Review: Lyrical Lemonade & Eminem – “Doomsday Pt. 2”

Cole Bennet and Lyrical Lemonade’s much anticipated debut album All Is Yellow is finally here. We’ve been speculating for months about Eminem ‘s possible involvement with the project. Well, just a few weeks before it dropped, Southpawers among many Shady fans turned out to be correct. Let’s talk about “Doomsday Pt. 2.”

When the track was first announced, I wasn’t sure what to think. Are we getting modern Eminem doing his nasally Shady/Role Model voice over that legendary beat? What will the track be about? Are we getting another touching ballad in respect of Juice WRLD? I’m usually pretty good at solving Eminem puzzles, but this one was hard to crack.

To my surprise, it turned out to be a full blown verse directed directly at Benzino’s throat. I’ll be honest, I’m still not sure how I feel about Eminem being the guy to drop a diss track as his contribution for a mostly celebratory album. All Is Yellow is Cole’s baby, and it’s like Eminem is the weird Uncle that shows up to the party pissed off for some reason. I mean, there’s a time and a place for anger, and personally, this feels like a weird place for a diss track. I think a Benzino track would have also made a lot more sense about a year ago. Imagine if “Killshot” dropped a year after Rap Devil. Maybe Eminem didn’t know when the album was dropping, but that’s another reason why it’s weird to put a diss track on an album that you don’t control the release of.

Okay, I got that off my chest, let’s talk about the song. We have a beat-flipped version of the “Role Model” instrumental. It’s a little slower and mixed with a bit of reverb to add the eeriness of the verse. Eminem’s flow isn’t quite staccato, but his flow pattern pauses for punchlines. You’ve heard Eminem do this before. 

The verse starts with Eminem clearing his throat (a sure sign that he’s about to go off on someone). He follows this up with some clever lines that imply he still thinks he’s a better MC than most, and he’s also not going to stop. He references The Walking Dead to imply everyone else are Zombies, but Em Is gonna Shred until he needs a “Walker”. Get it? – “‘Til I need a walker like Herschel, I’m better than all of you fuckin’ little twerps put together.”

He even goes as far as to imply there’s no point in talking about who had the second best verse on “Forever,” (a song by Drake, which also features Lil Wayne and Kanye West) because his was so far beyond the others. I mean, he’s right but… wow!

My favorite line in the entire verse is next. Right before steers verse directly towards Benzino he says this: “What is the opposite of Benzino? (Uh, what?) A giraffe”. You have no idea how funny this line is to me. For those who don’t know, in 2010, Eminem jokingly said his biggest fear is giraffes because of their necks. This means Eminem is saying Beninzo doesn’t scare him at all; the complete opposite. Bro doesn’t even have a neck. Classic Eminem, cracking jokes in the middle of crucifying a victim.

Once we get into the meat, the verse goes for Benzino’s throat for real. He reopens the healing, but fresh wound left by his daughter (Coi Leray) when she said her dad is jealous of her success. “Guess that Coi Leray feat’s in the toilet, ayy? (Goddamn)”. What a gut punch! From here, Em systematically continues to take shots at him about being broke and incredibly washed up.

The song winds down with Eminem once again clarifying that he is and always will be the psychopathic battle rapper that has no problem strangling his opponents with a mic cord. As he cleans up shop, he finishes his verse by shouting out J. Cole for being on the same level, then Cole Bennet for having him on the album.  

I’m still not sure how the creation of this track came to be. My theory is, it was originally just going to be the third verse after Juice’s and Cordae’s on “Doomsday.” Maybe someone pitched the idea to separate Em’s verse due to the drastic change in tone. If you look at the All In Yellow tracklist, Eminem is the only one who has a song to himself. As strange as it is, Eminem is actually shooting a music video for a diss track.

When the dust settles, I think this is actually a very strong tonuge-in-cheek diss track, even if it feels a little late. I still feel it’s necessary for Eminem to retaliate after Benzino’s been throwing shots on Twitter and interviews for years. At this point Zino is in damage control mode. He called Eminem too old for this, despite Benzino being older and having no problem with running his mouth constantly.

Written By: CeaTee Reviews
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