I think you're blinded by fanboy love, Zack. I've been guilty of it numerous times with Em', so I don't blame you.
Nothing was smashed here. He's gotten oodles better at production value over the years. To the point where he can win Academy Awards and be the soundtrack for video games, but as far as his feel for what's dope and what's not? He's fallen off. There's some cool lines here and there, but it all sounds dull. Em used to grab your attention with what he said. Now everything he says sounds like a textcee who's pressing. Em sounds like a rapper who's caught between trying to be more relevant and has lost most of his inspiration. He has nothing left to prove, other than to prove he hasn't fallen off, but he has, and him trying to be what most people think is dope isn't going to fix that.
I think Relapse, minus the accent is the closest we've seen to who Eminem is now. When you've been around as long as he has, at the level he has, all those punches and 'clever' lines just seem boring. He still wants to write them, but I don't think he really cares. He'd prefer to be being weird, I think.
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