8 Questions With iHipHop: How Much Has Eminem Matured On MMLP2?

 
Dan: While Dr. Dre is credited as an executive producer on MMLP2, this is the first Eminem album to not contain one actual Dr. Dre production since Infinite. At this point in their respective careers, how significant is that?
 
Drew: I think the Dre departure is significant in the sense that Eminem is famously prolific and Dr. Dre is, perhaps infamously, careful and conservative regarding releases. Eminem trained himself to make sub-par beats in part so he could operate without the ever-tinkering and intrusive edits that Dr. Dre always brings with him. The good part is that Eminem gets to produce at the rate that he wants and continue to be a multi-platinum recording artist who’s relevant; the bad part is that he’s risking that legacy of tight, thematic work by rushing out albums with a sanitized rock-opera banality. If this is a symptom of a longer-term Dre-Em split, they both suffer but Eminem more because his collection of songs is mainly his work and not the work of countless major-selling others (like Dre).