How a resurrection really feels

Just as I was suggesting that the Game should focus on putting out a song someone might actually like, rather than putting out a song that's 20 minutes long, and putting out a mixtape that looks like it would be painful to sit through, thus defeating the purpose of putting out a mixtape in the first place, Eminem puts out a song that someone might actually like.

I'd suggest that Eminem read my blog, but he doesn't seem like the kind of guy that spends a lot of time on the Internets. In fact, I'm not sure what the fuck he does in the lengthy periods in between when he actually releases music. But I notice that unlike every other rapper there ever was, he never seems to be on Twitter, hollering at fat chicks, trying to browbeat random kids into RTing a link to his latest freestyle and what have you. He only joined right when it was time to promote Relapse, and he's hardly used it very much since. There was an update a couple of weeks ago, when he wanted us to think that Relapse 2 had been canceled (rather than just renamed), and a couple more, to announce the new title, and the name of the new single, which is supposedly set to premiere on Shade 45 tomorrow morning. For all we know, some random kid from Interscope could be posting that shit. The RZA, for example, doesn't operate his Twitter, the only source of the recent news the he and the GZA are working on Liquid Swords 2, for release this fall. (Aging hater that I am, I've still got my fingers crossed.)

Which begs the question: is this all part of Eminem's plan to make himself scarce, for marketing purposes, or is he just not very tech savvy. He seems too smart (because he's white, natch) + obsessed with pr0n and various other aspects of pop culture, to the extent that all other pop culture these days doesn't overlap with pr0n, to not be plugged in, so I'm gonna have to assume this is part of his plan. Rather than beating us about the head and shoulders for months and months with bullshit freestyles and mixtapes, YouTube videos, and whatever else might get posted on the Nah Rights of the world, he's gonna drop one amazing (at least on a technical level) freestyle, then the single's gonna drop two days later, then probably a video, and then the album.

The silly marketing campaign that led up to the release of Relapse, and the mild commercial disappointment that ultimately greeted that album may have also played a role in this new tack. Remember that dumbass Relapse website that some chinaman probably got paid a small fortune to make? Remember that video for "3 AM" that premiered on motherfucking Skinemax, which must have caused a number of people to have to check to see if they even got Skinemax? (Nothing against Skinemax, which obviously played an important role in my adolescence. Shout out to Shannon Tweed.) Did that XXL cover where he was dressed up as The Punisher also have to do with Relapse? I may have stepped on some toes the other day when I questioned how Dream and Fabolous cover came to be, so I'm not gonna say whether I thought that Eminem cover was gay. You'll just have to use your imagination. Nullus.

The thing is, Em may have been cashing in on the goodwill and brand cachet built up during his early oughts heyday. Companies were probably lining up to Black Eyed Peas-style joint marketing ventures with him. That may have even been the main reason Relapse hit the streets when it did - just like how I suspect that the real impetus for Detox finally seeing the light of day, if it does, was the prospect of creating that many more opportunities to promote those ridonkulously overpriced (and hence profitable as shit) Beats by Dr. Dre headphones. But that was back when the last Eminem album, the godawful, Encore, had gone 4x platinum, and the one before that, which was actually worth listening to, sold twice as much. Relapse only went platinum once over, and worse, didn't include any songs that would fit particularly well in a cell phone commercial. Em might not be able to launch a Relapse-style shill campaign now if he wanted to. It's B.o.B.'s turn. Roffle.

Not that I'm complaining. Everything I've heard about Recovery so far suggests to me that he's dropped the gimmicky marketing bullshit in favor of focusing on making great music. I'm genuinely psyched.