This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Either Eminem is getting smarter or I’m getting stupider. I’m not sure. All I know is, I enjoyed D12 World — the sophomore CD from Marshall Mathers and his posse of Detroit homies — a lot more than I anticipated.
Sure, like everything Eminem creates, these hard-hitting cuts are swimming with misogyny, violence, hatred and profanity — none more so than Bizarre’s repulsive parental-advice cut Just Like U, a track so over the top it doesn’t even appear on the clean version of the disc. But there’s no denying that behind all his buddies’ macho posturing, Eminem possesses one of the most creative minds in hip-hop. And lately, one of the most playful.
Several of these tracks traffic in the lighthearted bellydance beats and cartoonish melodies he’s embraced lately. Git Up finds him rapping in the lickety-split banana-fana-fofana cadence of The Name Game. The intergroup-jealousy gag My Band, with its teen-pop overtones, is one of the flat-out funniest cuts Mathers has penned. And it’s not even the catchiest track here; nearly every cut comes equipped with neck-snapping backbeats, head-nodding basslines and hooks so instantly addictive you won’t even notice that you’re singing along with the chorus of Bitch (not to be confused with The Rolling Stones song) until it’s way too late. If that mean I getting dumber, I be OK with that.
