How does one review an album/EP that's been anticipated for longer than Dr. Dre's Detox album which feels like its been in production forever (12 years to be exact but Dre, release the fucking album already). As unbelievable as that seems, it is the case with Hell: The Sequel, Bad Meets Evil's debut album, one which was originally talked about way back in 1997 even before Eminem's Slim Shady LP came out. Royce Da 5'9 (Bad) and Eminem (Evil) met in the late 90's and released their first single as Bad Meets Evil called Nuttin' to do. The duo would look to release a full length album together but before that happened, Eminem went to California to work with Dre on his critically acclaimed and commercially successful "debut" album (Infinite was first but no one calls it his debut for some reason) The Slim Shady LP. Em and Royce's relationship was still very strong at the time which led to Marshall calling Royce to Cali to work on Dre's sophomore album 2001 (Royce ended up writing the song "The Message" for Dre which ended up on the final cut of the CD.). After the release of 2001 Em and Royce still frequently collaborated, the most memorable being Rock City, a song off Royce's debut album of the same name.
Things all went downhill for the duo after the release of Rock City as Royce and the members of D12 got involved in a public falling out or in hip-hop terms: beef (does anyone know how that term started?) which led to several diss tracks made by both parties (Eminem was never involved with the diss tracks but people have speculated that he did address the issue in the song "How Come") and the end of Eminem and Royce's relationship for the time being. Eventually the two motor city rappers would reconcile their friendship; possibly due to the death of mutual longtime friend Proof who got killed in 2006, something that might have brought the two closer together. They would begin to make music together again shortly after Eminem and his label Shady Records signed Slaughterhouse (a hip-hop group that consists of Joe Budden, Crooked I, Joell Ortiz and Royce Da 5'9) which brings me to the point of this article in the first place (I felt that the history of the group was important in writing a review for their album so that is the reason for the first two paragraphs).
Things all went downhill for the duo after the release of Rock City as Royce and the members of D12 got involved in a public falling out or in hip-hop terms: beef (does anyone know how that term started?) which led to several diss tracks made by both parties (Eminem was never involved with the diss tracks but people have speculated that he did address the issue in the song "How Come") and the end of Eminem and Royce's relationship for the time being. Eventually the two motor city rappers would reconcile their friendship; possibly due to the death of mutual longtime friend Proof who got killed in 2006, something that might have brought the two closer together. They would begin to make music together again shortly after Eminem and his label Shady Records signed Slaughterhouse (a hip-hop group that consists of Joe Budden, Crooked I, Joell Ortiz and Royce Da 5'9) which brings me to the point of this article in the first place (I felt that the history of the group was important in writing a review for their album so that is the reason for the first two paragraphs).
