Although I was a toddler when Eminem first began making music, I have been listening to him since middle school. I love his music and he is by far my favorite rapper. His creative style and honest lyrics drawing from his troubled past are what make him unique amongst all of the other hip hop artists out there; most of whom focus on money, sex, and drugs. Although he is a very explicit artist he is someone to admire, seeing as he came from the roughest part of Detroit and used sheer talent and perseverance to become the star he is today.

Marshall Mathers aka Eminem or Slim Shady has been causing controversy since his first album Infinite released in 1996. Taking a break for over a year from music following his last album Mad Meets Evil, he has finally released the first single off of his upcoming album Marshall Mathers LP 2, a throwback to his original Marshall Mathers LP album from 2000. His new single “Berzerk” released August 27^th and features his classic comical and insulting style.

While it is refreshing to finally have a new song released by Eminem, the single Berzerk didn’t measure up to expectations. The flow of this song compares to earlier albums such as The Slim Shady LP and The Eminem Show, both of which released towards the beginning of his career before he matured as an artist. It is unusual that he has reverted back to his old nonsensical and meaningless lyrical ways. Rather than touching on serious topics as Recovery (his Grammy Award winning album) did, the lyrics of “Berzerk” focused on taunting celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and fellow artist Birdman.

The beat of “Berzerk” seems rushed and messy; an unfortunate combination that has never been seen in any of his other finely tuned songs. The song contains obnoxious background noises that sound as if someone is stepping on a sound board, only adding clutter to the song and taking away from the quality. This is what primarily creates the sloppiness sound of the song. While the majority of “Berzerk” is disappointing, the chorus is memorable. It employs a catchy upbeat rhythm that has the listener moving to the beat. The chorus is of the quality that I expected the rest of the song to have. It brings back memories of “Beautiful” and “Crack a Bottle” which are two of my favorite songs by him.

If Eminem plans to stay relevant and make a successful comeback the other songs on his soon to be released album have to be up to par. If Eminem doesn’t add something new and fresh to his style his music is going to sound like bland recreations of past albums and fade amongst current artists. Whether the now 40 year old rapper is going to be able to stay on the top of the charts is unclear, only time will tell.