Great, July 28, 2011

Bad Meets Evil has been on hiatus for the better part of a decade, but you would never know it by listening to this E.P. Each track, with the exception of "Lighters," features complex, blistering, back-and-forth rhymes delivered by two incredibly skilled veterans of the rap game. Eminem is held by many to be the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) to ever rock the mic while Royce da 5'9" is never mentioned in debates about who the GOAT is; he is almost never mentioned in anyone's top 5, top 10, or top 25. Nevertheless, he holds his own with Eminem despite the disparity in their skill levels. There is probably no other rapper in the game who could do so, verse for verse, bar for bar, on almost a dozen songs. Few rappers could avoid being "murdered on their own ish" the way Royce has here.Royce and Em rap circles around one another, finish each other's lines, and pick up where the other left off, sometimes mid-bar. The video equivalent of their dynamic can be seen at the end of...

UPDATE: THIS IS A REVIEW THAT PRIMARILY FOCUSES ON EMINEM'S OUTPUT ON THIS RECORD (THOUGH I DO ADDRESS THE BAD MEETS EVIL PARTNERSHIP AND ROYCE SEVERAL TIMES). DUE TO COMPLAINTS FROM TROLLS, I'D LIKE TO SAY THAT THIS REVIEW IS IN NO WAY INTENDED TO BE A SLIGHT TO ROYCE DA 5'9, A LYRICAL BEAST. WHEN I DO TALK ABOUT ROYCE IN THIS REVIEW I HAVE NOTHING BUT LAUDATORY THINGS TO SAY ABOUT HIM. THIS IS JUST A RIDICULOUSLY LONG REVIEW FROM A DEDICATED STAN'S POINT OF VIEW. MUCH RESPECT TO ROYCE DA 5'9 (ONE OF THE BEST MCs IN THE GAME TODAY), DESPITE THE FACT THAT THIS IS PRIMARILY AN EMINEM REVIEW.Alright, let's just air out the facts here: "Recovery" was a great album because Eminem had "recovered" from his rap-slump and gained his old skills back and also developed new techniques such as brilliant double entendres, double-time rhyming over beats, and metaphors that were out of this world and even better than many metaphors we've heard from him in the past. After his rehab, Em...

Great album, #7 Lighters is the only weak spot, Bruno Mars does not belong on any Shady album. Eminem is at his best and Royce is a great complement to his style.