Eminem reaches back to earlier days in 'Berzerk'

flexes in front of a super-sized boombox with Kendrick Lamar, Rick Rubin, Kid Rock in a clever VHS-inspired promo for his celebrate old-school hip-hop tune, "BERZERK," the first single from 's upcoming eighth studio album "THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP 2," which is due out on November 5th, and making it a sequel of sorts to 2000's "The Marshall Mathers LP." Of course, The 40-year-old inimitable and unmistakably rapper has released several albums since then, including his last effort, 2010's "Recovery," but hasn't managed to capture his former glory.

Marshall Mathers returns in rabid, pop-hook-baiting form. With both Dr. Dre and Rick Rubin on board, the song "BERZERK," promises to "take it back to straight hip-hop / and start it from scratch." Fittingly, this metal-rap rant has an old-school feel that evokes the late Eighties and especially samples Billy Squier's "The Stroke", as well as the Beastie Boys' "The New Style" and "Fight for Your Right," both songs taken from their 1986 debut album "Licensed to Ill," which Rubin had also produced. The punchy, guitar-and-beats driven song starts with a blast of static, hard guitar and roaring out of the gate sounding like the long-lost, fourth Beastie Boy.

delivers the lyrics with his familiar staccato flow, winding circles around the beat and building up to the hook, in which he declares, "Life's too short to not go for broke." The word 'bezerk' is used to describe a person who is acting in a wild rage or in an uncontrolled and irrational manner. It derives from the Old Norse word berserkr meaning "bear shirt" and was used for Germanic warriors who had the reputed habit of wearing a kind of shirt made from the pelt of a bear during battle. According to Old Norse literature these bezerkers were fierce warriors, who fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury.


The Detroit native reaches back to earlier days for the song's new video, which was filmed in 's hometown Detroit, Michigan and directed by Syndrome, as raps "Let's take it back to straight hip-hop and start it from scratch," in front of a super-sized boombox to celebrate old-school hip-hop, with shoutouts to new-school labelmate Kendrick Lamar, triple-entendre punch lines and a mob-chant chorus. also sports vintage Detroit Pistons gear amidst snippets of found footage, short clips of backyard wrestling as well as short clips of the official music video of Billy Squier's "The Stroke." It's nice to see publicly tip his cap to the Beasties since they undoubtedly paved the way for him, and seems he's having plenty of fun after his "Recovery."
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