It's safe to say all of the rap world is excited for Eminem to release the follow-up to his 2000 effort The Marshall Mathers LP. Eminem has been quiet for three years, following the release of Recovery, and now he's back with a vengeance, if you've heard "Rap God," you know.
Still, some fans are doubtful as to whether or not MMLPII will really live up to its predecessor, and that's something Em was aware of when he chose to title it as he did. In an upcoming interview with Rolling Stone, the Detroit emcee talks about the album's title.
"Calling it The Marshall Mathers LP 2, obviously I knew that there might be certain expectations," Eminem says in the interview. "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, 'Fuck, man! I feel like it needs this or that,' to paint the whole picture."
In other excerpts from the interview, Em talks about how much work he's been putting into the LP. "Right now, I'm probably working harder than I've ever worked in my life," he tells Rolling Stone. "Aside from around the time of The Eminem Show, when I was also doing the "8 Mile" movie and soundtrack and score and shit like that. This is probably the equivalent of that, but all focused on the record."
Eminem also iterated that MMLPII is "not necessarily a sequel, as much as it is a revisitation. So there's not gonna be, like, continuations of every old song on there or anything like that," he adds. "To me, it's more about the vibe, and it's more about the nostalgia."
Finally he spoke on getting Rick Rubin, who produced "Berzerk," to work on his project. "Getting with him was like, 'Holy shit!'" says Eminem. "As many genres of music that he is able to fuck with, he's like Yoda. I couldn't do it. You sit me there with a rock group, I don't know the first fucking thing about banging on the drums."
The full Rolling Stone interview can be found in the November 7th issue of the magazine. The deluxe edition tracklist for Em's album was revealed yesterday.