by Acid_M » May 25th, '09, 19:45
I'll tell you exactly why.
eminem is right up there with Nas, Jay-Z, Andre 3000, Rakim, Biggie, etc as one of the greatest emcees of all time (and thats just from his 1st 3 albums) PLUS he's right up there with Canibus, Chino XL, Vakill and Tech N9ne in terms of delivery, flow, wordplay and lyrical content. Nevermind the fact that he's got Dr. motherfuckin Dre behind the boards - one of the fathers of hip hop.
So because of all this - by the time it was 2003 - Em's standard had been set way above what anyone could possibly achieved. Its like he just got better and better. And while Relapse is still a lot better than Encore and he is incorporating that flow, multi-syllabic wordplay and straight wildin out/lunatic/crazy whiteboy/rape/murder/drug/celebrity bashing shit again - shit is definitely stale now. For a dude with such high standards, whats the point of disappearing for 5 years and showing with pretty much the exact same 'song & dance' from 10 years back? Where's the evolution? Where's the concept?
For someone who has achieved such greatness before and is obviously just rapping now for the musical aspect (dude mos def doesnt need money anymore), this shit should have been better. Come one, Medicine Ball? Same Song and Dance? Crack A Bottle? Old Time's Sake? That shit sucks, i dont wanna hear that shit. If he's just doing it for the sake of creating music and we KNOW he can do it, then why is Relapse not up to standards, why use that stupid fuckin accent"? Why talk about Christpher Reeves and Mariah and Britney and Lindsey? And its not just because its Eminem and everyone expects so much of him, if any other artist put this exact same album out, I'd still give it the same rating.
Dont get me wrong, i think its a sick album. Not great, not terrible - I'd give it about 3 stars out of 5. But i really hope Relapse II is something a little different.