After reintroducing himself to the world via a controversial and highly publicized freestyle cypher during the BET Hip-Hop Awards in October, rapper Eminem has been grabbing headlines everywhere for the unorthodox viral marketing campaign behind his latest album, Revival, which Mashable has labeled as "one of the most elaborate marketing schemes we've seen in a long time."
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Utilizing a series of bogus websites, digital advertisements and even a special call-in hotline number, Eminem and his team have concocted a giant ad campaign for a fake pharmaceutical called Revival, employing snide references to past song lyrics and utilizing the backbeat from Dr. Dre and Eminem's "I Need A Doctor" as the on-hold music for the fraudulent hotline. Earlier this week, he posted a photo of a fake prescription teasing the song's title.
Now, this morning, Eminem has dropped the lead single from his forthcoming album, "Walk On Water," featuring the incomparable Beyoncé singing an airy gospel-tinged hook.
The song has a stripped-down feel, built around an ambient piano melody and very sparse percussion. Em spits verse after verse over sound effects of him ripping up pages of lyrics and occasional sighs that hint at waves of frustration and self-doubt. The absence of drums builds the tracks tension quite effectively, and altogether there's a sense of firebrand preaching — Em is here to testify.
Building toward the track's conclusion, the GRAMMY winner expounds at length on the difficulty of facing the industry's expectations piled high on his return to the spotlight, touching on his concerns over whether this new music will satisfy fans or tarnish his legacy. Raising his head high and summing it all up at the track's conclusion, Em seems to remember who he is and what he's done, flipping the track's sound with a series of record scratches and a triumphant coda: "As long as I got a mic/I'm god-like/You and me are not alike /B****, I wrote Stan!"
"Walk On Water" is available now for streaming on your DSP of choice.
