Rapper Eminem released his ninth studio album in his 18-year career on Nov. 24. The album, called “Shady XV,” is his second album in two years.

After a long two-year separation from the rap game, fans were excited when the album “MarshallMathers LP 2” was released on Nov.  5 of last year.

The first week sales of “Shady XV” were extremely disappointing compared to “MMLP2,” which sold 792,000 copies in the first week. “Shady XV” sold only 148,000 copies in its first week.

After first hearing that in this album Eminem would model his songs after his in-your-face alter ego, Slim Shady, I was elated at the thought of another album with the unstable, suggestive “evil twin” of the decorated rap legend. However, I was slightly let down finding out that the album was going to also focus on many rappers employed by Eminem’s record company, Shady Records. 

Hearing that rappers like Slaughterhouse and Yelawolf didn’t really fetch my interest; however, it was also made public that songs would be released with both of Eminem’s old rap groups: D12 and Bad Meets Evil — with whom he made platinum albums. Finding out there would be reunion tracks with these groups excited me.

The album was released with two discs. The first disc (“disc X”) was filled with new tracks that confirmed what I thought it would be. The lyrical content was decent. Eminem as always has a large arsenal of words that he can connect seamlessly and, as always, he put his gold lyrics to a beat and achieved a smooth flow throughout.

The second disc (“disc V”) was a classics disc with top hits from 50 Cent, Yelawolf, Obie Trice, Slaughterhouse, D12, and, of course, Eminem.

I knew before the release there would be a classics disc, but I was really hoping that it would be focused on just Eminem’s oldies but goodies, much like the 2005 album “Curtain Call.” All and all, I liked “Shady XV,” but it wasn’t as good as the previous album, and certainly not as good as his album prior to his two-year break, “Recovery.”

It seems that all Eminem’s best releases are behind him, but it is still enjoyable to see him continue to pick up the mic. I give this album a 7.8 out of 10.