Music to Be Murdered By – Side B, released on December 18, 2020, is a deluxe edition of Eminem’s eleventh studio album, Music to Be Murdered By, which was released 11 months earlier, on January 17, 2020.
Just like the original album, the Side B was released without any prior announcement as well. It includes the original album’s 20 tracks along with a bonus disc of 16 new tracks (2 skits/interludes), with guest appearances by Skylar Grey, DJ Premier, Ty Dolla $ign, Dr. Dre, Sly Pyper, MAJ, and White Gold.
Even though the Side B / deluxe edition contains “both sides”, this page is about the additional 16 tracks (Side B). For information on the original tracks (aka Side A), please go here: Music to Be Murdered By.
Label: Shady Records/Aftermath/Interscope
Release date: 17 January 2020
Discs: 2 (original + “Side B”)
Track listing – Eminem: Music to Be Murdered By – Side B
| # | Title | Producer(s) | Length |
| 1. | “Alfred” (Intro) | Eminem | 0:17 |
| 2. | “Black Magic” (with Skylar Grey) | Skylar Grey, Jayson DeZuzio, Eminem[b] | 2:54 |
| 3. | “Alfred’s Theme” | Eminem | 5:39 |
| 4. | “Tone Deaf” | Eminem, Resto[b] | 4:50 |
| 5. | “Book of Rhymes” (featuring DJ Premier) | Eminem, IllaDaProducer, Resto[b] | 4:49 |
| 6. | “Favorite Bitch” (featuring Ty Dolla $ign) | Blacknailz, MJ Nichols, Eminem[a] | 3:56 |
| 7. | “Guns Blazing” (featuring Dr. Dre and Sly Pyper) | J.LBS, Eminem[a] | 3:16 |
| 8. | “Gnat” | D.A. Got That Dope | 3:44 |
| 9. | “Higher” | Eminem | 3:42 |
| 10. | “These Demons” (featuring MAJ) | Eminem, D.A. Got That Dope, Mike Zombie, The Loud Pack | 3:27 |
| 11. | “Key” (Skit) | Eminem | 0:57 |
| 12. | “She Loves Me” | Dr. Dre, Focus…, Blu2th, Lawrence, Eminem[b] | 3:24 |
| 13. | “Killer” | D.A. Got That Dope | 3:15 |
| 14. | “Zeus” (featuring White Gold) | T-Minus, Eminem[b], Luca Mauti[b] | 3:50 |
| 15. | “Thus Far” (Interlude) | Eminem | 0:16 |
| 16. | “Discombobulated” | Dr. Dre, S1, Batson, Parker, Lonestarrmuzik, Lawrence, franO[a] | 4:12 |
| Total length: | 52:28 |
Notes:
^[a] signifies a co-producer
^[b] signifies an additional producer
Album release announcements
Singles and music videos
The album’s release was accompanied by a music video for “Gnat”, directed by Cole Bennett. The music video for “Higher” premiered on January 23, 2021. Lyric videos for “Tone Deaf” and “Alfred’s Theme” were also released. In May 2021, a remix of “Killer”, featuring Jack Harlow and Cordae, was released.
Album Cover – Eminem: Music to Be Murdered By – Side B
Just like the original album’s, The Music to Be Murdered By – Side B’s title, cover art, and concept are inspired by Alfred Hitchcock and Jeff Alexander’s 1958 spoken word album Alfred Hitchcock Presents Music to Be Murdered By.
Album front cover
Album back cover
Alternative album cover
Vinyl – Regular and Limited Edition with alternate cover
Critics about Music to Be Murdered By – Side B
Side B was met with generally positive reviews by the critics and highly positive regular user reviews.
Robert Christgau appraised the release as “more proof that Eminem loves rhyme as compulsively as MF DOOM himself”, adding that, “If he’s not as playful or surreal about it as Doom, he sure does enunciate better, with a timbral dexterity never quashed by the rock-inflected production style that Dr. Dre laid on him decades ago and oversees here.” While highlighting lyrics from “Alfred’s Theme”, “Tone Deaf”, “Black Magic”, and “These Demons” on Side B, he also observed “more braggadocio and less delight in these words for their own sake than in the Side A’s”.
“When it comes to lyrical audacity and dramatic delivery, rap’s most maniacal motormouth still wipes the floor with all-comers, albeit this time he might pause to wipe the microphone first.” —The Telegraph (UK)
“Over the three-song run of “Alfred’s Theme” (which jacks Charles Gounod’s “Funeral March of a Marionette,” best known as the theme music to Alfred Hitchcock Presents, to delirious effect), “Tone Deaf,” and “Book of Rhymes” (which climaxes with a flurry of DJ Premier scratches), Slim Shady stuffs more rewind-worthy punchlines and flow variations than most rappers will deliver in a whole career. … Other attempts feel more forced. … More compelling are the two tracks produced by D.A. Got That Dope.” —Exclaim
“Side B is a 16-track expansion that delivers familiar territory with some pops of Em at his sharpest.” —HipHopDX
“Side B is not a total miss though, nor even a miss at all. Once Mathers stumbles through this opening salvo and the awkward bits of “Tone Deaf”, the album settles into a comfortable space, and even becomes enjoyable.” —Beats Per Minute
“The album gets off to an inauspicious start with “Black Magic,” a dreary murder ballad with the requisite Skylar Grey hook and the same tired splatter-movie shock lines. Things perk up with “Alfred’s Theme,” which nods to the album’s Hitchcockian premise by sampling “Funeral March of a Marionette” and making a painfully predictable play on the name “Hitchcock,” and from there on out, the record seesaws between rapid-fire dirty puns and show-offy rhyme displays.” —Variety
“Age has not withered the rapper’s astonishing level of technical skill. If you’ve heard most of what he says before, it’s still possible to be awestruck by the way he says it. … The music is less interesting than on its predecessor.” —The Guardian
“With Side B, it’s more of the same.” —Rolling Stone