Although he spends most of the album being Eminem, he lets a little more of humanity show.
Upon perusing the tracklist for the recently released “B-side” version of Eminem’s 2020 surprise album Music To Be Murdered By, you might be tempted to press play on the track titled “Book Of Rhymes” on account of the fact it’s produced by luminary beatmaker DJ Premier. If you care at all about the legacies of either hip-hop elder statesman, I strongly advise against this course of action. I personally made that mistake and had to go listen to Da Ruckus’ “We Shine” to remind myself why I ever liked the rapper in the first place, followed by a full-on Gang Starr playlist so I could hear a rapper sound like they actually appreciated having the legendary producer bless the beat they rhymed on. But, a little persistence pays off on this one. Read on. After rumors of a deluxe version of the already gargantuan album circulated online for nearly eleven months, it finally arrived to smash any glimmer of hope that just maybe one rapper would resist the siren call of an unnecessary reissue this year. After all, if anyone could survive 2020’s industry shutdown without taking a major loss, it should be Eminem, one of the most successful and handsomely-paid artists to pick up a mic. Considering how dense and tough-to-digest he considers his mouthy wordplay on the surprise album, you’d think he would want to give fans a little more time to chew on it before bonking them over the head with another full hour of tightly-packed double entendres. But alas, here we are, once again offered a sumptuous, utterly rich meal of endlessly complex rhyme riddles to unravel despite still being gorged on the last one. I’ll give it this; it’s more consistent and cohesive with the theme of the original work than perhaps any other deluxe version to drop this year, with the exception of Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake add-on, LUV Vs. The World 2. Where that deluxe edition felt of a piece with its predecessor — perhaps owing to its fortuitous, next-week timing — so too does Music To Be Murdered By feel like a collection of songs that belongs on the original, rather than a series of tacked-on, salvaged cutting room floor tidbits. The 16 tracks are kicked off with another Alfred Hitchcock sample dubbing them “music to be buried by,” and it’s, well, apt in more ways than one, as it befits Eminem’s gift for double meanings. Sure, Side B is a fitting postscript, or perhaps even sequel, to the original MTBMB, but it’s also just as suffocating as being buried alive.
