S. Samuel
Grammy-winning rapper Eminem has provided some clarity into why he never penned a "Stan 2" to follow-up to 2000's The Marshall Mathers LP 2 standout track and how he ultimately came up with the new "Bad Guy."
According to Slim Shady, it did not make sense to pen a “Stan 2” track despite the fans’ anticipation for one.
“I had heard a lot of chatter right around the time of doing the Recovery record that I should do ‘Stan 2.’ Why doesn’t he do ‘Stan 2?? All I kept thinking was, well Stan’s dead. He died in the story. So in the back of my mind, I kinda had an idea of like who could be left from the story, but I needed to get the right beat.” (BBC Radio 1)
On Em’s new “Bad Guy” track, he continues the story crafted on 2000’s “Stan.”
On “Bad Guy,” the album’s seven-minute introductory track, Eminem revisits one of MMLP’s most affecting and memorable plot points–the death of Stan, a rabid fan who kills himself after what he perceives as a sustained slight by Eminem. Now, 13 years later, Stan’s little brother Matthew is back to avenge his death. The S1, M-Phazes, and StreetRunner-produced track, which features a vocal assist from Sarah Jaffe, sees Eminem showing off his characteristic rapidfire flow over a cold, creaky beat that takes a turn for the dramatic five minutes in. The threats from Matthew are not veiled: “I’m the future that’s here to show you what happens tomorrow/ If you don’t stop after they call you / The biggest laughing stock of rap who can’t call it quits,” he snarls. (The Daily Beast)
A few years ago, mega producer Swizz Beatz revealed having a “Stan 2” track for Em.
“Off my album, there was a lot of controversy over this before. The Eminem album before [Recovery], Relapse, I submitted a beat to him called ‘Stan 2.’ When I was doing an interview and they said, ‘What you working on?’ [Em] was amongst the people in the lineup I submitted things for. I said, ‘I did a track for Eminem called “Stan 2.” ‘ So it got out of hand in the media. He didn’t want to do ‘Stan 2.’ But what I have on my album is a song called ‘Anne’ with [Lil] Wayne, which is crazy. To connect the story of what we saying with Snoop, taking something that people remember and putting them in that time and taking it to the next level, the way that Wayne tells ‘Anne,’ he’s sorry what happened to Stan. The album is crazy.” (MTV)
According to Nielsen SoundScan‘s official tally, Slim Shady’s new Marshall Mathers LP 2 pushed out a massive 792,000 copies last week.
As reported yesterday, Eminem makes a splash at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, as his new album “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” debuts atop the list with 792,000 according to Nielsen SoundScan. It marks the second-largest sales week of the year, behind only the arrival of Justin Timberlake‘s “The 20/20 Experience,” which started with 968,000 in March. The year’s second-largest week had been the debut of Drake’s “Nothing Was the Same” (658,000). (Billboard)
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