Eminem drops surprise album, advocates changes to gun laws

Rapper Eminem once again dropped a surprise album. Photo / AP

Rapper Eminem once again dropped a surprise album, releasing of "Music to Be Murdered By" on Friday.

The follow-up to 2018's "Kamikaze" — also released without warning — was announced on Twitter.

The Detroit rapper also released a new music video for one of the 20 tracks on the album, "Darkness," which depicts a shooting at a concert. The lyrics and storyline of the video specifically allude to the 2017 mass shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead, making it the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. It closes with audio and video footage of news broadcasts from other recent mass shooting around the US and an appeal to register to vote.

It’s your funeral...#MusicToBeMurderedBy Out Now - https://t.co/q4TAFJUVGV pic.twitter.com/6PqnTjCKgu

— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) January 17, 2020

"When will this end? When enough people care," reads the text at the end of the video. "Register to vote at vote.gov. Make your voice heard and help change gun laws in America."

A link to the music video on Eminem's website encourages viewers to contact or visit several gun violence prevention organizations, including Everytown for Gun Safety and Sandy Hook Promise.

Hello, Darkness, my old friend...#Darkness Video - https://t.co/zuS9Oo6730#MusicToBeMurderedBy pic.twitter.com/Aykla7R524

— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) January 17, 2020

The cover art features blood spatter and a bearded Eminem clad in a suit and fedora and holding a shovel. An alternate cover features the same splatter, with a now hatless Eminem holding both a hatchet and a gun to his head in an apparent homage to Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 album of the same name, Pitchfork noted.

"Music to Be Murdered By" is Eminem's 11th studio album, according to his website.

Among many collaborators, the album features Ed Sheeran, Skylar Grey, Anderson .Paak and Juice WRLD, the 21-year-old rapper who died in December.

- AP