After months of teasing, Eminem’s Revival finally arrived on Friday (December 15) to mixed reviews. One of the strongest criticism was its lack of rap features. Aside from Phresher, who provides the hook on “Chloraseptic,” the rest of the guests spots are held down by pop stars like Ed Sheeran, Beyoncé and P!nk.
During a “Fireside Chat” with SiriusXM Shade45, Slim Shady explained why there was only one rapper on the 19-track effort.
“There’s a couple of things I had in the works that ended up not working out,” he said. “Just ended up not being able to have any rap features apart from Phresher doing the hook on ‘Chloraseptic.'”
Is Eminem Afraid To Give Us A Pure Hip Hop Album?
Elsewhere in the 45-minute discussion, Eminem opened up about the importance of the last three songs on the album — “In Your Head,” “Castle” and “Arose,” calling them “the key to get me to where I’m at now.” More specifically, he talks about a near-fatal overdose he experienced in 2007.
“When [daughter] Hailie was about to be born, I would always write letters I thought one day I would give her just to have ’em; that’s kind of where the concept came from: Let me start from the beginning,” he explained. “And it goes into the addiction part; The ‘Castle’ song basically takes place in 2007, which leads to the overdose, which leads to Christmas and her birthday and me missing that because I was in the hospital. Me not being there for my kids for Christmas was rough.
“And if you listen to ‘Castles’ all the way through, you hear me taking pills and falling; that was the re-creation of me falling in the bathroom and then waking up in the hospital and not knowing what the fuck was going on,” he added. “I had tubes in me, I was angry and I couldn’t talk at all.”
Despite the polarizing reactions to the project, Revival is still seeped in deeply personal tales from one of Hip Hop’s greatest MCs. As he professed in the album’s lead single “Walk On Water” featuring Beyoncé, “it’s the curse of the standard.”
Listen to the full interview above.
I didn’t love this album but it’s true about the curse of the standard. It’s better than Jeezy’s album and G Eazy’s, but they aren’t getting a fraction of the hate. The last 3 songs, believe, chloraseptic and a few others obliterate anything on their albums (except the Cole/kendrick feature). I just wish he would make a full hip hop album, Interscope need to realise Recovery outsold Relapse, not because Relapse was a rap album, but a BAD rap album.
Yeah. You just compared Eminem to G Eazy. The fact that you can do that is the reason why Eminem gets the negative critic (Not hate). Nobody is hating on him they are just honest about the fact that he fell off hard
Relapse a Bad rap album ? wtf ? Relapse is probably one of the most underrated rap album EVER.
am i tripping because i think relapse was one of eminems best if not his best album to date. not a big eminem fan though, but MMLP was dope.
Yeah you trippin
Okay, so maybe he only wanted one rap feature on the album, but why that Phresher dude? Wack as fuck if you ask me. Em, you got Westside Gunn, Conway, Boogie and fucking Slaughterhouse on your label. Why not use them? Or someone from the D, like Tee Grizzley or even Big Sean again. Hell, I would’ve preferred the 2 Chainz feature over Phresher. Very disappointing.
Are we gonna let this vulture cop out like tht?I call massive bullshit*dude had a total of like 2 rap features his previous 2 albums if memory serves*compare tht to the overwhelming pop features*foh em*
Em is far too established to be a vulture
We don’t need a fireside chat, we need an intervention. This album outside of “Framed”, “Castle”, and “Arose” sucks. Eminem needs to stop messing with Rick Rubin and Alex Da Kidd. It’s said he recorded 40-50 songs for the album and that he chose the best songs. Well, 3 out of the 19 you picked are quality and the rest suck. Everything Eminem despised at the beginning of his career he’s become. At this point he needs to just walk away.
Add Offended and I agree with the good songs
Nice Interview. Not. So He had rap features in works but they didnt work out?? Why? Did he get outshined on his own joint and nixed them? And then he talked about his overdoze from 10 Years Ago. Wow! Isnt he talking about that in every interview? Thats how the Album sounds. Dude has nothing to say anymore for the last 10 Years thats why he repeats everything that happened over a decade ago.
Getting outshined by 2chainz is highly unlikely lol
He said he had a couple Rap feats planned that didnt make it.
Not really 2 chainz can actually really rap especially when he wants too, so a motivated 2 chainz could easily outshine a Em especially with the right production, subject matter. 2 chainz isn’t gucci, kodak or someone the guy is a good rapper skill wise and wordplay, lyrical ability, but the content is the issue to me I’m not interested in his subject matters.
Come on man, did you not listen to the 3rd verse in Chloraseptic? GOH, Em is the greatest rhymer to ever do it.
F4ggot pop star rnb boy band solo wannabe mark ass punk. Wat he need to do is call up all dem Backstreet Boys n n sync fa66ots from decades ago and apologize to Dey asses doe real doe. OR he should collaborate wit dem on sum Backstreet Boys is back now featuring new lead singer Feminem. Or n sync reup wit feminem leading. Straight F4GGOT wite boi hook bitch. Fucc diz sellout mark bitch, talmbout he hate f4gs and pop music, 15 years later he doing Britney Spears type music. At least dat psycho hoe could get the D, diz fa66ot stay getting D from jimm iovine and macklemore and Elton john. Fruitcake real spit doe.
Bro please go back to school and learn how to spell
5 songs into the album and its not bad. Chloroseptic(I know I fucked up the spelling) and believe were really good. River was alright.
Eminem is a legend
I don’t think the dude that signed slaughterhouse is worried about being outshined. I don’t like his pop shit either, but his skill and love for hip hop shouldn’t be questioned.
I think he’s under higher power with label control at the end of the day the higher ups called the shots with this album
When you sell 30 million records. You run your own shit
Not when someone has pics & vids of big black dudes taking turns on you when you passed out high af welcome to show biz blackmail centeal, he doesn’t need a deal but he’s in one haha
you’re retarded
I thought I was the only one understanding this, I agree with you, most don’t understand this though, I said myself that I’m not even sure he would have even did a album if it was up to him, he doesn’t seem that motivated to really be in hip hop anymore. Interscope owns Em they control a lot of his moves, same as Dr Dre. If it was up to him he would have at least had some of his shady artist on there, that’s how I think we know he had no control over the features that would be on the official album.
I want to think that it was label pressure to include all these pop features, but there’s no way an artist of Eminem’s stature (he is the highest selling artist of the first decade of the new millennium) isn’t calling the shots. On top of that, he made it pretty clear in his old music that he hated when the label would try to talk him into changing his tune for the sake of mass appeal, so I doubt he suddenly decided they know what’s best for his art form. You guys just don’t want to admit that he lost his mojo, and he makes wack music now.
Eminem didn’t fall off, most of the verses are badass its just his hooks that suck! And half the beats he chose are wack. But this album ain’t as bad as I thought it was gonna be…. chloraseptic, believe, framed, heat, offended, and the last three songs on the album are all good. Idk why all the chick hooks…
The style he’s been rapping with lately is lyrical overkill. It’s impressive to hear how many words he can rhyme and the punchlines he can work into the intricate wordplay, but not entertaining, emotionally resonant, or powerfully edgy like his first four albums were (minus the goofy shit on encore). The lyrics are borderline eccentric, it’s like he spends all his time on them, driving himself crazy to make sure nobody is better than him. I can’t imagine the lyrics being that good if he doesn’t put an insane amount of time into them. I used to be impressed when I thought about how much effort he put into being lyrical genius, now I’m starting to worry that he’s taking it too far.
Some people really love the technical aspect of it. Others want more relatable music. I think Eminem is more technical now. He’s a rapping robot. No soul in the traditional of feel good music sense but damn impressive to witness him putting clever lines together.
Well any other rapper with poor hook choices and wack beats gets shit for it so why shouldn’t someone who at one time had some of both and went multiplatinum for it?
This is his 9th fucking album.. What did any of you expect? It is good enough for the amount of music he has put out over the course of a 20 year plus career. At least he is still putting out something to bump for a bit. I read through these comments and shake my head at what half of you are “s@YIn.” Like fuck off
Get your girlfriend out of the trunk before she suffocates, Stanley.
Exactly its the 9th Album who still expect someone who calls himsels Rap God to drop a decent project is delusional. Give him a Break just because he cant create a great Album anymore doesnt mean you can critic that.
I always enjoyed JR Writer’s punchline heavy music, but if you had told me back in 2006 that someday he would drop an album in the same month as Eminem and it would be, by far, the better of the two, I probably would have called you stupid and said you don’t know hip hop. And yet here we are. Thanks Trump.
What song in the world ever created can be played next to lose yourself and sound that good? Shut up
The top songs on this album are up there with the greatest songs he’s ever made. Sick of people pushing a real lyricist and a living legend out of the game when we live in the world of the Mumble rapper era. “Fans” are the reason hip hop is a dying genre. Eminem-Still the GOAT
Which one of these songs can be played back to back with lose yourself and sound just as good?
Most of them….. Revival IS a killer album. If you don’t like it fuck off.
He called himself a rap god. We at least expected an album deserving of that stature! no ones pushing him out, just tired of him clownin around for stats
I’m a fan but not a Stan and the album is not up to Eminem’s standards (Compared to his first 4 albums starting from Infinite) however it’s the best he released since the Eminem Show! Yeah it’s got some wack songs (that’s production wise and I agree that he needs to ditch rick Ruben and go back to DRE and Bass Brothers) but the overall lyrical content was fire and go to hell if you deny that! There is no album released lately by those mumble rap youngsters or the 90% singing + 10% ass shaking Drake! I can just think of Kendrick as a true rapper now, that can fack with Revival! Yeah there are only 7-8 tracks that are great (you guess which ones I’m talking about), but tell me where can you get a rap album those days with that many good songs?! Just stop attacking him and don’t listen or read his news if you’re that much of a hater and go listen to some pillies songs!!!
NO Artist is able to drop classics After classics! So stop the hate & if u don’t like the new music listen historischen albums u like – it’s that simple!
Exactly, this is exactly what happened to Chester bennington, although it wasnt the main reason but everyone talking shit about one more light and he dies, then everyone turns two face and says oh its so good, people don’t like ems album, theres the door, don’t let it hit you on the way out.
He doesn’t need the black fans anymore to give him credible. He is a pop rapper now. Which means he is straight wack. M is just like macklemore very little black HIP HOP FANS like them. M is another Elvis who stole black music and became the so called best. Yes, he is the best among of the trash or of rap music. M isn’t the best of the hip-hop music just rap. He is no better than lil wayne, drake or lil pump. He was never the best of hip-hop. M’s beats aren’t strong enough to be the best.
You can’t rule out Em from Hip Hop because you personally don’t like his music. The Hip Hop community acknowledges him for his body of work and lyrical dexterity his legacy is forever cemented with the rest, because he share a similar ‘coming to the game’ story as any other rapper (earned his stripes). His wack now maybe, but Em is Rap and Hip Hop at the same time and worthy of a sit at the table with the greats, asks Rakim!
Wrong! There is no such animal as a hip hop artist/rapper. Hip-hop artists don’t want sellout the music like rappers including M. You must come from the rap years 2000-2018. Rappers are the corny ass pop stars like M. I knew M was a sellout after the first album. I stop buying him along time a go. His beats sound to commercial on the first album. You guys got sucker. M mention about being the next elvis on his first album. He was right!
Eminem has already contributed 3 classic must have albums to the game 1.Slim Shady LP 2.The Marshall Mathers LP and 3.The Eminem Show. Some people are lucky enough to even put out 1. The rest of his albums with the exception of Encore in my opinion are great but not classic. Not to mention his albums contain more then 15 tracks usually he gives you alot of content so there is always some fire songs even if you think not all of them have replay value. All in all Revival to me is a good album another notch on Em’s belt. For Em being out his pryme with nothing to prove he is still producing good tracks bottomine.
These fuckin brats can’t rap and Eminem’s new cd is garbage. What’s this bitch retarded? Gimme back my sixteen dollars. Dude needs to hang it up and retire.
I see all this hate towards Eminem, you think you can do better? Prove it, drop 9 fire ass albums then come talk garbage, revival is fire and so was his other 8 albums. Good work em, keeping the legacy going while everyone else fell off the radar