Jul 18, 2024 Step your game up lol you can review Offspring American if you want I haven't tallied yet, and the new eminem album Don't post your album until Sunday
Jul 18, 2024 Eminem - The Death of Slim Shady (Holy yap Incoming) I think that everyone would agree that TDOSS is essentially a reflection on the Slim Shady character and how it's impacted Em's personal life. Something that @Omar Little said that I agree with heavily is the fact that Em and a large part of the media boil down the Slim Shady character to just "the a------ who makes fun of celebrities" without factoring in the social commentary that is present throughout basically Em's entire career. As Em mentions in the album, this isn't the first time that he's tried to put the Shady persona to rest. The "suicide" at the end of Encore and the rejection at the end of "When I'm Gone" are probably the most apparent. The fact is that from the persona's very first appearance, the Slim Shady character has been portrayed as a total negative for Em. The Slim Shady EP starts with the Shady essence possessing Em against his will, which is referenced twelve years later on "My Darling". I actually thought that MMLP2 was already a pretty good retrospective on Slim, with Em basically admitting that all the comments said by Shady ultimately come from him, and that he is responsible for what the persona's done. Now time to talk about the actual album (am I this forum's certified yapper at this point?). It's very clear that the "Slim Shady" character on TDOSS is really just encompassing late 90s-early 2000s em, which means that the Kamikaze era Slim that was basically just dissing random new rappers isn't really on here, which I'm more than fine with. So with that being said, here's the track by track ranking. Renaissance I'll be honest, this track didn't make that much of an impact at first. I think that the mixing on the vocals sounds kinda weird at first but the energy is definitely reminiscent of old Em, which I think is something that this whole album actually does really well at. Just wish it was a bit longer so that I could form a stronger opinion on it. Habits I've enjoyed basically every collab that Em and White Gold have done and this is no exception. I think that the "Gen Z canceling Eminem" theme that appears throughout this album is one of it's weakest points and the verses didn't really wow me. Also, am I the only person that finds the whole Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner references kinda weird. Not cause they're offensive or anything, it's just that Jenner hasn't really been a topical reference since like,,,2016? Weird choice. Trouble I actually really enjoyed all of the skits on the album. The actual rapping on this song is pretty short, but honestly just like with Renaissance I wish it was longer Brand New Dance I remember reading about the "Christopher Reeves" song on the Eminem Leak Tracker years ago, so actually hearing it is wild. I'm not the biggest fan of Encore em but the song's good. The beat reminds me of My 1st Single and the whole "beef" Em's had with Reeves is probably one of my favorite parts about his discography (Although I think the joke already had a pretty good ending on Relapse) Evil Not really the biggest fan. Nothing really stuck with me aside from the "I gave Skylar Grey hepatitis line". Marsh must be in shambles All You Got Another short skit. The whole "Slim made Em" theme reminds me a lot of My Darling Lucifer The Hitchcock sample was a nice callback to MTBMB. The "getting canceled on TikTok on Twitter" gets kinda old by this point in the album. Really liked the line where Em says that his haters will face the same fate as his dad, like holy s--- that's dark. Also the Columbine line is very similar to the Columbine reference in Kanye's Vultures. probably just a coincidence though. Got a huge kick out of Em calling candace Owens "Klandace" Antichrist My favorite song on the album. The first beat is really fun, and the hook's great. The Gen Z lines were a bit annoying, but they get canceled out by gems like "So hard, Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj'll scissor". It also has by far my favorite line on the album: "Try not to get seen With Ben Affleck, me, and Seth Green hangin' on to the left wing Of Jeffrey Epstein's jet screamin', "Hey, don't forget me" Great beat switch, and I never would've though that I'd say that a 2024 verse from Bizarre would be a high point Fuel There's nothing I can really say that others haven't said before me. JID and Em both killed it Road Rage Kinda surprised that this seems to be the least favorite song amongst other users. The first half is pretty boring, but as a big Southern rap fan I got a big kick out of the Juvenile homage after the beat switch. Wish it would've been longer than the first half. Houdini I'll be honest, I wasn't a big fan of Houdini when it came out. I was a bit scared that the whole album would just be nostalgia baiting to get a reaction (which it kinda is, but there's definitely a lot more discussion to be found here). I've warmed up to it though and I think it fits pretty well here. Breaking News Short skit. Nothing much here Guilty Conscience 2 Oh boy. I think that this song is great, and honestly one of the most revealing in Em's career. I do think that this song is closer to being more of a "Evil Twin 2" than a full sequel to the original GC but I get why he chose the title. I think that the vocal distinctions between Em and Shady work great, and it really does feel like Slim is a completely different person than Em. I think that this definitely the album's centerpiece as it lays out the main themes very well. I think that Shady taking full credit for Em's personal and artistic success is definitely the defining theme of the album. I do think that the decision to k--- Shady off this early in the album is a bit odd, but I think that this is a great song, and it's definitely my favorite besides Antichrist Head Honcho Not really a fan of Ez Mil and Em's verse doesn't have anything mindblowing Temporary I think that the position Em takes in the song reflects the more personal side that the last quarter of the album at least tries to take. Em essentially writing a song to console his daughter about his death while he's still alive is very emotional of course. Not much to say aside from the fact that it's a very hard listen Bad One I like how Em calls out the corny white rappers that he's inspired (After Kamikaze, Youtube rappers have reached new lows). Nothing too noteworthy apart from that Tobey Didn't really care for the song when it dropped.... and I still don't. Babytron's hook is ok but nothing special. Em's verse is really weird at this point in this story. Maybe it'll grow, but not likely Guess Who's Back It's great to see Ken back. I guess we should thank Lil Wayne for mentioning him back in that 2020 interview (Sidenote: If it was on streaming, Dedication 2 would 100% be my pick for AOTW Club) Somebody Save Me Some people think that this is an odd closer for the album, but I disagree. Em's drug addiction is irreversibly tied with the Shady character, so it makes sense that an album about the persona revolves around arguably the worst effect that it had on Em's life. Great closer and MAYBE I'll check out a Jelly Roll album (I Live in Texas, he's near inescapable) Final Thoughts: In a lot of ways, TDOSS reminds me of JAY-Z's 4:44 and Kendrick's Mr. Morale. Not sonically of course, but it's clear that TDOSS is meant to be Em reflecting on his career and the Slim persona. I honestly can't tell what Em will do from this point on. The Shady character is d--- near inescapable at this point (it's literally the name of his label) but it's clear that Em feels that he needs to move past it in order to progress artistically. This kind of introspection REALLY makes me want to give this album a high score. But the execution does leave a lot to be desired. For a character with such a long and varied backstory, Shady's lyrics do revolve mainly around Gen Z, Midgets and Trans people (especially Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner). Unlike the Christopher Reeves references, these don't really serve as much of a point and they get pretty old. I think that the story works really well...at least until GC2. Aside from the skit and the 2 personal tracks, the rest of the album just seems to forget about the concept. And the issue is I really can't even think of how the last quarter could be fixed. Maybe I'll warm up to these songs but at least for now, they're the weakest bunch of songs (aside from Temporary and Somebody Save Me). With that being said, TDOSS has made me revisit Em's older work for the first time in a while, and I think that my score is definitely bias due to being an Em fan. If I wasn't I'm sure I'd probably give the record a very low rating like a 3 or a 4. But as an Em fan who gets the references and can actually understand what Em is trying to convey in this album, I had to bump it up to a 7.5 as it's something that I and a large amount of fans have been wanting to see from Marshall for a very long time. FAVORITES: Brand New Dance, Antichrist, Guilty Conscience 2, Temporary, Somebody Save Me LEAST FAVORITES: Head Honcho, Bad One, Tobey Rating: 7.5 @AOTWClub
Jul 18, 2024 The Offspring- Americana has scored a 7.1 It's in a 3 way tie with J Hus and Clairo for 3rd place! Don't forget to review The new Eminem album New album on Sunday by @Ordinary Joel I'll do the new schedule tonight or tomorrow morning!
Jul 18, 2024 I'm not the biggest fan of the song but saying Em doesn't say anything mindblowing is crazy. We've all been crying out for the "Ronnie" song from MMLP era for as long as I can remember and this is the first time he has ever touched on what actually happened in a song.
Jul 18, 2024 The uncle mentioned in the song is actually his uncle Todd, not Ronnie. He mentioned the event in The Apple but that song’s unreleased so this is the first time he’s mentioned it officially
Jul 19, 2024 @AOTWClub I AM GOING TO TRY TO BREAK THE YAP STREAK (I'm not gonna talk about skits that don't have rapping but I like them all) Renaissance: Great intro, can be a little redundant at the end with his last couple intros but it's well written and the flow is immaculate so idc. 9/10 Habits: I like most White Gold collabs and I think his writing here is pretty good, it starts off the self critical examination of him as a hypocrite in the third verse which gave me hope for the rest of the concept on first listen, beat is good too! 8/10 Trouble: Makes me laugh every time and the self awareness throughout the album is appreciated and makes the things I would think are stupid hit for me. 8/10 Brand New Dance: I really didn't care for this song the first couple listens because outside of a few tracks I'm not too huge of a fan of the goofy Encore tracks but it grew on it, it's pretty fun and I love the bridge. 6.5/10 Evil: This is the start of the best run of the album, he's gotten much better at hooks as of late and the rapping is great 8.5/10 Lucifer: One of the best songs on the album, him and Dre barely miss when they're together and I dig the Sly Piper contribution here. The Candace Owens diss is great, not because of the politics even it's just the rhyme scheme is so good and prime shady. 9/10 Antichrist: I still really like this song but I think I'm not as high on it as others, still great tho. Has some great parts and a classic beat, I'm kinda mad they gave a beat that good to Bizarre but he was entertaining as h--- so I'm alright with it lol. 8/10 Fuel: I'm a dickrider idc, this is one of the best rap songs of the year they both killed it. 9.5/10 Road Rage: this song is one of the worst on the album but after coming to terms with my criticisms of it I'm more okay with it, the hook grew on me after i realized it just sounds like a compton song lol. 5.5/10 Houdini: we talked about this song enough, it's great. 7.5/10 Guilty Conscience 2: interesting direction to take a sequel to a classic and I really appreciate it, reminds me of stuff like My Darling but a bit more direct. The part where Slims voices gets layered a bunch goes hard on every listen, one of the best on the album. 9/10 Head Honcho: I honestly don't mind Ez Mil here but he's gonna just dead space until the Em verse, his transition into Tagalog is jarring every time I hear it, his hook is good tho. Eminems verse is great and carries the song. 6/10 Temporary: I appreciate the message and the song did grow on me but I think it's the worst flow on the album by far, the recordings are genuinely emotional and Skylar didn't do bad. 6/10 Bad One: this is one of the more disposable on the project, feels like a MTBMB throwaway but I really enjoy the hook. The verses are fine I guess. 6/10 Tobey: hot take, but in terms of the songs that don't line up with the concept to me I still like it, we also already talked about this one enough tho. 7/10 Somebody Save Me: I like this one more than temporary but the sequencing on this leg of the album is f-----, putting this right after Tobey and a Ken skit is a really strange decision. I think this gets the message of Temporary across but with a wider scope which ups my enjoyment. 6.5/10 I think the last few songs have time to grow on me and up my overall score cause I still haven't listened to the album as much as y'all lol. But this is definitely Em's best album in a long time and I hope he pushes into the direction of making more concept records cause I think it could really give him a second wind. OVERALL RATING 8/10
Jul 19, 2024 @AOTWClub new schedule here and I'll add it to the main page If I miss anyone's turn let me know! Week 10: July 22 @Ordinary Joel Week 11: July 29 @DiggleDogg69 Week 13: Aug 5 @icecube Week 14: Aug 12 @Wreckless Week 15: Aug 19 @Yeez Week 16: Aug 26 @albumdrill Week 17: September 2 @stepdad enjoyer Week 18: September 9 @Gimp
Jul 19, 2024 Eminem - The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) Best tracks: Brand New Dance, Evil, Lucifer, Antichrist, Fuel, Guilty Conscience 2 Worst tracks: Road Rage, Head Honcho OVERALL SCORE: 8/10 Overall thoughts: Let me just start off by saying I’m glad Eminem finally put out an album that I think is good, it’s been so long since that has happened. I know some of you remember me being an absolute Eminem hater on this site like last year. A lot of it was hyperbole/me overreacting, but some of it was because I knew Eminem was capable of something like this. That’s why I started being so positive about Eminem leading up to this album. I had such a good feeling about it when that normally doesn’t happen with his albums. The fact that an Eminem album has people making so many theories about it is amazing. When was the last time that even happened? While the concept isn’t perfect all the way through, I think he did a great job at executing a concept album in his own Eminem way. I’m not gonna say much about the concept or all of the individual tracks here as I feel like people have already beaten those topics to death. Of course the use of his old voice and that being mixed in with his new voice was really innovative. There’s some s--- on here that sounds like prime Eminem as many others have said. Although if Eminem without Slim Shady sounds like “Bad One” then I’m ready for it. I feel like that’s an underrated b-----r on this album I don’t see a lot of people talking about. It’s a great modern Eminem song. I feel like this review is already too long, so I’ll end it here. I am mostly satisfied with this album and I can’t wait to see where he goes from here. The journey during these last 2 years has been a wild ride. Thank you all for taking the journey with me! @AOTWClub
Jul 19, 2024 Eminem - The Death of Slim Shady review Favorite tracks: Renaissance, Habits, Brand new dance, Evil, Lucifer, Antichrist, Fuel, Houdini, Guilty Conscience 2 Least favorite tracks: Somebody save me, Temporary, Bad One Well, s---. He did it. We got a good Eminem album in 2024. If you told me a few months ago When the rollout was begining that I’d enjoy the final product as much as I do, I would’ve probably asked you to hook me up with your crack dealer. Em completely surpassed my expectations with this one, to the point where I feel like there’s not much he can do to top it in 5 years or whenever he decides to come out his cave again ( fingers crossed that I’m wrong about this though). Album starts out incredibly strong. Renaissance is a track of many great qualities; from the TES reminiscent sound to the sheer hype he achieves with this song as the opener. For the sake of being critical I’ll nitpick and say that I’m not huge on this whole ‘shi--ing on critics and the haters’ motif he once again uses on the back end of the track. I will say though, despite feeling like Premonition off of MTBMB was executed well and could’ve very well been the last track in its vein, Renaissance is still it’s own thing and I will not discredit this great track because of a couple lines aimed at critics. Em shouldn’t ever again compare Joyner Lucas to Picasso though. 8/10 I love the transition into Habits. This song is as Eminem as could be in 2024. I appreciate how it is structured. The beat is fun and so are the verses. White Gold did his thing on this one too. I see why someone wouldn’t like the PC police stuff and the south park references but I thought it was very fun and very Eminem. This is one of those songs that only stans will truly appreciate IMO. Also the end of the last verse is absolutely bonkers. 9.5/10 Won’t give a rating to Trouble but I liked it for what it is. Very fun and helps construct the concept. Brand New Dance is a song that I vibed to the most during my first listen. Still love it but that could be due to me genuinely enjoying the autism of encore. That beat is fun, menacing and addicting. Trully something I wouldn’t wanna hear anyone but Em on. Love seeing this toxic pos Eminem have fun and bully a dead cripple. 10/10 Evil is a track I feel like doesn’t need much dissecting. Loved everything about it; from the chorus to the flows and the rhyme schemes - everything feels like authentic and unapologetic Eminem. 10/10 Lucifer is a great f---ing song too, I love the s--- out of this Chorus. Can’t really put it into words but this song, alongside Antichrist, just scratches an itch that no Eminem song on the last 3 projects did. It has a lot of replayability and I’ve been discovering and hearing new details and bars on each listen. This may sound autistic but him saying LUCIFER as the hook starts makes me violently erect. 9/10 Badass transition into Antichrist. Love everything about this song. Crazy good Eminem hook. Makes me wish for an album where he does all the choruses. Insanely catchy and fun to listen to. 10/10 Fuel is exactly what I’ve been fiending for. Thank f---ing god this man got a JID feature instead of calling up someone like Mac Lethal or some s--- lmao. Jiddy killed it but Em somehow outshined him still IMO. A lot of quotables and great flows. People used to label Em with the ‘ your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper ‘ title and this song, to me atleast, justifies such a statement completely. Goes to show that this man can still make a highly technical verse that goes hard as f---. 9/10 I am not as harsh on Road Rage as many others on the forum are. I like how it’s sonically realized. The hook meshes well with the beat which is lowkey and does what it’s supposed to. Em reached into his aspergers bag for the verses but they still have their clever and funny moments. I ain’t mad at it. 7/10 Houdini : talked about this enough, great single choice, fun to rap along to. 8.5/10 Guilty conscience 2 is, as it stands RN, my favorite track off the project. I love the production but what I appreciate even more is when Em goes meta and executes it well. Song gives me goosebumps and even makes me kind of sad to be honest. Although it’s probably not happening yet, it felt like a step towards Em’s inevitable retirement. This track has all the qualities that make songs like My Darling and Bad Guy so appealing to me. They underline Em’s storytelling and his great sense for worldbuilding. The way he ends the song is my favorite moment on the album too. 10/10 but if I could I’d give it an 11 All of the songs after GC2 ranged from mid to not bad for me. I will say I probably enjoy Head Honcho the most out of these. Ez Mil chorus goes hard, unlike his enchanting table verse 1 though lol. Also Em’s verses are cool, especially the latter one. Temporary and Somebody Save Me felt like Revival leftovers lol. I don’t hate the songs but I feel like he already tackled these themes better on his previous material. Still though, I applaud every moment of him opening up cause it feels like he’s been a lot more private with his personal life. He could make 20 more songs about this stuff and it’ll still feel genuine cause his passion and love for his family is undeniable, and if he wants to showcase it once every couple records who are we to s--- on it. To conclude, I loved this album. Listening to TDOSS for the first time made me a tad emotional cause it legitimately feels like the first true Eminem album in forever. This isn’t a project he is putting out to feed the fans, fight criticism or test the waters, it is a product of his creative labour and has true purpose to it. It is authentic and true to Eminem. This album makes me optimistic about the upcoming (possibly final) years of his career. He’s finally found himself again, he sounds confident and hungry. Eminem isn’t trying to prove himself to anybody anymore, he’s set on doing his thing, no matter how it is received. 8.5/10 @Justin Trudeau @AOTWClub
