D12

Imagine an Eminem album without the guided tours of his fucked-up head, the razor-sharp characterizations, or the handful of sensitive moments. Then take away half of his rhymes and substitute some fair-to-above-average MCs, and you have a D12 record. If the Slim Shady and Marshall Mathers albums were slapstick trips into one man's psychosis and alienation -- like the Marx Brothers starring in Taxi Driver -- then D12's approach is a lot simpler: It's Friday the 13th, or maybe a Farrelly brothers version of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. On Devil's Night, Eminem and his five buddies are stuck in a peer-pressure spiral of trying to outdo each other, with D12 irregulars Kon Artis, Proof, Kuniva, Swifty, and the supremely disturbed Bizarre dropping shock raps that range from silly ("I let my dogs out on the Baha Men") to annoyingly over-the-top ("Smacked this whore for talking crap/So what if she's handicapped?"). Despite all this, Devil's Night has more than its share of decent moments, thanks mostly to Eminem. Tracks such as "Shit Can Happen" jump to life when he takes the mike. A few songs pick up where he had left off on The Marshall Mathers LP: "Ain't Nuttin' but Music" is a sequel to "The Real Slim Shady," down to Dr. Dre's bouncy synth line and the Britney Spears jokes. Almost every track has a tight concept, a chorus that sticks, and a groove that carries a melody. Songs like the creeping "Pistol Pistol," the woozy "Purple Pills," and the bumping "Blow My Buzz" are just more musical than your average rap song, but don't call attention to the fact.

Much of D12 World simply repeats the debut's blend of rote horror-core rhymes, "offensive" humor, and dumb skits. But compared with Devil's Night, D12 World boasts less shock for the sake of shock, better rhymes, and tales of violence that seem, if not realistic, at least less ridiculous. Cuts like the opening "Git Up" and the Dre-produced "American Psycho II" get by on hooky beats and nimble flows, as D12's members boast of their skills, take target practice, and mostly eschew lame jokes. D12 World is still undoubtedly Eminem's show, but the album's best moments find all six MCs dropping rhymes that play off one another -- like a group of hoodlums working together to steal your hubcaps. On the bright stoopid single "My Band," everyone contributes solidly comic verses, poking fun at one another while pretending not to understand why the media is so interested in their leader; on the title cut, which is buoyed by an excellent Kanye West beat and a Cypress Hill-sung chorus, everyone speed-rhymes his way through a laundry list of the best stuff in the "world": bitches, hot lead, and liquor, in particular. It's still shock rap, and all too perfunctory at times, but if D12's goal is to establish an identity that anyone over 16 can take seriously, it's getting closer. (NATHAN BRACKETT/CHRISTIAN HOARD)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide