After four years of being on the sidelines, Eminem is ready to set the world on fire all over again as he prepares to drop his latest album – “Revival”! So let’s cut to the chase and look at eight major things you should know about this brand new project.
9TH STUDIO ALBUM
Longevity is undoubtedly at the heart of Eminem’s career. He’s been effectively dominating global charts for close to two decades now but he doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of stopping. Yes, not every album has lived up to the hype (especially “Re-Up”), but there have always been at least a couple of really good tracks in albums that you would consider bad. Based on what we’ve heard and seen so far, there’s no indication that Eminem intends to stop at “Revival” so expect this to be a pivotal turning point in what seems like a rap career that’s ready to address the unique challenges that exist in the modern rap/hip hop world.
18 MONTHS OF EFFORT
According to multiple sources, this album reportedly took around 18 months to conceptualize, write, record and produce. First hints were dropped in the middle of 2016, before concrete indications began appearing earlier this year, especially when Yelawolf’s – another rapper under his record label, Shady Records – new album was released. Eminem’s greatest strength has always been his writing. And if he worked on this project since 2015, you can expect the writing to be nothing short of stupendous.
DR DRE IS A PART OF IT
Multiple sources have pointed out that Dr. Dre has been playing some role in producing this album. Allan Hughes, who recently directed a documentary on Dr. Dre, recently revealed to Uproxx that the man himself has been helping Eminem out by producing one of the last few tracks that were added into the final list of the album. There’s an inseparable romance about Dre and Eminem, simply due to the history that exists in their relationship but Dre has always produced really good tracks when he works closely with Eminem (ie, “I Need A Doctor”).
ED SHEERAN IS FEATURED IN IT
That’s right ladies and gents, this new Eminem album will feature a track that has Ed Sheeran on it. As per the track list that was released recently, this particular song will be called “River” and it’s been slotted in as the 5th track of the album. Beyond that, Eminem has also got the legendary Alicia Keys, upcoming RnB star Kehlani, the X Ambassadors as well as his proverbial favourite, Skylar Grey on separate tracks in the album.
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2 CHAINZ WAS DROPPED
Another artist that was supposed to be a part of it was iconic rapper 2 Chainz. He came out in public awhile back, declaring that he was collaborating with Eminem on a track that would be featured in the new album. But when the final list was released, his name was nowhere to be found. XXL Mag then revealed that the 3rd track of the album – “Chloraseptic” – was supposed to have 2 Chainz on it before Eminem opted to bring in NY-based rapper, Phresher into the track instead. How did 2 Chainz feel about it? Well he took to Instagram and used several emojis to voice out his ‘displeasure’.
SKYLAR GREY’S CAREER PINNACLE
Unsurprisingly, Eminem and Beyonce sent the world into chaos mode when “Walk on Water” was released approximately one month ago. There was obviously a melancholic, introspective undertone to it and it’s largely down to Eminem’s verses – all of which were capable of tugging at heartstrings of his most ardent fans. But the track was also extremely special to Skylar Grey, who co-wrote the song and also played the piano background on it. “This is the song I’ve been trying to write since age 6. Every time I wrote a song I hoped it would be this good. I am truly proud of everything I’ve created, but this is the one,” she tweeted, when the track was released.
INDICATION OF HONESTY
If we were to judge the theme of this album via “Walk on Water”, “Revival” is likely to be an honest album that shows a side of Eminem we’ve never quite seen before. He was rather honest with “Walk on Water”, revealing to fans that regardless of all the fame and money and legendary status that he had gathered over the years, he was still a regular person with insecurities. No matter how much he boasts about different things in his music, he was never sure about so many decisions he made in life and continues to struggle with that process until today. The title of the album also suggests that this could be Eminem’s effort to change his rap persona and move away from the Slim Shady character that has brought him critically acclaimed success over the years.
15TH DECEMBER 2017
You heard it right, this album drops next week! 15th of December is the date and physical copies of his album are expected to only be available in the United States on that day. Alternatively, users should be able to also stream it on Apple Music as well as Spotify.
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