Each Day Is An Instant Replay

Eminem featuring Kendrick Lamar “Love Game”

Eminem used to mainly be seen as a trolling provocateur, but as he’s aged into a genuine rap legend, the main draw of his music has become his incredible technical prowess. But where a lot of performers fall down a rabbit hole of self-indulgence when they become obsessed with their chops, Eminem actually gets better – I felt like his last two or three albums were too dour and aggro, but his pure joy in crafting and delivering complicated rhyme schemes is the center of The Marshall Mathers LP 2. The music is far more joyful too – there’s a mischievous bounciness to it that his work has been missing since around The Eminem Show in 2002.

“Love Game” is the only track on MMLP2 to feature another rapper, and it makes sense that it’d be Kendrick – not just for the Dr. Dre connection, but for the fact that he’s the only successful young rapper right now who can match Eminem’s skills. Kendrick sounds absolutely thrilled to get the opportunity to share a track with Eminem, and he definitely shows off every trick he’s learned from listening to him over the years. (Unfortunately that includes some creepy cartoonish misogyny, but hey.) There’s a great sense of friendly “oh yeah, top that!” competition on this track, and it brings out the best in both of them.

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