Eminem Drops Surprise Album

'Music to Be Murdered By' was announced at midnight
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 17, 2020 3:46 AM CST

Rapper Eminem once again dropped a surprise album, releasing Music to Be Murdered By on Friday. The follow-up to 2018's Kamikaze—also released without warning—was announced on Twitter just after midnight. The Detroit rapper also released a new music video for one of the 20 tracks on the album, "Darkness," which depicts a shooting at a concert. The lyrics and storyline of the video specifically allude to the 2017 mass shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead, making it the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. It closes with audio and video footage of news broadcasts from other recent mass shooting around the US and an appeal to register to vote, the AP reports.

"When will this end? When enough people care," reads the text at the end of the video. "Register to vote at vote.gov. Make your voice heard and help change gun laws in America." A link to the music video on Eminem's website encourages viewers to contact or visit several gun violence prevention organizations, including Everytown for Gun Safety and Sandy Hook Promise. The cover art features blood spatter and a bearded Eminem holding both a hatchet and a gun to his head, the latter in apparent homage to Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 album of the same name, Pitchfork notes. Among many collaborators, the album features Ed Sheeran, Skylar Grey, Anderson .Paak, and Juice WRLD, the 21-year-old rapper who died in December.

(More Eminem stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X