Hear Eminem’s ‘Southpaw’ Track “Phenomenal”

Carl Williott | June 2, 2015 6:56 am
Eminem's "Detroit vs. Everybody" Video
Em and his crew rep their hometown.

After a few weeks of teases, Eminem has released “Phenomenal,” his cut from this summer’s Jake Gyllenhaal-starring boxing film Southpaw. It’s the rapper’s first new material since “Detroit vs. Everybody,” and it finds him in that stern chatty mode that he’s leaned on for the past couple years.

Eminem produced the track, which has the veneer of a grand, stirring affair, but it mainly just plods along, occasionally throwing in a barely-there chorus from another of Em’s anonymous female hook-slingers. It doesn’t get close to reaching the inspirational highs of his soundtrack gem “Lose Yourself,” and it doesn’t fold in the reinvigorated verbal gymnastics of his strong MMLP2.

Basically, he tried to land a haymaker and whiffed. Hear it below.

Rachel McAdams, 50 Cent and Forest Whitaker co-star in Southpaw, which was directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) and written by Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy). The soundtrack is out in July.

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