Alfred Hitchcock Music To Be Murdered By 1958
Claudio Davey
Music to Be Murdered By is the eleventh studio album by the American rapper Eminem. It was released on January 17, 2020, through Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment, and Interscope Records. Just like Eminem's previous studio album Kamikaze (2018), the album was released with no prior announcement. The album was produced by many producers, with Eminem and Dr. Dre serving as executive producers. It features guest appearances from Skylar Grey, Young M.A,
The album's title, cover art, and concept are inspired by Alfred Hitchcock and Jeff Alexander's 1958 spoken word album Alfred Hitchcock Presents Music to Be Murdered By. The album was supported by two singles: "Darkness" and "Godzilla". Alongside the album's surprise release, Eminem also released the music video for "Darkness", which revolves around the 2017 Las Vegas shooting from the point of view of the perpetrator Stephen Paddock alternating with Eminem's own.
The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 279,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. Subsequently, Eminem became the first artist to have ten consecutive number-one albums in the US and one of six artists to have released at least ten US number-one albums.[6] Music to Be Murdered By reached number one in 16 countries. The album was met with mixed reviews from music critics, some highlighted its production, while others criticized Eminem's performances.
In 2019, A&R representative Mike "Heron" Herard of Shady Records pursued production contributions for a new album by Eminem. This was a departure from his usual process at his company BeatleHustle, which manages sample composers who send their beats to high-profile producers. Eventually, a group of producers had been enlisted for the project, including Eminem's longtime creative partners
According to a January 2020 Rolling Stone feature on the album's making, "Lawrence Jr. has been working sporadically with Dr. Dre since the rapper-producer left Death Row Records in the Nineties; starting in the summer, the drummer went into the studio with the rest of Dr. Dre's team to create a suite of tracks that ended up on the back half of Music to Be Murdered By." Lawrence Jr. told the magazine, "Dem Jointz is a producer, Eric Griggs plays keys, bass, and guitar, Dawaun Parker is a keyboard player and producer, myself, I'm a drummer. We know Dre's instincts, and he's the coach, the orchestrator."[7]
Other collaborators for the album included Black Thought, Q-Tip, Juice Wrld, Ed Sheeran, Young M.A, Skylar Grey, Don Toliver, Anderson .Paak, Kxng Crooked and Joell Ortiz.[8] On the track "Godzilla", Eminem recorded a third verse that broke the record for the fastest verse on a charted track, rapping 10.65 syllables per second.[9] Eminem surpassed his own records held by his featured verse on Nicki Minaj's 2018 song "Majesty", where he rapped 10.3 syllables per second, and his 2013 single "Rap God", where he rapped 9.6 syllables per second.[9]
The album's title and alternative cover art are taken from the 1958 album Alfred Hitchcock Presents Music to Be Murdered By, which interspersed audio of the director Alfred Hitchcock's wry, dark humor into easy listening instrumentals arranged by Jeff Alexander.[10] Eminem tweeted an image of the 1958 album cover featuring Hitchcock holding an axe and a gun to his head and stated that his album's alternative cover was "inspired by the master, Uncle Alfred!"[11] Audio of Hitchcock's voice from the 1958 album is sampled in the interludes "Alfred" and "Alfred (Outro)" and the beginning of the track "Little Engine".[10] Both the 1958 and 2020 albums end with Hitchcock stating, "If you haven't been murdered, I can only say better luck next time. If you have been, goodnight, wherever you are."[10] Mark Beech of Forbes magazine connected the alternate cover to this album's concept of murder and violence.[12]
The album has three covers; the digital cover features Eminem posing with a shovel, wearing a suit and a fedora. The album's alternate cover features Eminem pointing a gun and holding an axe to his head.[10] The physical CD cover features Eminem, hatless, posing with his hands behind his back. In the packaging, Eminem dedicates the album to rapper Juice Wrld,[13] who died from an accidental drug overdose on December 8, 2019,[14] and Eminem's former bodyguard CeeAaqil Allah Barnes who also died.[13] Juice Wrld's feature on "Godzilla" marked his first posthumous release.[15]
The album was released on January 17, 2020[16] by Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. It was released as a surprise with no prior announcement, similarly to his previous and tenth studio album Kamikaze (2018).[17] Alongside the album's release, Eminem also released a music video for "Darkness",[18] directed by James Larese.[11] The video, which revolves around the 2017 Las Vegas shooting from the point of view of the perpetrator Stephen Paddock alternating with Eminem's own, garnered appraisal but controversy too.[19] On January 31, 2020, "Godzilla" was released as a single,[5] with a music video directed by Cole Bennett later being released on March 6.[20]
Music to Be Murdered By was met with positive-to-mixed reviews.[33] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 64, based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[22] The aggregator AnyDecentMusic? assessed the critical consensus with an average score of 5.8 out of 10.[21]
Reviewing for The Daily Telegraph, Neil McCormick said Music to Be Murdered By "offers over an hour of the world's greatest rapper blasting away on all cylinders", hailing it as "the first great album of 2020, so lethally brilliant [that] it should be a crime".[26] Scott Glaysher of HipHopDX was also positive, and compared the album to Eminem's previous bodies of work, stating in his review that "Music To Be Murdered By is far from the star-studded, commercially sustainable album Recovery was, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. On this album, despite its handful of flaws, Em shows strong signs of adapting to the times through modern musical choices and smarter songwriting."[34] Consequence of Sound's Dan Weiss was generally positive, and, about the album's themes, he said that "If he's figuring out from scratch how to be a compelling artist again, Eminem's improved the caliber of his beats and guests, taking stands against the right day-to-day injustices, toning down the tasteless (with the exception of the already-infamous Ariana line, of course), and rapping with the manic precision of someone who just snorted a whole sandcastle of cocaine and Vyvanse. If only a single minute of it was as hilarious or bracing as Chris D'Elia's impression of him."[35] Similarly, Fred Thomas of AllMusic opined, "Music to Be Murdered By sees Eminem pulling himself out of Kamikaze's wreckage somewhat, though he still falls victim to moments of willful dumbness and a tedious self-obsession that's become par for the course. On the album's best tracks, there are still hints of the fire that made Eminem a rap legend."[23]
The song "Darkness", about the 2017 Las Vegas shooting and told from the point of view of the shooter Stephen Paddock alternating with Eminem's own, has garnered particular attention and critical acclaim.[19]
The lyrics of "Unaccommodating", in which Eminem referenced the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, drew significant criticism, with many critics finding the lyrics objectionable. The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham denounced the song's lyrics, describing them as "unnecessarily hurtful and deeply disrespectful." The lyrics also drew widespread criticism from victims' relatives and others involved in the attack.[36]
Roisin O'Connor of The Independent gave the album a negative review, and criticized the album by saying, "Eminem belittles the trauma of a then 26-year-old Ariana Grande for kicks on 'Unaccommodating' by comparing himself to the Manchester Arena bomber. The sour taste of this track lingers well beyond the album's centrepiece, 'Darkness', which is intended as a searing critique of America's toxic gun culture. Instead, his use of gunfire and explosion samples feels grossly exploitative."[29][37]
In the United States, Music to Be Murdered By debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, earning 279,000 album-equivalent units (including 117,000 copies as traditional album sales) in its first week.[6] This became Eminem's tenth US number-one album and made him one of six artists to have released at least ten number-one albums.[6] The album also accumulated a total of 217.6 million on-demand streams for the album's tracks.[6] As of December 2020, Music to Be Murdered By had sold over 1,053,000 equivalent units, including 249,000 in pure sales.[38][39]
The album debuted at number-one in other countries. It became Eminem's 11th number-one album in Canada, while debuting atop the Canadian Albums Chart with 33,000 album-equivalent units.[41] The album remained at the top spot in Canada for four straight weeks, the longest for an Eminem album since Recovery.[42][43] It also entered at number one on the UK Albums Chart with first week sales of 36,000 album equivalent units, making Eminem the first artist to release 10 consecutive number one albums in the UK. He also achieved a chart double with Godzilla debuting at number one on the UK Singles Chart.[44]
The week the deluxe edition was released, the album saw a 1,125% boost in sale units from the previous week, moving 94,000 units.[54] This brought the album back up to the 3rd spot on the Billboard 200 album chart in its 48th week, a 196 spot jump from the week previous, breaking a 50-year-old Billboard 200 record previously held by Bob Dylan with Self Portrait (1970) which made a 193 spot jump.[55]
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