The newly released album art for Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP 2" is either great news or terrible news, depending on how you interpret it. We've certainly heard both sides of the story around the water cooler at Music Times.
First some context: The rapper released the album art for his upcoming album on Friday. "TMMLP2" is very much like the cover of "TMMLP," in that it features a somewhat sepia tone image of Eminem's childhood home. This time, however, Eminem isn't sitting on the front steps. In fact, it seems the house has been abandoned since we last laid eyes, as wood boards now block the doors and windows. More on that later.
So here's the two opinions, good and bad, that we've heard about the album art and how it possibly reflects on the music within*:
GOOD: "The return to the his childhood home, framed in almost the exact same position as 'TMMLP1' indicates that Eminem is focusing the same energy that he did during that album onto 'TMMLP2.' As any hip-hop critic worth his salt will tell you, the former is definitely Eminem's best album, if not one of the best rap albums of all time, and his comparing his new album to it is a great sign.
BAD: "It seems like he's just phoning it in. Like he ran out of creativity so he went back to old ideas. No doubt 'TMMLP1' was a great album, but are we supposed to believe that at this place in his life he can make an album based on the same themes? Most people thought he was joking when he said on ESPN that he wasn't excited about the album, but I don't know."
* = These are extreme summaries of arguments, not word-for-word quotations.
Undoubtedly, some of your eyebrows raised when we mentioned the home was abandoned, and yes, the property is up for sale! Bids are staring as low as $1, so head to Detroit for your chance to own piece of album art history!
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