It was a relatively quiet Friday morning on Jan. 17, 2020, until I received a notification from YouTube informing me of a new music video from Eminem. Befuddled, I stopped what I was doing and clicked on the video to see that, lo and behold, it wasn’t just a new song: it was an entirely new album.

Without warning, Eminem struck with his eleventh LP, “Music To Be Murdered By,” inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 album of the same name.
The 20-track LP is one of Eminem’s most lyrically diverse of his other record-shattering albums, with collaborations ranging from Young M.A., Royce da 5’9″, Ed Sheeran, Skylar Grey and even the late Juice WRLD. Upon listening to the opening track, aptly titled “Premonition,” it becomes apparent that listeners are in for something profound.

However, listeners are treated to something better: unpredictability. The one thing that became certain after listening to the intro track was that this would be Slim Shady’s magnum opus for the new decade. The album is jam-packed with heavy-hitting songs like “Premonition,” “You Gon’ Learn,” “Those Kind of Nights” and “Godzilla.” In each one of these intricately designed songs, Eminem incorporates everything that made him a household name in the early 2000s: superb lyrics, impactful collaborations and ripping rhythms.

However, the new album is already subject to a substantial amount of controversy upon its release two days ago. On the track “Unaccommodating,” Eminem raps, “But I’m contemplating yelling ‘Bombs away’ on the game / like I’m outside of an Ariana Grande concert waiting,” referring to the deadly attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in 2017. This lyric instantaneously unleashed a firestorm on Eminem, with Grande fans and even the mayor of Manchester vehemently condemning the lyric as disrespectful.

“Darkness” is one of the most haunting songs Eminem has produced in recent memory. It samples Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” both lyrically and melodically with a delicate piano tune and light beat. “Darkness” narrates the story of Las Vegas concert shooter Stephen Paddock. Eminem not only raps from the perspective of the shooter, but he does so in a manner that draws parallels between himself as a rapper afraid of being forgotten and Paddock.

“Darkness” further cements that Eminem’s storytelling is like fine wine: it gets better with age. Additionally, the song looks to make a statement regarding the lack of gun control laws in America, with lines like, “Leaning out the window, going Keyser Soze / Finger on the trigger, but I’m a licensed owner / With no prior convictions, so the law says sky’s the limit.” Clearly, Eminem wanted to evoke a genuinely profound emotion in listeners, and he has surpassed this expectation with “Darkness.”

However, “Darkness” is far from the only high point on the album, as he unleashes a lyrical onslaught with “Godzilla,” featuring the late Juice WRLD. The track is bound to become an earworm with its catchy yet minimalist beat. Juice WRLD’s chorus bolsters the track with a modern hip-hop flair. Eminem proves that he’s not done breaking records either as he shatters “Rap God” with his new fastest verse, recorded on “Godzilla.”

Although the album sports more of a modern sound, there is still an ample amount of throwbacks to Slim Shady. Tracks like “Marsh” sound as if they were from Eminem’s earlier work, “The Slim Shady LP.” “Marsh” is cartoonish, humorous and delivered over a minimalist piano loop and a catchy beat, along with a great chorus.

These songs don’t even constitute half of the masterpieces on the album. “Music To Be Murdered By” is Eminem’s way of conveying to the world that he doesn’t need to keep up with the music scene. He’s evolving so much that it has to keep up with him. He backs this up with a diverse assortment of tracks, with intricately implemented rhymes and bumping beats. However, I cannot truly say that Slim Shady is back. With the release of his triumphant new album, what’s unclear is whether Slim Shady was ever truly gone.