’13 Best Albums #3: Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP 2

Written By: @Elliottwilson January 10, 2014 @ 4:08 PM EST
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Back At 19946 Dresden Street.

The great ones accept great expectations. They know their only competition is truly themselves. Their past accomplishments. Many were surprised when Em announced his seventh major label album would be named after his 2000 breakthrough, Marshall Mathers LP. How could the Detroit MC possibly top that ten million selling blockbuster in 2013? Well even though Slim Shady is 41, he still don’t give a fuck.

Although the opener, “Bad Guy” serves as a sequel to “Stan” with the younger brother Matthew seeking revenge, most of MM2 finds Em revisiting his past with a fresh perspective on things. He reminisces on his cultural impact on the stunning “Asshole” and he reconnects with Rihanna to claim that he can control fame on “Monster”. But what’s more interesting here tho are the songs that rely on classic rock sound backdrops.

“Berzerk” rocks a Billy Squier big beat called “The Stroke”. “Rhyme Or Reason” takes The Zombies’ “Time of The Season” to greater heights. But the best of this bunch is “So Far” which is anchored by Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good” on which Em pledges his allegiance to his hometown Detroit and combines his sharp bars with his quirky sense of humor: “Got friends on Facebook, all over the world/Not sure what that means, they tell me it’s good/So I’m artist of the decade, I even got a plaque/I’d hang it up, but the frame is all cracked.”

Brutally honest, Em truly opens up on the album’s most moving selection, “Headlights” where he buries the hatchet with his estranged mother. He declares: “I’m mad I didn’t get the chance to/Thank you for being my mom and my dad/So, Mom, please accept this as a tribute/I wrote this on the jet/I guess I had to get this off my chest.”

Sure to please hip-hop purists is hearing the former underground king turned King MC proclaim his place in the game as a “Rap God” and on the album’s closer he rearranges your GOAT list: “Fuck top five, bitch, I’m top four/And that includes Biggie and Pace, whore, and I got an Evil Twin/So who the fuck do you think that third and fourth spot’s for.”

Rap’s greatest technical rapper has spoken.—YN

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40 Comments
  1. Word says:

    I swear on everything, if put Beautiful Pain, Groundhog Day, and Don’t Front in place of So Far and Love Game, you have a perfect Eminem album. As it stands its one of my favorites of the year, but I skip to the Bonus Tracks too often because songs like So Far and Love Game make me cringe.

    Good spot at 3, but should be higher than MCHG which wasn’t as good as the initial hype.

    1. Drake says:

      Disagree… Stronger than I was and Survival are the songs I’d replace. His flow and wordplay in Love Game is really good if you pay attention to it, and so far is just a great song, I’ve never really seen anyone dislike it up till now.

      1. Public Hairs says:

        Nobody liked “Love Game”. It was a let down considering the caliber of this collaboration.

    2. KTT says:

      Love Game? are you serious? when you have songs such as STIW and The Monster, Survival smh bruh you trippin

  2. Joe Pafumi says:

    Should be 1

  3. Patrick Wiley says:

    Can’t believe MCHG is gonna be higher than this. Damn shame.

    1. Dan Karlin says:

      Rap Radar is the Fox News of hip hop blogs.

  4. S says:

    Mmlp2 > MCHG > nothing was the same

    1. ... says:

      looooooooooool

      hahahaha

      NWTS is muuuuuch better than MCHG and Eminem trash album

      1. Kenny says:

        LOL Drake sucks so much ass.

  5. Jimmy says:

    YNs dick riding ways are very well documented and his infatuation with Jay z has reached border line stalking status

    1. GreenBergs says:

      but how is it stalking if he gets invited to parties, AT the 40/40 club?

  6. Belize says:

    Best song on this cd was the unreleased bonus Dont Front track. Album is trash if you measure it in Em standards. Classic if you compare it to current. expected a lot more

    1. respect says:

      “Me against the world so what? I’m Brian DawkinsVersus the whole 0 and 16 Lions offense, so bring on the Giants Falcons and Miami Dolphins, It’s the body bag game bitch I’m supplying coffins”…cant hate on the album or its lyrics

      1. Belize says:

        lyrically? for sure..sonically – ehh, not my taste. That track is good..id say 4 songs are really great.

    2. Kenny says:

      I’m gonna guess you didn’t truly listen to it. You gotta listen to the songs, learn the lyrics, and get an understanding of the original MMLP to feel the album. This album is one of Em’s greatest, but you gotta get into it to truly appreciate the genius behind it.

      1. Belize says:

        nah b… If it dont grab you after 2-3 spins, your just brainwashing yourself

  7. tpayas says:

    MMLP2 was dope. I agree with that if you added some of the bonus songs, it would have AMAZING. Baby, Don’t Front, and Beautiful Pain needed to be on the main album IMO. Either way, it was great album and his best since TES.

    And I’m hoping to god MCHG isn’t number 2 and missed this list completely because it was trash, and this coming from a long-time Jay fan. Drake is gonna be No. 1 and hopefully something else is No. 2.

    1. Drake says:

      Drakes album was shit though. What is this list even based on? Cause Em’s outsold everybody so so how is he 3rd??

  8. Ibrahima Niang says:

    that shit was ok

  9. Dashing28 says:

    This was his best work since Eminem show.

  10. THE REAL mac DIESEL says:

    HA!!!! FUCK OUTTA HERE!!!! MMLP2 BETTER THAN BORN SINNER??!!! TWO WORDS……..PAUL ROSENBEG!!!!

    DON’T HATE ON MY OPINION!!!!

    1. Ryan says:

      Who the fuck is Born Sinner

      1. THE REAL mac DIESEL says:

        THE ALBUM THAT’S BETTER THAN THAT WACK FUCKIN’ MMLP2 ALBUM!!!! FAGGOT!!!!
        DON’T HATE ON MY OPINION!!!!

  11. ski says:

    Album wasn’t all that to me wasn’t bad but wasn’t as solid as I thought it would be

  12. Jimi says:

    This album is one of Em’s best albums in my opinion. If you just casually listen to a song(s) on this album, you might think they suck, and hate on the album. The songs are so well made and complex on this album, that you need to pay attention to get it. Each song has a very complex beat with many twists and turns you may not notice if you just skim through it. Each beat has something more to it and you have to listen to find it and once you do its well worth it. And the lyrics are amazing. Any haters are simply too stupid to get the music, and are more used to dumb party songs.

  13. Stephen says:

    Dick riding Jay-Z and Drake as usual. MCHG was a average record. If anybody else made the same record it wouldn’t be on your top 5.

  14. Justin TimberBAKED says:

    This album was fucking terrible!!! I don’t understand how people even like this shit. Em been dropping duds since The Eminem Show

    1. uche says:

      relapse is a classic album yo

  15. GreenBergs says:

    this shit dont even deserve to be in the “best albums of the year” list at all..

  16. jay says:

    Wicked Ways is the shit. truly amazing track. if you havent heard it, do that right now

  17. Ryuk says:

    How anyone can say MMLP2 is better than MNIMN or Born Sinner or Ambition (or even MCHG,which wasnt Hov‘s best work, but certainly deserves to be ranked above Em’s latest) is beyond me. We get it. You’re super nostalgic about Eminem. We all are. But this album just isn’t very good. Who is Eminem yelling at for the ENTIRE album? If i was 16, this would be my jam. But Em, as great as he is, hasn’t shown any real growth since The Eminem Show. Will always dig Em and give him his respect as a lyricist. But MMLP2 misses the mark.

    1. Broski 3000 says:

      No growth??? Where you been living? Under a rock since 2004 i guess

    2. CiNo says:

      Actually, it seems like you did NOT listen to the ENTIRE album, cuz he definitely did not yell very much on this one. Eminem yelling was my complain about him during Recovery & the Bad Meets Evil EP. But he did not put me thru that yelling bullshit on this album. So you’re just straight out lying. And lyrically, he outdid every album you listed. The only 2 albums that I think give Eminem a run for his money this year (lyrically & sonically) were Tech N9ne’s “Something Else” and Hopsin’s “Knock Madness”

  18. Verbal Arteest says:

    Mr. Wilson is obviously going through withdrawal from his s-curl grease and taking it out on the top albums of year. MMLP2 behind MCHG and that used tampon Drake calls an album? Please tell me that this is for shock value and to get more traffic to the site. This guy CANT believe this!

  19. uche says:

    the thing about ems albums is that they tend to grow on you, wen relapse dropped i called that shit wack, but 5yrs down the line i gotta admit that shit is a dope album, classic album imo, mmlp2 will grow on yall trust me and wen its all said and done Em will ave 4-5 classic albums.

  20. West West Yall says:

    Album of the year MMLP2. King Shady.

  21. Broski 3000 says:

    If you think Drakes album is better than Em’s??? Kill yourself like right now! Headbutt a knife, play russisn roulette, open the cabinet and eat the pills!!! You stupid

  22. LOL says:

    this isn’t MMLP material, but it was an solid release. the one thig e should of done is change the fuckin album title, cuz he has tarnished the series.

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