Then, there wasn't much heard about the album, and when Memorial Day came around, we had false hope that something would be announced.
But nothing was.
After a whole pile of nothing came our way, we decided that the album was definitely coming before his August shows, because, it would be stupid as HELL to not have new material to perform at a concert.
In the midst of all that, we got the Tony Touch record, Piecemakers 3, with Eminem in the tracklisting with "Symphony In H". When that finally dropped, there were mixed emotions, a lot were amazed at the verse, and others were still pissed the fuck off because we didn't yet have a version of the song where Tony Touch wasn't screaming his name all over the song and cutting it off in the middle.
But it was new Shady, and it was more then we'd had in a year.
Then August came around, and we heard exactly 0 about the album. We knew Em had been in the studio with Chris Rock, Big Sean, and had met with Black Hippy, but nothing was really confirmed yet. Then, a few days before the August shows, Em tweeted about not missing the COD Ghosts reveal, and although many people thought he was just promoting Call Of Duty, we all tuned in to the live stream to check it out. The trailer for Ghosts started playing, and we heard "This, is, survival of the fittest, this, is, do or dieeeee" and none of us were really sure if it was an Eminem song. But then, "I wasn't ready to be a millionare, I was ill-prepared..." and the forum went ape shit. It was so exciting, this was the start of the album cycle, basically. Then Em walks out on the screen and gives a few words about the song, and closes out by saying "We have a few more surprises in store for you". And holy shit, did they have some surprises.
After a few weeks had gone by to pick apart Survival, Em posts a pic on Instagram saying not to miss the VMA's. People were saying "Is he going to perform a new single?" "How can he do that when he was in Germany just 3 hours ago?" But all we had to do was wait and see.
Once it was highly anticipated, about 45 minutes through the VMA's, it cut to a commercial break. A febreze commercial played out, and many people weren't really expecting anything during a commercial break.
Then, the commercial came on. A white hand was shown plugging in a Studio Beats audio jack and many were thinking "Whoa, could that be Eminem?" "I bet it's Slim!"
"NOW THIS SHIT'S ABOUT TO KICK OFF, THIS PARTY LOOKS WACK. LET'S TAKE IT BACK TO STRAIGHT HIPHOP AND START IT FROM SCRATCH"
That 15 second snippet played during the commercial saying "EMINEM. MMLP2. 11-5-13. EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY DR. DRE AND RICK RUBIN"
And holy fuck, that was a lot to take in. The forum once again went nucking futs, but then Paul tweeted "There's more"
about an hour later, the Beats commercial with Eminem played. "We're gonna rock this house until we knock it down so turn the volume loud..."
"HOLY SHIT. EM IS BLONDE AGAIN. OH MY GOD."
shit was crazy.
Then Berzerk dropped, we all picked it apart, and following that came the cover art, then the tracklisting, and then finally, Rap God.
Rap God was that shit man. I, and I bet a lot of you other guys, played that shit over and over and over again trying to get the lyrics down. And now, we're waiting for this album to leak day and night. Each day that passes, the anticipation builds up more and more and one day, the album will blow up again. 502, 503, 504 Gateways will be displayed as the new banner for a while until people learn to get the link elsewhere. And on Nov. 5th, when the real copy drops, hundreds of thousands of people will be blasting that shit for weeks non-stop.
And I just wanted to say that I'm glad I got to spend this time with you guys, a hilarious but serious group of Eminem followers who are as big of a Stan that I am or even bigger. This was my first time going through an album cycle anticipating some new Eminem, and I'm glad to say it was a memorable part of my time. Thanks you guys, for keeping me entertained and informing me with every bit of Eminem news before I had a chance to find it elsewhere. You guys are the best, and I wish you all an amazing time listening to MMLP2 whether it's tonight or midnight on November 5th
