Speaking of albums that are better than Kingdom Come, the new Shady Records mixtape/weed carriers album Eminem Presents: The Re-Up isn't half that bad if you're into that sort of thing.

Peep the review of it written by the London Bureau Chief for my own site:

I think Eminem's one of the best MCs evar, but I've never been a huge fan of Eminem-produced Eminem. I liked the Eminem Show well enough, but the Marshall Mathers LP was the last time I was really crazy about an Eminem album, and that's been a while ago.

I wasn't a very big fan of Encore at all back when I first heard it and reviewed it for my own site, though I've since developed a certain appreciation for tracks like "Just Lose It" and "Ass Like That." The videos are pretty funny too.

[Brief aside: For whatever reason, Encore is one of the few albums mentioned in my Wikipedia entry, along with the likes of Weezer's Make Believe and the Gorillaz' Demon Days.]

The Re-Up isn't a proper Eminem album but rather a sort of hybrid mixtape/weed carriers album designed to introduce the world to Em's new stable of weed carriers.

As the world's most accurate encyclopedia put it:

The album first began as a street mixtape project -- an underground, unofficial CD with raw production values--designed to help launch new Shady Records artists Stat Quo, Ca$his, and Bobby Creekwater. "But what happened is that the material was so good and the tracks were getting produced like a regular album, said Eminem.

I hate when that happens!

That said, Eminem is all over the Re-Up, rapping on a good half of the tracks and producing most of the rest of them. And that's the thing: Who would've ever thought a weed carriers album with beats by Eminem would even be halfway enjoyable?

It's not so much that he's become a better producer, but I'm sure it's just a matter of my own taste in music declining over the years, similar to how I've come to enjoy the most recent Jim Jones album. This shit just doesn't sound as bad to me as it did two years ago.

As far as the actual weed carriers themselves. . . I'm not very impressed. Bobby Creekwater kinda sounds like TI, so he might have the brightest future of the bunch. The rest of them just sound like a buncha non-rapping ass weed carriers.

D-12 sans both Em and Proof (RIP) is just a new level of pathetic. The tracks with them are like if the rest of the bums in Junior Mafia tried putting out an album not only sans Biggie and Lil' Kim, but also Lil' Cease.

If this album had been confined to just Em, Fiddy and Obie Trice, with the occasional Ca$his, Bobby Creek or Stat Quo verse, it could've been a sort Shady Records equivalent of Jay's the Dynasty. Alas, I suppose then it wouldn't have served its original purpose.

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