we think. He wanted us to believe that he lost it. Because that creates the shock factor once he returns. I believe this. Like I said, Encore was not an attempt for greatness. All of the above in this writing is the reason why I predicted Eminem would make a sequel to MMLP. And it came into fruition. Now how the album really will turn out, we have no control over. We can only hope that we are getting something really good. And something really surprising. I'm just hoping that he heads in the direction he should. Which is to say the hell with it, let it loose and go truly ape shit and berzerk. But hopefully it is great as well.
