D12 - 'D12 World' (Interscope)
3/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Many have tried, and most have failed, but D12 - if you grant them nothing else - can at least make an in-joke work. True, so mega-hit 'My Band' may be possessive of the most annoyingly infectious refrain to invade the top-ten so far this year, but you can at least enjoy the sheer ridiculousness of it, that stupid, stupid chorus, the entirely tongue-in-cheek nature (all counts we're sure the band would plead guilty to)... plus, for something that started (and arguably ended) as a gag about Eminem's prominence as a member compared to the rest of the gang, the fact that they managed to slay chart-rundowns the world over with it can at least be admired.
Perhaps its sentiment isn't too far from the truth either. Sure, Eminem is but one sixth of the D12 ensemble, but he's also perhaps the only reason anyone cares about the release of a new D12 record - the lad's the executive producer, the one with the contacts (would Dr. Dre and Cypress Hill want to collaborate otherwise?), the only one who is genuinely on world-beating form here. His skills as a producer are coming on no end, the beat pinning down opening track 'Git Up' nothing short of dazzling, his rhymes the only ones still occasionally able to raise an eyebrow and not simply come across as self-parodying. The others...
They're a talented bunch. There are some fine sections to 'D12 World', and it's not all down to Marshall Mathers; just a large proportion of its best bits are. Sadly the ratio of great non-Eminem-centric tracks to mediocre or simply poor efforts isn't a kind one. D12 still stick out on the scene as a collective who arose from humble beginnings that bit too quickly, but whilst they're here, they're going to milk it for all it's got. So first, the bits that treat the listener more kindly - radio-friendly D12 is, bizarrely, infinitely more listenable than their tired re-runs of overused themes ('Bitch', 'I'm Gonna Get My Gun'), and if the record is to be appreciated in full, then it's the likes of 'U R The One' and a indisputably fine 'How Come', the instances where they sound as if they've taken time and effort to craft something truly worthy of their lofty status, that should be given the most attention.
It's the filler that breaks it. It clocks in at a mammoth eighty minutes, a good thirty of which are largely dispensable. So what if it's not the tradition for hip-hop records to be half an hour long, consist of ten tracks instead of the twenty-one (twenty-one!) present here and pack a consistent punch; it would have been nice for some scene-leaders to break the mould, no? There's enough material here to constitute a sound record, just too much to make a genuinely good one.
Presumably, this is the problem when your power in the genre means you literally can do whatever the hell you want - there's no-one around to sift the gold from the muck. So admirable tracks such as the B-Real utilising 'American Psycho II' and an even - brace yourselves - heartfelt ode to absent friends 'Good Die Young' are suffocated amongst run-of-the-mill efforts like 'Leave Dat Boy Alone' and a closing 'Keep Talkin' (which deals with losing your virginity to your grandmother on a dirty mattress; trust us, it's hilarious...).
So they claim the planet as theirs, and in all likelihood, they're probably right. It's just that twenty-five percent of this looks to the stars, the rest content to stay very much grounded on D12 world. The instances of mirth save it, but when your musical highpoints are in-jokes, you've just got to pray people keep laughing.
Artists in this article: D12
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