Detroit rapper Eminem founded his record label Shady Records 15 years ago. To celebrate its anniversary, Shady Records released a collaborative album appropriately titled “Shady XV.”
The label is known for the music of its founder and signing artists such as 50 Cent and rap group Slaughterhouse, but these aren’t the only acts on the collaborative album. With 27 songs contained in the two disc effort, every artist, whether still on the label or not, is given an opportunity to showcase their talents — or what’s left of them.
Disc one is all new material including the radio single “Guts Over Fear,” featuring Sia. The song is the blueprint for much of the album’s first half. There are tremendous instrumentals and catchy hooks that are masked by questionable lyricism.
The four-man wrecking machine known as Slaughterhouse proves their worth as the anchor for the album. Royce Da 5’9, Joell Ortiz, Crooked I and Joe Budden have always rapped with an impressive stream of consciousness and bravado. The group’s song “Y’all Ready Know” is easily the best song on disc one.
Disc two is a 15 song collage of a few of the label’s best songs such as 50 Cent’s “In Da Club” and Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” Consider this the semi-greatest hits of Shady Records. There is a fine line in showcasing the roster’s talent and giving the listener’s some throwbacks. However, a look back at what was can’t save “Shady XV” from what it became.
Even die-hard fans of Slim Shady will have a hard time getting through this album. The once-unrivaled rapper has the same overly aggressive, illogical delivery that was heard on his last solo effort “Marshall Mathers LP 2.”
The whole album isn’t about Eminem, but when your top gun isn’t at his best, it tends to have an effect on the people under you.
Picking up this album and hoping for the next “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” is a recipe for certain disappointment. Chances are disc two will receive a lot more spins than disc one for nostalgia’s sake.
The safe bet is avoiding “Shady XV” and holding on for better efforts from the individual acts on the label. There’s no purpose to this album except to say the label has been around 15 years. If this is the outlook of the label, it may not last much longer.