Before Eminem and Rihanna collaborated on the hit song “The Monster,” they had another popular song together called “Love the Way You Lie.”
Eminem decided to bring his career somewhat full circle with the 2013 release of The Marshall Mathers LP 2. By titling it as a sequel to what many believed to be his best album to date, The Marshall Mathers LP, the pressure was on the rapper.
Though he downplayed the fact that the album was a sequel to his 21-million-selling 2000 effort, Eminem did admit to working as hard as he had in a long time on The Marshall Mathers LP 2. He told Rolling Stone: “Calling it The Marshall Mathers LP 2, obviously I knew that there might be certain expectations. I wouldn’t want to call it that just for the sake of calling it that. I had to make sure that I had the right songs—and just when you think you got it, you listen and you’re like…I feel like it needs this or that,’ to paint the whole picture.”
Before Eminem and Rihanna collaborated on the hit song “The Monster,” they had another popular song together called “Love the Way You Lie.”
The Marshall Mathers LP 2 had this and that—at least fans believed it did. When the album was released in November, it sold 792,000 copies in the first week. Eminem had strategically released four singles from the album—almost back to back—prior to the release of the album. The singles included “Berzerk,” “Survival,” “Rap God,” and “The Monster,” a dark and emotional collaboration with Barbadian singer Rihanna. The pair had teamed up on record a few times previously, including on the 2010 number-one hit, “Love the Way You Lie.”
Although The Marshall Mathers LP 2 was calmer than many of its predecessors, it still brought about its share of controversy. The lyrics to “Rap God,” for example, contained the disparaging words “fag,” “fags,” and “faggots.” Eminem’s use of those words—just as it had a decade earlier—angered many openly gay musicians. Some critics, too, believed that by presenting lyrics similar to those he had written years earlier, Eminem had shown he had not matured much in his forty-one years on earth. The Wall Street Journal wrote: “Fortunately, the world has moved on, even if Eminem hasn’t. He may have a specific person in mind with his [derogatory lyrics]. So what? It’s still childish. I don’t really care if Eminem is or isn’t a homophobe. I just wish he’d stopped being so lazy and find some other punching bag besides the LGBT community.”
Although it may appear that way to some, it is unlikely that laziness had much to do with Eminem’s decision to rap anti-gay slurs on his latest album. Over the years, Eminem has become a shrewd businessman, one who knows that controversy sells. People were talking about The Marshall Mathers LP 2 weeks before it was released. Musical trends had changed in the years since Eminem first burst onto the scene, but newspapers and magazines still were writing about him. His music was selling in large numbers. People still knew his name.
“The entire industry has changed, and I have no idea where it’s going,” Eminem wrote in his 2008 autobiography. “People are always going to want music—no, they’re always going to need music. Which means there will always be a place for me in this game.… If I had to do it again, I don’t know if I would. I’m glad, though, that my music has brought people together.”