People, leave your expectations out.
Reading comments on all the hiphop\rap sites to see what people think and how they feel about it. I have determined that everything Marshall releases is put under a microscope and the feedback is always the same. 50/50 or close to it.
I feel like Em is always experimenting. His whole career has been a big experiment for the most part. Without experimentation, you cannot grow. His music is always different from what everyone else is doing, and rarely sounds like anything before it from him.
We set expectations, but how can they be met when we don't really know what to expect?
The internet hypes everything up way more than it should be, resulting in fueling unrealistic expectations. In the early 2000's, music was marketed very differently, and a lot of music came from nowhere. No expectations were set, and you interpreted the music differently. Now, they hype up a song for 7-8 months before it comes out. Years for an album.
Detox is dead. Yes, it's true. The internet killed Detox. Blame Al Gore. If he didn't single handily invent the internet, Detox would exist.
Not like I have a real argument or flow here, I'm just pretty high and stating my observations.
The same thing that helped Marshall rise to fame, is now hurting him. Multiple personalities and a wide range of sound. People generally only like certain parts of his catalogue. Certain styles, certain content, certain flows, deliveries, etc. Slim Shady Vs Marshall Vs Eminem. No matter what he put's out, Only a certain amount of his fan base will like it. It's either too commercial, or too choppy, or too many fast food references, etc. It is impossible to make a song that will be loved by everyone, especially when you are sitting on multiple classic albums, touched on just about everything you can, and experimented musically in every way imaginable.
Eminem is one of those artists that you cannot put expectations on.
I like to bring up young Hov with this subject. His approach is a little different. Usually he delivers what we expect. Hot trendy beats with the same flows\deliveries we are used to. Never strays too far from the formula, but does change his content up by adding art references and other cool grown up shit. Whatever. I dig the shit out of it the first couple listens, but then it looses it's replay value pretty quickly. Not trying to take anything away from Mr. Carter, but he's not putting out anything worth writing home about. He's got one hell of a Marketing team though. Oh, and he rarely hypes his shit up. If it's hyped up, it's because Rick Ross and his other half DJ Khaled have him featured on some bull shit. MCHG came from nowhere. MMLP2 was a pretty quick rollout and surprise as well. Element of surprise should be more popular. I'm tired of hearing rappers talk about how "classic" their album is 8 months before the shit even drops.
I have basically forgot what the fuck my point was or where I was going with this so I'm done typing.