Even though I was never into Eminem, when he dropped his latest single, “Houdini,” I found myself giving it a listen. What would Eminem sound like in 2024? The rapper has been putting out new music since his Slim Shady days, but it never penetrated my curated internet bubble. These days, I’m constantly on the hunt for new music so I gave it a listen. 

This preamble is important, I swear. 

I put “Houdini” on and immediately liked it. I put it on repeat a few times and had a good time chuckling along with Eminem’s antics. The song is built around a sample of the classic Steve Miller Band track “Abracadabra.” I grew up on classic rock and am somewhat of an authority on this increasingly irrelevant radio format. So when I tell you that the Steve Miller Band mostly sucks and “Abracadabra” is one of the era’s worst songs, please take that as an opinion but an opinion based on years of clinical research in my dad’s mobile laboratory (i.e., shitty old Chevy). 

However, like a lot of people these days, I’m aware of the importance of recycling from an environmental perspective, so part of my initial admiration of “Houdini” was how it took this trash and reused it. Rappers using samples of classic rock songs is nothing new, but Eminem does the thing I enjoy where he uses an old song and builds upon the themes surrounding the sample. So when penning a song called “Houdini,” it kinda rules to use a sample of a song also thematically related to magic. This is my one compliment for “Houdini.”

Nostalgia is a helluva drug. Listening to “Houdini” was a bit like a magic trick–I found myself instantly transported to 2002. With that transportation, my mind regressed a bit back to 2002. However, it’s not 2002, and once I remembered that, I found myself pretty disappointed by “Houdini.” I can laugh at a line like “My transgender cat’s Siamese/Identifies as black, but acts Chinese” because, in a vacuum, that’s funny. But I also know that transgender people don’t have the luxury of living in a vacuum, especially in 2024. The more I thought about it, the stupider it became to me that a legendary millionaire rapper is still picking on people who are merely different. Eminem’s punching down on gay people, transgender people, women, etc., in this track feels like the desperate act of an artist trying to stay in the conversation. 

From his previous work, we know that Eminem isn’t a Trump supporter, yet a track like “Houdini” only really appeals to those sorts of people. On “Houdini,” Eminem invokes the specter of cancel culture, which is particularly funny to me because the “cancel culture” he’s invoking is about the only thing making “Houdini” somewhat edgy. 

So if “Houdini” isn’t particularly edgy (in a real way) and attacks people who a large swath of society enjoys attacking…is it at least good art? Not particularly. Other than recycling a crap song into a slightly less crappy one, “Houdini” is just another Slim Shady song. Eminem is once again “back,” and his enemies are in big trouble. Yawn. We’ve been here and done that before. Even the music video is just a blatant rip-off/callback to an older video. 

Glory days, they’ll pass you by in the wink of a young girl’s eye. 

It’s the bridge of “Houdini” where the whole thing completely falls apart when Eminem says, “Sometimes I wonder what the old me’d say, If he could see the way shit is today.” Well, I have good news for everyone: there’s a very real and very simple way to know what the old Enimen would say about the world today. It’s called “Houdini,” and you can hear it online whenever you want.

Now, don’t get me wrong, you can be an artist without doing a lot of growing and changing. I love that every AC/DC album sounds the same. The Ramones found success and didn’t alter too much from their formula, just like Mr. Shady. The difference is that, for the most part, these were fun-loving party bands. 

Eminem was a source of cultural commentary for decades. However, the cultural perspective from which his art comes is that of a young man in 2002 who is trying to be edgy. It would be more interesting if the music he made came from the place he’s at now. We know his daughter just got married; how does Slim Shady feel about his little girl getting married? That would be more interesting but likely not something the mouthbreathers he’s selling to would care to find out. 

Will the real Slim Shady please sit down?