Eminem, 'MMLP2'

Three years since his last album and 13 years since his first “Marshall Mathers LP,” Eminem’s back.

Fourty one-year-old Marshall Bruce Mathers III released a sequel to his first “Marshall Mathers LP.”

I started the album with low expectations. After his last albums “Recovery” and “Relapse” were, in their own respects, flops, it was hard to be excited for this album. His extremely weird ESPN halftime interview during the Michigan-Notre Dame football game didn’t help him any.

I was pleasantly surprised by “the Marshall Mathers LP 2.”

The album is Eminem, as you have been accustomed to lately, but also with enough of what made him so great.

Eminem might still be mad about something — at least he still sounds upset on every rap. He does, however, have amazing flow on the majority of his songs.

He still makes room for a song ready for radio. “The Monster,” which features Rihanna, is another song that sounds great, but after a million plays of “I Love the Way You Lie,” you will most likely end up sick of this song, too. At the same time, there are some really good early 2000s-sounding Eminem songs, such as “Love Game,” which features west coast rapper Kendrick Lamar.

Eminem defiantly employs a lot of chorus-rich hits on this album.

Even the most hardcore Eminem fan can admit that a catchy chorus has been the apex of Eminem’s success, going back to the success of “Stan” and “The Real Slim Shady” on his first “Mathers LP,” and “Survival” and “Headlights” on his most recent.

If you’re a fan of hip-hop, this album is for you. Whatever your stance has been on Eminem for the last half-decade, you will not be disappointed by this release.