Eminem releases surprise album, urges gun reform in video citing Vegas concert massacre

Eminem had an unexpected gift for fans early Friday — and a stark new video that’s sure to spark heated debate.

The Detroit rapper released his 11th album, “Music to Be Murdered By,” a 20-track project with guests such as Ed Sheeran, Juice WRLD, Skylar Grey and longtime hometown compatriot Royce da 5’9.”

The midnight drop was accompanied by a video for the song “Darkness,” a six-minute saga that unfolds as a grim tale of anxiety and substance abuse before revealing its layered meanings: a glimpse into the mind of the 2017 Las Vegas concert shooter and a metaphor for Eminem’s own angst as a stage performer.

More: Eminem's 'Slim Shady LP' turns 20: An oral history of the album that created a superstar

More: Michigan's greatest movies: Who won, Eddie Murphy, Clint Eastwood or Eminem?

More: See the new Eminem video filmed in Detroit's Corktown

The video portrays Stephen Paddock as a frustrated, drug-addled killer looking over the gathering concert crowd outside his Vegas hotel room before opening fire. (Paddock killed 58 people at the Route 91 Harvest country festival in October 2017, before police found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.)

Eminem’s lines, delivered atop a piano bed by Detroit musician Luis Resto, play off the dual idea of “killing” in the performance context — as the rapper himself is later seen as a lonely artist stepping onstage to wow a stadium packed with fans.

“It's 10:05 p.m. and the curtain starts to go up / And I'm already sweating / But I'm locked and loaded / For rapid fire spitting for all the concertgoers,” he raps.

The clip, posted overnight to YouTube, ends with a forceful appeal for gun-law reform by the 47-year-old rapper, whose progressive political views have become increasingly pronounced in his work.

“When will this end?” a title card reads. “When enough people care.”

The rapper then touts voter registration with a link to vote.gov.

“Make your voice heard and help change gun laws in America.”

With its references to curtains, pills and isolation, “Darkness” taps themes that have long played out in Eminem’s music, and the track’s lyrical twists are likely to garner comparisons to his 2000 hit “Stan.”

It’s not the first time he’s cited the 2017 Vegas massacre in song. He rhymed about “gun reform in Nevada” as part of his anti-Donald Trump rap on the BET Awards that year.

Eminem’s stance on firearms reflect a long evolution on the topic: The rapper born Marshall Mathers was famously arrested in June 2000 for brandishing an unloaded gun during a Royal Oak run-in with an associate of rival rap group Insane Clown Posse. He was arrested the next day for pistol-whipping a man he spotted kissing his wife outside a Warren bar, and ultimately received two years’ probation for possession of a concealed weapon.

“Music to Be Murdered By” arrived much like Eminem’s 2018 album, “Kamikaze” — a midnight release with no advance notice. Its title and cover art are an explicit nod to a 1958 album of eerie bachelor-pad music presented by filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.