Eminem's Salute to Alfred Hitchcock
Without announcement, rap star Eminem has released his eleventh studio album: "Music To Be Murdered By" is a reckoning with opponents, a homage to role models - and spreads a spectrum of violent fantasies. Fitting for Rapthursday by 
As in 2018 with the forerunner "Kamikaze", US rapper Eminem also released his eleventh studio album in the night to Friday without prior notice. The 47-year-old posted the album cover of "Music To Be Murdered By" on his Twitter account. The cover shows Eminem holding an axe and a revolver to his head - a reminiscence of a motif with director Alfred Hitchcock.
Master of crime thrillers Hitchcock himself had released an album with the same title in 1958. At several points on the album, Eminem samples Hitchcock's explanations, which the Brit had provided with his typical black humour. At the end, Hitchcock speaks of a "Danse Macabre" that had been performed - an idea with which Eminem could obviously identify.
Hitchcock album from 1958
Because the rapper spreads a spectrum of violent fantasies on the album: In "Unaccomodating" the rapper refers to the bomb attack at Ariana Grande's concert and puts himself in a row with Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden. In "Stepdad" he tells of the blows he suffered as a child from his stepfather and imagines a deadly revenge. And in the first single to the album, "Darkness", Eminem imagines the thoughts of the mass murderer who shot 58 people from a hotel window at a country music festival in Las Vegas in 2017.
In the song as well as in the music video, "Darkness" at the end also refers to numerous other assassinations that have influenced the news situation in the USA in recent years - so the song can be clearly read as a statement against the armed violence in the country. Otherwise Eminem keeps away from clear political statements. It's much more about his own positioning on the rap field.
In the intro to the album, for example, Eminem refers to critics who accuse him that his best times are over. He, who released his first album in 1996, complains that long-lasting careers should also be valued in hip-hop. And besides and anyway: "Bitch, if I was as half as good as I was / I'm still twice as good as you'll ever be".
A strong influence on the sound of the album was exerted by Dr. Dre, Eminem's foster father in the early days, who is the executive producer here and was also directly involved in several tracks in the studio. There are also tracks where Eminem evokes earlier times: "I Will" features the rappers of the group Slaughterhouse, once supported by Eminem. And "Yah Yah" is a direct, fan-like homage to the hip-hop sound of the early nineties, without which - as he raps himself - Eminem would not have become who he is. Ol' Dirty Bastard is quoted, Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest is a guest on the chorus.
But "Music To Be Murdered By" cannot be disqualified as a sentimental album - it's too playful for that, the songs are too different for that. "In Too Deep", a song about an unhappy relationship, has an eighties pop sound, with guest Anderson .Paak it becomes soulful on "Lock It Up". And for the party song "Those Kinda Nights", in which the lyrical ego gets high and has sex with a bisexual woman, Eminem afforded a very prominent feature guest in the form of Ed Sheeran.
Eminem's focus on recent developments in hip-hop is evident in his dosed trap references and autotune gimmicks, but mostly Eminem is very much himself, with verses that escalate into high speed rap, superhero metaphors and lyrics that also address his psychological problems.