If I repeast anything I said in this post here (that got like 50 daps or so) I apologize:
http://www.thecoli.com/posts/27116805/
@SunZoo is the most die hard Em fan I know since back on
, so SunZoo, please pull no punches if you think I'm wrong.
My thing against Rick Rubin and Em working is this. I don't think any die hard Em fans really want to hear this. They may be fine with it, but it's not their first choice. It all just feels so corporate. Rubin does not have his finger on the pulse dope hip-hop music in 2017. he just doesn't, and that's okay. Rick Rubin is a legend. But he's also like this figurehead they bring in when someone's career is stale/stagnant, and it's like, "Okay, let's make that Rick Rubin phone call."
I want the Eminem that didn't give a fukk about what people wanted. He made what he wanted to hear. On the MMLP he was pissed that Interscope wanted him to make another catchy single, and so he recorded The Way I Am. Eventually he caved and made the Real Slim Shady song, but he resented people trying to get him to make a certain type of music, and IMO what he's doing now is what other people want.
Em is a hip-hop head. I wish he would just go lock himself in a studio somewhere with a Dr. Dre, Havoc, Alchemist, Mr. Porter, or Just Blaze, and just make the type of records they want to hear themselves. Put THAT record out.
Somewhere along the line, these guys Eminem got convinced that a simple rap record isn't enough, and that they always have to outdo themselves. And you get these corporate albums. I mean even if you love Walk On Water, it just sounds like they overthought the fukk of it. It just screams that they were trying to be different.
I'm sorry, I'm rambling. Rick Rubin is a dope person. His strength is that he understands artists. He knows how to talk to them and he is good at spotting talent. I think he's probably a fine executive producer, but I still think he's way past his prime, and I think he's better for maybe sequencing an album or something, but not actually producing himself on it.
TL;DR -
People will buy it with Eminem's name on it. They don't need Rick Rubin to save the day. Eminem sounds good on simple joints. Keep this shyt simple. Lock in with Dre, or Alchemist, or whoever, and make some hip-hop shyt. The ironic shyt is they tried so hard for Walk On Water to be different and Em could have called his buddy, Mr. Porter, or his DJ, Alchemist, and gotten a left field/outside of the box beat with the same idea of piano keys and no drums and it would have been way doper than what Rick Rubin came up with. 
, he feeding his demographic.
