Tis the season for album promotion and Eminem is the latest to join the hype team. The rapper teased his upcoming “Marshall Mathers LP 2” be releasing the much anticipated (hey, someone must have anticipated it) tracklist. More importantly, Shady revealed collaborations aplenty. It looks like the Lose Yourself rapper’s policy on collaborating with mainstream artists has become more lax of late. Rihanna, Nate Rues, singer-songwriter Skylar Grey and that oh-so-popular of late hip hop prodigy Kendrick Lamar all show up on the tracklist, released via Mathers’ official website. For those raising an eyebrow in question, Nate Rues might be more familiar as the lead singer of the band Fun.

Eminem, Pier 36
Is this the new and improved Eminem?

At this point Eminem is hitting the promotional trail hard, as the first single off the album shows an almost tangible evolution in style. And as with all new things, this new, uber-serious vibe might take some warming up to, especially for those older hardcore fans of Slim Shady. The rapper recently released the video for Surival, the first single off the album and it shows a very different Eminem to the one we’ve seen so far.

Rihanna, Marina Bay
Rihanna is just one of the surprise guests on the album.

And let’s not forget the Rihanna collaboration, which came pretty much out of the blue. Rihanna herself did sort of tease the track with a tweet from early September: "Recored a #monster hook for one of my favourite artists! And that's all I can give you…" Out of all the guesses though, nobody ever thought it could be Eminem. It looks like a whole new era for the rapper.