Eminem (Not-So) Surprise-Releases New Album, ‘Music to Get Murdered By – Side B’

Eminem has “surprise-dropped” so many albums in the past couple of years that the arrival of a rumor has basically become the official announcement. And sure enough, days after very detailed rumors broke about the impending release of a follow-up to his most recent surprise-dropped album, “Music to Get Murdered By,” it arrived. Collaborators include Dr. Dre (rapping on “Guns Blazing” and co-producing “Discombobulated”), Ty Dolla $ign, DJ Premier, and Skylar Gray.

“Side B” arrives 11 months after Eminem surprise-released “Music to Be Murdered By” (featuring guest spots from Juice WRLD, Ed Sheeran, Young M.A, Anderson .Paak and production from Dr. Dre.), which followed 2018’s surprise-dropped “Kamikaze.”

After a surprise performance on the Academy Awards in February — 17 years after winning the Best Song Oscar for “Lose Yourself” — Eminem popped back onto the radar two weekends ago with a cameo in an SNL sketch spoofing his 2000 disturbed-superfan song “Stan,” which featured a star turn from Pete Davidson.

Eminem spoke with Variety about his Oscar appearance the day after he performed, but he gave no hint of any plan for a “Murder” part two. “I don’t really have anything coming up next, to be honest, just whatever videos come along,” he said. “We don’t have anything written in stone just yet.”

The 16-track “Music to Be Murdered By – Side B” features 13 full songs with three skits. On the basis of a quick skim, it includes lots of covid references and some wordplay that is blazingly fast and dense even by Eminem standards (particularly on “Gnat”).