The Detroit rapper seems to be struggling with his sense of identity.

On Eminem’s new Beyoncé-assisted single, “Walk On Water,” the Detroit rapper contemplates his place in the current rap landscape. While almost discrediting his accomplishments, Eminem expresses his insecurities over melancholy production by Rick Rubin. During the debut episode of Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell’s Broken Record podcast, both hosts were able to shed some light on Eminem’s state of mind while making the song.

Rubin said they were discussing the current generation and how Eminem feels left out:

For him, [mumble rap] is a little bit of a culture shock because there’s a new wave of hip-hop that’s not really what he’s about. So he was just talking to me about how that felt. I could see he was frustrated by it.

He elaborated that Eminem’s obsession with hip-hop exacerbates the situation:

He’s fanatical to a point I don’t think I’ve ever seen before in anyone, just to his attention to detail. He has a perfect memory of everything about the music and he gets inside of it and writes whatever’s good or bad about it. He wants the rhythm of the words to bounce off of the beat in a very particular way.

Gladwell continued by pointing out Eminem’s sense of identity lies in his rapping ability:

That’s the heart of it, I think. Here you have an artist whose identity is in his craft. And now, suddenly — in some unconscious way — maybe he feels like the ground is slipping ever so slightly from under his feet. That anxiety is the price of obsession. It’s what happens when you care so much. When you’ve invested so much. And then you wake up one morning and you wonder if anyone cares.

Their assessment was confirmed by Eminem’s description of “Walk On Water”:

It’s a very mortal song. It’s mortality, it’s not being Superman. What if I can’t come up with the best shit I ever wrote every single time?

“Walk On Water” is the first single from Eminem’s upcoming album, Revival. Not much is known about the album, but Em’s manager Paul Rosenberg first teased the project in an Instagram post promoting Yelawolf’s new album Trial By Fire. Eagle eyed fans spotted an ad in the background for a fake drug named Revival, echoing the Relapse album cycle when a promotional pill bottle was issued.

Listen to the song above and read all the lyrics to Eminem’s “Walk On Water” on Genius now.