The superstar releases a new album and the hype around it is as epic as the disc itself. First, Eminem gives the fans a clue by appearing on the Monster tour with Rihanna in August wearing a T-Shirt depicting the words Shady XV. He then also tweeted a photo of himself wearing the same shirt. The next clue was on the night of the MTV VMAs, when he again used Twitter to build up the mystery. Eminem tweeted a trailer for Shady XV and noted the project would arrive on Black Friday. The trailer didn’t exactly reveal what Shady XV actually was, but it did flip through images from Eminem’s past, including some D-12 snapshots and a 50 Cent cameo or two.
Eminem’s camp soon confirmed that Shady XV would be the two-disc compilation spanning the greatest hits of Eminem’s Shady Records. The Roman numeral title represents that it is the fifteenth release from the label on its fifteenth anniversary.
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The next lure and snippet to keep the fans on their toes came two weeks before the album’s release when Eminem made headlines for a lyric he dropped as part of a promotional cypher featuring himself, Slaughterhouse and Yelawolf. The cypher was a nearly nineteen minute long video of the stars giving us a cappella lyrics with the backdrop of their home towns. The rough and ready Shady Cxvher includes Eminem talking about punching singer Lana Del Rey like he was Ray Rice, (the Baltimore Ravens running back who was suspended for domestic abuse) amidst a lot of other tumultuous insults and lyrical mastery. His talents run riot here as he runs rings around his counterparts for delivery, timing and flow. See for yourself…
Eminem – Shady CXVPHER (A capella verse)
Eminem also sent out a series of short videos to promote the album which depicted old black and white cartoon like clowns juggling chainsaws and little girls wielding machine guns! Not your average cartoons to say the least. Coordinating with the new album title the series is appropriately (or inappropriately if you like) named Shady XV Quinceañera, which means the celebration of a girl’s fifteenth birthday – Shady Records turns fifteen this year.
Leading up to Shady XV’s release, Eminem also shared a demo version of his iconic track Lose Yourself where the rapper revealed that he can’t even recall recording it. “I don’t remember where I was at when I recorded it,” he said. “I don’t remember any of the first verse.” Dr. Dre had to remind him of the song’s existence! This is the one they didn’t release…
Eminem – Lose Yourself (Demo version)
Never has a greatest hits album been so highly anticipated, as this one comes with a whole disc of original music to boot. To add to this Eminem is currently the second-highest selling male artist of the modern era (second to the talents of, believe it or not, Garth Brooks!) and therefore anything new coming from the house of Shady is going to be met with seriously high expectations. The album was released on November 24th; Shady XV is a two-disc compilation that features both new and classic tracks from Eminem and members of his Shady Records label roster.
All of the new music on Shady XV lives on the first disc featuring twelve tracks from Eminem, Yelawolf, Slaughterhouse, D12 and more. Eminem serves as the executive producer of the entire project and features on most of the tracks on Disc one. There are many collaborative moments on the first disc; the debut single from this was Guts over Fear starring the haunting vocals of Sia. The track was released on the same day as the album and features on Denzel Washington’s new film The Equalizer. Hear it now…
Eminem – Guts Over Fear ft. Sia
The track Detroit vs Everybody has Big Sean, Danny Brown, Royce da 5’9”, Trick Trick, Dej Loaf alongside Eminem…
Eminem – Detroit vs. Everybody
Paul Rosenberg (Eminem’s manager and co-founder of Shady Records) commented on the idea behind the new album in a recent interview with Music Times; “One day we were sitting talking about what we were gonna do this year. We’ve starting rolling out the Yelawolf album, that’s going to continue this year, and Slaughterhouse is still working on their project, so we were like, ‘Alright, we want to get something out this year because it’s the 15th anniversary of the label,’ and then it dawned on us that this would actually be the 15th project we’d be releasing, which just sort of lined up nicely. So we thought it would be a good time to go back and do a retrospective on the ‘greatest hits.’ They’re not gonna all just be hits like, Lose Yourself and In Da Club, these massive songs, but some of the sort of favorites of the fans and ourselves as well. And then also the chance to put out some new music, as well, because we just want to keep releasing stuff. So there’s gonna be a compilation of new music from the artists on the label as well.”
The second disc is a showcase of the best artists on the Shady Records label including some classic tracks by Eminem, 50 Cent, Slaughterhouse, Yelawolf, D12, and more. Joe Budden (Slaughterhouse member) expressed gratitude for being included on the album. “We’re all really happy to be a part of it,” he said “I, for one, am extremely blessed to be a part of such a consistent, dominant label with a label head who’s one of the greatest MCs who has ever graced the microphone.”
Due to there being extensive material on the label, a lot of tracks could not be included on the second disc of the Shady XV album. This gave rise to the release of the Shady Classics compilation; a 66-track, three-hour mix-tape of previously released material that is now mixed together for the first time. This archive of the Shady Record label’s legacy is also available now.
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| Shady XV Tracklist Disc 1 1. Eminem, “ShadyXV” 2. Slaughterhouse, “Psychopath Killer” (feat. Eminem and Yelawolf) 3. Eminem, “Die Alone” (feat. Kobe) 4. Bad Meets Evil, “Vegas” 5. Slaughterhouse, “Y’all Ready Know” 6. Eminem, “Guts Over Fear” (feat. Sia) 7. Yelawolf, “Down” 8. D12, “Bane” 9. Eminem, “Fine Line” 10. Skylar Grey, Eminem, & Yelawolf, “Twisted” 11. Eminem, “Right for Me” 12. Eminem, Royce Da 5’9″, Big Sean, Danny Brown, DeJ Loaf & Trick Trick, “Detroit Vs. Everybody” |
Disc 2 1. 50 Cent, “I Get Money” 2. D12, “Purple Pills” 3. Eminem, “Lose Yourself” 4. Obie Trice, Kuniva, Bobby Creekwater, Ca$his & Stat Quo, “Cry Now (Shady Remix)” 5. Yelawolf, “Let’s Roll” (feat. Kid Rock) 6. Slaughterhouse, “Hammer Dance” 7. 50 Cent, “P.I.M.P.” 8. Eminem, 50 Cent, Ca$his & Lloyd Banks, “You Don’t Know” 9. D12, “My Band” 10. Obie Trice, “Wanna Know” 11. 50 Cent, “Wanksta” 12. Obie Trice, “The Setup” (feat. Nate Dogg) 13. 50 Cent, “In Da Club” 14. D12, “Fight Music” 15. Yelawolf, “Pop the Trunk” Bonus: Eminem, “Lose Yourself” (Original Demo Version) |
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