After signing to Shady Records & Interscope just a year prior, Slaughterhouse is finally releasing their long-awaited sophomore album/major label debut. The album officially starts off with a 76 second skit where they tell you that there’s no fake MCs aloud, but then things don’t officially start popping until the first song “Our House”. Here, the supergroup teams up with Shady founder Eminem to talk about their desires of being the greatest to ever do it over an ominous instrumental, but my only complaint about this song is that the Skylar Grey hook is absolutely God awful. The next track “Coffin” aggressively spits about murdering wack MCs over a chaotic instrumental from Hit-Boy & the Busta Rhymes hook is so energetic, that it actually makes me sad that he doesn’t have a verse on here. The song “Throw That” is conceptually about flirting with strippers, but the Eminem hook is meh & the beat is just average at best. The track “Hammer Dance” contains more murderous bars & the araabMUZIK instrumental has this unexpected KoЯn sample in it, but it was simultaneously really cool. The song “Get Up” has an motivational tone to it lyrically & the rap rock production from No I.D. is pretty catchy as well. The track “My Life” sees the 4 MCs bragging about fame over an radio friendly instrumental & the Cee-Lo Green hook was average at best. The song “Flip a Bird” talks about selling drugs, but the vocal sample that you’ll hear during each verse & the hook kinda gets annoying after a while. The track “Throw It Away” is a decent club anthem with a hard hitting beat from D12 member mR. pOrTeR & to be quite honest, the Swizz Beatz hook on here actually doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. The song “Rescue Me” vents about each member trying to get it together & the beat on here is ok, but the Skylar Grey hook on here is as equally terrible as the one on “Our House”. The track “Frat House” is another club banger, except this one is pretty bad. However, the way Joe Budden & Joell Ortiz go back & forth during the final verse wasn’t too bad except for the lyrics. The song “Goodbye” sees everyone minus Royce da 5’9” rapping about Joe’s girl having a miscarriage along with the deaths of Crooked I’s grandfather & Joell’s grandmother over a sugary instrumental from Boi-1da. While it is sincerely delivered, the hook is painfully corny. The track “Park It Sideways” is a comedic jab at all of the wack MCs out there, but the beat really sounds like it could’ve been on a Lil Wayne album. The song “Die” rapidly goes in about popping a cap in your ass & the beat from mR. pOrTeR on here is a lot more hard hitting than the other song he did. The standard edition closer “Our Way” talks about making it which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the instrumental on here is very bland. The first bonus track “Asylum” has a serial killer vibe to it lyrically & as for Eminem’s production, there’s not a whole lot to it during the drums throughout & the guitar that comes in solely during the hook. The next bonus track “Walk of Shame” talks about 4 separate 1-night stands between each member, but the beat is super nondescript & the auto-tuned hook from Royce is super cringey. “The Other Side” is basically everyone minus Crooked insightfully talking about being human despite fame along with a gold digger & not being perfect over uplifting instrumental from the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League & the final bonus track “Place to Be” sees the supergroup hooks up with B.o.B to talk about being somewhere far away from the bullshit over an awkward club instrumental, but the way everyone got together for the last verse was very creative. There are a few highlights on here & as much as I love Slaughterhouse, this was disappointing. The lyrics are decent, but it sounded way more commercial than it should’ve from the production to the hooks. I get trying to make a commercial album, but the whole pop rap sound doesn’t fit Slaughterhouse’s style at all. Just take a couple joints & stick with the prelude mixtape On the House
Score: 2/5
Legends Will Never Die 