Last night, Eminem dropped off the second single from his forthcoming Revival album (December 15th), the politically charged "Untouchable." Produced by Mark Batson, Emile, Mr. Porter & Eminem himself, the song is arranged with two distinct parts. The first finds Eminem taking on the persona of a racist police officer, rapping over a hard-rock inspired guitar riff, channeling acts like Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, and early Ice Cube. In fact, it's somewhat reminiscent of Jay-Z's "99 Problems," which was produced by Eminem's current right hand man Rick Rubin. The second half finds Em rapping from the perspective of a black man, adopting a strong stance against racial stereotypes, police brutality, bootstrapping, republicans, and injustice.
Lyrically, the track is extremely dense, with over six minutes of bars to comb through. However, after scanning through the collective wisdom within our comment section, it seemed as if Em's latest was as divided as the country he's rapping about. For the first time in a long while, Eminem earned himself the much-maligned user ranking of "Meh," a rare feat for an artist of Slim's caliber. Yet, the response has been pretty passionate, with over two hundred voices chiming in on "Untouchable."
It's certainly an interesting discourse, and the polarizing responses go to show that Eminem can still stir up a little bit of controversy when you least expect it. The way things are going, Revival may very well be his most divisive album yet. The full thing drops in exactly one week's time, so I guess we'll have to wait and see. For now, check out some of the most thought-provoking, praiseworthy, hilarious, bitter, and disappointed comments on either side.
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