Eminem got the band back together. As part of his just-released greatest hits album Curtain Call 2, alongside some of Slim Shady’s most beloved tracks is the previously unreleased collaboration from 2009 with 50 Cent entitled “Is This Love.”
The song, produced by the rappers’ mutual mentor and label boss Dr. Dre, has the good doctor’s classic g-funk bounce to spice up what passes for a love song from the Shady Records stable. “‘Cause on a scale of one to 10, that’s how I rate your vibe/ Let me be your vibrator/ Your body’s slammin’ like André the Giant/ Two wrongs make a right/ Let me take you by the arm, I’m alligator-like (Bite her arm)/ Gal, I waited all my life for you, heart is racin’ like Talladega Nights/ Sick minds think alike, girl, you got me singin’, like,” Em raps over the slow-rolling Dre beat with the producer’s classic bright keyboard stabs shining through.
Fans of early Marshall classics will bump down the street with joy when they catch the song’s romance-adjacent, sing-songy chorus. “Girl, I’ve been watchin’ what you do/ Baby, I ain’t never met a woman quite like you (Like you)/ So tell me what I gotta do,” Em croons. “I’ve never been with a virgin, but I’d sure like to/ Is this love that I’m feelin’?/ How do I describe the vibe that I’m feelin’ inside?/ I’m in the mood for sexual healin’.”
After another chorus about a lusty encounter interrupted by real talk and overindulgence leading to a foggy morning amid fears of a drunken elopement, 50 hops on the beat to drop some explicit, gun smoked bars. “I kill a b–ch with a potato peeler for the skrilla/ I’m finna skin a sinner, d–k robbed, like Bruce Jenner/ Long time, interest me all I/ Like it like I like snuff flicks, sip p–s, eat s–t/ You’re workin’ my nerves, louder now, come on, bark, b–ch/ Hi, I’m Shady’s Cronie, Shady done rubbed off on me,” 50 raps.
The 34-track Curtain Call 2 features collaborations like “Love The Way You Lie” and “The Monster” with Rihanna and “Lighters” as a part of Bad Meets Evil (alongside Royce da 5’9), featuring Bruno Mars, as well as solo hits including “Not Afraid” and “Rap God.”
Listen to “Is this Love” below.
