Social media responded to our post about Eminem skipping on promo for his album “Music To Be Murdered By” with such an outcry of indignation and anger that I feel I have to address that.
When on January 16 I learned about “Music To Be Murdered By” release I didn’t pay attention to the lack of promo. All my industry contacts were in a frenzy, getting their morning launch ready. From the label I learned that they had no time to prepare a promo campaign for “Music To Be Murdered By” and heard “no promo” for the first time, paying no mind to it. For some reason, I was set on inquiring about billboards and was assured that street promo was coming, just later. We indeed got digital boards on Times Square and other key locations. Later, my liaisons at Interscope told me that Eminem was not going to promote MTBMB, he was not going to do anything.
It was difficult to believe. How is it possible to blow off your own album promo? Still, three weeks later, we have zero activity from Eminem – no interviews, no TV appearances, no nothing. All as was said in that note.
I cannot stand recent Eminem interviews. All these Complex, Vulture, XXL and other ingrate media keep asking the same dumb questions, which are not even important.
Why do I call them “ingrate”? It all became clear in late 2018. The media simply ignored “Kamikaze”, overlooking it in all year summaries. Objectively, “Kamikaze” is not an “Album of the year” while it is a very strong album. However! “Kamikaze” should have made into year charts. Okay, not into Top 5 or even Top 10, but goddammit, how was it possible not to include it into Top 50?! Fucking Complex! After they published that biased 50 Best Albums of 2018 list, I wrote them off as a media source, they are the gutter press.
It was outrageous. I was their reader, I really liked Complex, liked their content. I could not believe the audacity to ignore one of the strongest and the most discussed albums of the year. I remember talking about that with their former editor-in-chief, Noah, who works at Def Jem with Paul Rosenberg now. He said he didn’t know why Complex had made this decision, but he personally would have certainly included “Kamikaze” in the list of the best albums.
I believe there is no need to get upset about Eminem removing himself from the MTBMB promo campaign. I do not miss standard interviews with dumb repetitive questions everybody knows answers to. And especially after that “Kamikaze” situation, the media does not deserve Eminem’s time.
I really liked the interview with Sway last year. It was long, it was interesting, it was deep. Em basically did it himself, at his location and with his people. And there were no unnecessary questions. As Anthony Bozza said to us: “[Eminem]’s become very good at not saying anything he doesn’t want to say. He’s basically very good at doing interviews. Even for me, who has been doing it with him since 1999, it’s not easy. He knows the game.”
No promo! Get it? Don’t get upset, seriously. That’s not that bad.
Over the 9 years that I have been running ePro I came to a conclusion – it is better when we do not hear much from Eminem. It’s his style, he is a hermit and he remains this mysterious artist who avoids limelight – and this is why people are so interested in him. Any rumour, any blurry picture, any 3-sec video taken by a random guy shakes the media and the fandom. Unlike 50 Cent who is everywhere. There is such a thing as too much media activity. You might have noticed that during The Revival Tour. I could see that fans had too much of Eminem and his activities.
There were the times when all major media got access to Eminem when he released an album. Complex used to do amazing cover stories. Billboard, Rolling Stone, XXL and others – everybody could get their share of the hype and Eminem’s time, everybody could ask their questions and produce their content. Well, mostly the US media. The US market is the biggest for Eminem’s music. European media also could get access to Eminem but less so.
Revival-Kamilaze-MTBMB era signalled that it is over. They have lost this privilege. The media betrayed Marshall. And most importantly, the major media’s plotting against Em in 2018 – it all failed. He was very much in touch with the media when he released “Revival”, and the media dragged him through the mud. He flipped them off on “Kamikaze”, and the media cut him off. Now Marshall is cutting off the media and his release is doing great. Another surprise album which sets new records, sits on charts, gets recognition. Eminem is a media platform of his own, he needs neither promotion, nor the media.
Just enjoy his new music, get used to the change and listen MTBMB. Peace.
