Revival: Eminem

🥫 Do not recycle. Visionaries, by default, are deluded by the belief that no one understands what they do. Eminem lives with a mindset that disregards doubters. In the past this has enabled him to create groundbreaking, stan-worthy music. Revival is evidence he should’ve listened to the doubters.

“I feel sorry for this beat\Sympathy pays for this track” speaks for the rest of us. Arrogance is okay when it’s justified, but to say, “Why are expectations so high, is it the bar I set?” is a blatant contradiction. Eminem has set an OG bar for himself which is what makes this album so underwhelming.

Take, for instance, Eminem’s superior lyrical eminence. He’s been eloquent ever since, “Hi, kids! Do you like violence? Wanna see me stick nine inch nails through each one of my eyelids?” He glides over words like an auctioneer with a sincere message. But Revival is spoken like “An eight year old with wordplay”—his words, not mine. To that end, most phrases are hyper-articulated as if his audience is a bunch of eight year olds. Notice this phrase from “In Your Head”:

Hailie, baby, I didn’t mean to make you eighty
Percent of what I rapped about
Maybe I shoulda did a better job at…