Release Date: Jun 14, 2011
Genre(s): Rap
Record label: Interscope
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Buy Hell: The Sequel EP from Amazon
How nice that Eminem is following up a record called Recovery with a record about making amends. Bad Meets Evil is his collaboration with once-estranged Detroit homey Royce da 5'9". The duo released a handful of singles in the late Nineties and shared a track on The Slim Shady LP, but standard intra-rap squabbles tore them asunder until shared grief over the death of D12 rapper and local hero MC Proof got them talking again.
Eminem and Royce da 5’9” have been through quite a bit over the last few years, but here on the other side of the deaths, beefs and arrests, each man has recently come back into his own. With Royce having signed to Eminem’s Shady Records as part of Slaughterhouse, it’s only right that they celebrate with Hell: The Sequel, a new EP from their group, Bad Meets Evil. Luckily, the intervening years haven’t slowed either man down and the EP finds both emcees fully in touch with what first attracted us to them.
P.O.S. :: Chill, dummyDoomtree RecordsAuthor: Patrick TaylorI've been a fan of Stefon "P.O.S." Alexander since his debut nearly 10 years ago. On "Audition" and 2009's "Never Better," he proved himself to be one of the few artists who could successfully meld punk rock and hip-hop. Fellow Minnesotans ….
Last year’s ? Recovery saw Eminem ? finding the more dynamic moments hidden between his blasts of bluster. He returns to mostly eye-popping intensity on this tag-team effort with fellow Detroiter Royce Da 5??9”. The pair spew acid-tongued battle raps that shout down ? celebrities (Lady Gaga and ? Justin Bieber join the hit ? list with ? obsessive conviction, but the Bruno Mars-produced pop ? nugget ”Lighters” makes the rest of Hell: The Sequel‘s dark leanings more fulfilling.
Since the hip-hop community caught wind of them around 1999, Bad Meets Evil spent a decade in the more-a-legend-than-a-band category. Members Eminem and Royce da 5'9" spent those years not speaking thanks to beefs and feuds, but then the 2006 murder of their mutual friend, D12 member Proof, brought them back together. Fast-forward to 2011 and this EP re-launches the project, although fans have already been notified that Hell: The Sequel is “a collection of tracks” so excuse the mess.
Proof that Eminem is trying to appeal to just about everyone on Recovery comes early, when on “The Reunion” he mentions bumping Relapse in his car. More tellingly, he purposely crashes his car and ejects his girl out the front window when she takes the CD and snaps it in half because it “sucks”. Would he do the same to the Eminem from Recovery? Truth is, the response to Relapse was a strongly emotional one fueled by his strange accent and a desire to hear a record on par with Eminem Show, if not the classics that shall not be named.
Let’s go ahead and assume you’re familiar with the name Eminem. If you aren’t, you definitely weren’t at Bonnaroo last weekend, and you more than likely stumbled onto this website by mistake, and we thank you for your accidental readership. But if you’ll just hit that little button at the top of your browser that’s shaped like a house, that’ll get you back to where you want to be.
Years apart haven’t done much to throw off Eminem and Royce Da 5’9?‘s chemistry. Hell: The Sequel, the follow up promised on Slim Shady and Nickle Nine’s standout collaboration, “Bad Meets Evil” 12 years ago—finds the two Motor City rhyme animals seamlessly taking turns showing off their lyrical dexterity as if it was an oversized diamond-encrusted piece. The EP picks up where the duo’s last collaboration left off on the Havoc-produced “Welcome to Hell.
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