Eminem’s Music to be Murdered By has been a long-awaited return to glory. The roller coaster discography of Eminem left the 2010’s with some decrying his artistry. Em started last decade strong with Recovery but it was a forever change in vocal tonality and razor-sharp focus on wordplay that’s made him such a controversial figure in the, “Is his music good?” debates. Recovery aged well and I thought the Marshall Mathers LP 2 was better at the time but it might not age as well for me even though I ranked it above Recovery.

Music to be Murdered By is better than MMLP2 and Recovery which vaunts it up into the original 3 conversation and I’m not ready to debate that yet because it’s too early. In terms of chronology, this is Em’s best album since The Eminem Show which came out in ‘02.

What makes Music to Be Murdered By so shocking is not the casual surprise release. It’s that the album is so well produced and conceived. Kamikaze sounds like a mixtape in comparison. A fine mixtape, but not a complete and thoughtful narrative like Music to be Murdered By.

A complete and thoughtful narrative. This is one of two things hip hop fans wanted to see in a new Eminem record. The second being great production. Music to be Murdered By goes above and beyond on the production side as Eminem is credited throughout but his name is mostly behind two major names and one big surprise.

d.a. got that dope produces a majority of the bangers while Tim Suby produces a couple of good records. The big surprise producer is one of hip hop’s best rappers Royce Da 5'9. Royce produces Darkness which might be Em’s most emotionally powerful song since... (another great conversation to have!) Dr. Dre also has credits but it’s among a list of producers which makes it vague as to what his production role was in the studio.

An earth-trembling change in mindset must’ve gone down at Shady Records. Going from 2017’s disaster Revival to Kamikaze, the career trajectory of Eminem didn’t seem like it was anywhere near going upward. The question I was left with after Kamikaze was, “What does Marshall Mathers have left to say?”

He answered today, “A lot.”

I think there’s something intrinsically morose that it’s through Marshall’s suffering that we find Eminem’s best work. From his early albums filled with vile anger and hatred to two decades of music later detailing the struggles of trying to survive in a world of heartbreak, drugs, and criticism remains consistent.

For Eminem fans, it’s connecting with his cries for help, his lashing out that we apply into our self-consciousness. It’s the unseen demons inside us that Eminem so effortlessly conveys into his rhymes.

Ever since Rap God, it seemed like Eminem was deadset on proving that he could twist, turn, and curve rhymes better than anyone alive and ultimately it was a detriment to the end product. No one was arguing that what he could do wasn’t impressive, but the emotional connection was lacking. It wasn’t that Eminem wasn’t talking about the heartbreak, drugs, and criticism anymore, he was concealing it behind innuendos and patterns of rhymes within rhymes. He’d be so lost in connecting different concepts together that was only losing his listeners' ability to follow and eventually interest.

Music to be Murdered By is still plenty of showcase for Em’s talented lyricism but the storyteller is front and center throughout the album. Marshall’s best talent always was telling nightmares before bedtime. Using the guise of Alfred Hitchcock for this album was perfect.

Outside of a couple duds, Music to Murdered By is loaded. My favorite discussion about great Eminem albums is what are the favorite songs? Everyone always has a personal or intimate connection with a certain song. Then there are the bounce records that get you hype, and this album doesn’t have a shortage there.

The only major disappointment on the album is that huge feature collab record, Yah Yah, including Royce, Black Thought, and Q-Tip had a pretty awful beat. It’s not unlistenable but it’s also not porn for the ears like it should be.

Em actually does a fair amount of singing on this album. It’s reminiscent of his Eminem Show-Encore days.

Another laudable decision among the many is that Music to be Murdered By takes real chances on both the production end and with Em vocally. Em intelligently doesn’t go into Relapse crazy-voice territory but he diverges into different flows and tones in different pockets.

Taking all the above into consideration, you have yourself a masterfully crafted and composed Eminem album released in 2020. Start the Grammy campaign now.

There’s a stinging irony in that the Revival rollout was so rocky while I didn’t expect the worst, there was a lot of trepidation going in. The lackluster single. The features. The marketing. Something felt off. Had Music to be Murdered By taken the traditional marketing route, the result would’ve been much different because the music is so much better and it would’ve been marketed like an Eminem album. At the end of the day though, an Eminem album released with no warning versus months of buildup isn’t likely to change the number of streams.

I’m interested to see if Eminem is sent on a post-release marketing tour in order to help boost the numbers throughout the next month. As an Eminem fan, I’d love to see him go on a victory tour through the press and celebrate his return to the good graces of the hip hop industry.

Not only was Music to be Murdered By a monumental victory for Eminem, but there are also collabs galore and they’re all given their shine (outside of the Yah Yah collab). Royce Da 5'9 continues his incredible run of being an elite emcee.

Young M.A is the first person you hear after the intro track it’s phenomenally jarring for an Eminem album for a featured artist to jump off on track two! I wouldn’t put Young M.A in the great rapper pantheon but she gets her bars off. Royce comes on first in track 3 which means through three songs on the album there are only 3 Eminem verses through the first three tracks and he murders all of them.

The album opens with knife stabbing sound effects and a determined Eminem over a hard-ass dark beat. The intro is eye-opening because the vibe is immediately different.

Unaccomdating pops off with Young M.A wobblin and shakin which is wild to hear so early in an Eminem album 2020.

You Gon Learn, which Royce produced, could end up being the best record on this album. Royce goes Hollywood Leo DiCaprio flamethrower on his verse.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though because then there’s an interlude! We all miss Steve Berman and Paul Rosenburg skits, let’s be honest… I’ll take an Alfred Hitchcock voiceover though.

Then comes revenge of the Ed Sheeran hook! Ed Sheeran murders the hook on Those Kinda Nights. The beat thumps and Eminem is mixing flows. 3 verses in under 3 minutes which is great because I’m ADHD. Fire. Let’s continue.

In Too Deep is an odd track but I don’t hate it. I don’t dislike it either. But it’s likely not gonna get too many replays though. Especially considering the absolute fucking thumper that comes on next.

Godzilla is fucking nuts. It’s got a Juice WRLD hook which I initially thought was Lil Pump. The hook reminds me a lot of Lil Pump’s I Love It from the Kanye collab. D.A. Doman absolutely pulverized this beat. Em does the Twista-flow third verse but it puts the last Rap God verse to pasture.

Darkness is Eminem’s best ballad since… Spacebound? I don’t know. I could see Darkness getting Stan comparisons and then we’re talking about GOAT Slim Shady which is CRAZY. This is Royce’s other track he produced which is almost as incredible as the song itself.

The return of Skylar Grey is next. She’s credited with the production alongside Eminem on the track called Leaving Heaven. It’s a good change of pace song and Skylar on the hook is *chef’s kiss*.

Yah Yah is a skip sadly despite the dynamite feature list.

Next is the song Stepdad which has Eminem ranting about family members. Classic Shady. This is an Alchemist beat snuck in there that’s an absolute scorcher. Songs like this and Leaving Heaven are the glue songs that aren’t meant to be the best songs on the record, but they make the full experience more enjoyable.

Marsh is next, a self-produced effort for Em with some Luis Resto accompaniment. Resto is a long-time production collaborator with Em. This song sounds like Em’s attempt to make a trap hook which is kinda hilarious. I’m not high on this song but I don’t think there’s one song that’s Revival or worst of Relapse level awful on this album.

Never Love Again is what the emotional tracks on Revival were meant to sound like. Eminem sings the hook and the first beat sounds like an alien crying. It works, trust me. Dre is the lead producer credit but it doesn’t sound like a Dre beat. In the middle, there’s a beat flip that slaps.

The next track Little Engine is more alien-like beats but this one doesn’t work as well. Not awful, not gonna be critically acclaimed. It is important to note that Em takes a lot of chances with this on the vocal and production end. Other people might be higher on this track than me.

King of the smile Anderson .Paak opens the next song. He’s great. The song’s called Lock It Up. It’s fine.

Somebody smarter about music could tell you what style of beat is on Farewell. Like Little Engine Em takes a lot of chances vocally on Farewell and it works better this go-round.

No Regrets is next. It’s good. Some guy named Don Toliver is on the hook. He’s good. I hope I’m not supposed to already know who he is.

The Slaughterhouse minus Joe Budden song ends the album with only a final Hitchcock voiceover to close the album. The track is called I Will and it’s about what you’d expect from a Slaughterhouse song. It’s good but it’s nothing most people are going to go crazy over outside of the fact that it’d be fun to have a Budden verse on it.

20 total tracks, an intro that’s really a full song, 2 interludes, outro. That’s 17 new Eminem songs for 2020 and I’d say he bats about 13/17 on this record. Hall of Famer.

Before I leave though I must add one additional sentence of praise so that my review of Music to be Murdered By can be considered a real music review because without this word I might as well have written nothing.

Music to be Murdered By was sonically a great album.