Guess who’s coming back, back again? Eminem is reportedly prepping a new album for release this year.
According to HITS Daily Double, Slim Shady’s ninth studio LP will arrive this fall through Shady/Aftermath/Interscope. Other big-name acts slated to release albums this year include Taylor Swift and Sam Smith.
In October of last year, Eminem confirmed that he was crafting the follow-up to 2013’s The Marshall Mathers LP, when he released his “Campaign Speech.” At the time, he tweeted: “Don’t worry I’m working on an album! Here’s something meanwhile.”
Last month, “The Defiant Ones” director Allen Hughes revealed that Shady was working on the album with a little help from his longtime mentor. “People don’t know this,” said Hughes. “Dre records every day. Literally, he’s in there recording songs every day. He’s like Picasso in that way. He’s always painting. Right now he’s producing, in the 11th hour, a track for Eminem’s latest album. So Dre’s still real active in music.”
Around the same time, 2 Chainz claimed that he was called upon to participate in the new Shady project. “He let me hear this song and it was funny,” said Chainz. “I heard some things in there where his vernacular was 2 Chainz-y. It was crazy.” Shortly afterwards, he said he didn’t “know anything” about the collaboration.
Eminem’s longtime manager Paul Rosenberg was also recently named Def Jam CEO, a position he is not starting until early 2018, according to Variety.
Shady has also been making noise outside of the studio. He recently signed on as a producer of Bodied, a new battle rap-based film that was directed by Joseph Kahn with appearances by Calum Worthy, Anthony Michael Hall, Debra Wilson, and more.