Over the past few days, I've listened to the album a lot and loved it. But now I have bit more of a down to earth opinion of it. It's still a great album, but it's faults are more apparent.
It's a bit too sample-heavy. Some songs were added purely for commercialization rather than for artistic value. The attacks against women and gays are tired and have lost their significance long ago. It's a regression, but a much wanted one from fans. It thrives off of nostalgia, but sometimes that same nostalgia works against it.
The worst part is that he lightly touches on dark intricate issues which fueled the MMLP (which covered them in extensive and explicit detail). The introspection in this album is appreciated, yet at some points, he acknowledges that these sour points of life exist (such as in The Monster) but does nothing beyond that. For example, in Asshole, he spoke of a line referring to a movie theater shooting, yet completely changes the topic during then next line. Or when he mentions how parents middle-america are out of touch with their children without further explanation (whereas he fully explained it on MMLP1).
Em reminds me of a jock in high school who had his heyday 13 years ago and is still wearing a football jacket talking about all the touchdowns he made years ago. He's in some way proving that the issues back then are still relevant now, as well as grandstanding on the fact that he is a rap veteran. It does effectively provide closure where it fails to push forward.
MMLP1 had an important theme to it. It dealt with the political social issues in America, the hypocrisies of society, free speech, music vs. real life and fantasy vs. reality. What exactly will be the legacy of MMLP2? Probably that it's a worthy appendix to it's predecessor. Yet, still a remora riding on it's back.
This all has it's purpose for sure, but it's far from being a deity. MMLP2 is an enjoyable revisit, as intended, but certainly sticks too closely to the formula to be anything monumental.
I wonder if more people on here are going to feel the same way after more listens. We'll see.