My last post was about Eminem’s new jam available on iTunes from his upcoming record, Recovery.

A recording of him doing 2 minutes of freestyle rap titled “Despicable” was recently “leaked” and it’s all over youtube.

I am sharing it here for several reasons.

First off, it’s great. No chorus. Just Em layin down rhyme after rhyme like no other.

One of the iTunes reviews that I read yesterday for “Not Afraid” said “I Think His Prime is Still Ahead of Him”.

I rolled my eyes for a second, just thinking it’s a fan who’s overly excited about the new material, but after hearing “Despicable”, I completely agree.

The delivery is equally as fierce as anything on “The Marshall Mathers LP”, which to many is one of, if not THEE, most groundbreaking rap records ever recorded.

Secondly…
This is the important part for marketers and new media trend followers…

If you are a musician or a person who is responsible for marketing any product or brand, there is a lesson here that you should store in your memory bank.

When the beat ends, Eminem says “Recovery”. The title of the new record.

This is obviously an intentional leak that was put out there to go viral and get people excited about the new record …and it worked.

Many individuals have created videos to run with this song and have uploaded them to youtube. The view count is collectively at over 500,000.

This is less expensive and more effective than any effort that will be put towards promoting this record.

I suppose one could compare this to releasing a teaser trailer for an upcoming film, a preview page for an upcoming comic book or pre-releasing an official music video for a record’s first single. These are not a new concepts or practices.

This particular case is unique because Em has shared something that will not be included on the record.

I wish that every single one of my favorite bands shared demo versions or rough mixes of new songs that they’re recording to get myself and other fans excited about an upcoming release. Or, like Eminem, share something that won’t be on the record with the possibility of it going viral.

The “Wait ‘Til Christmas” approach to marketing is tired and not conducive to the successful release of the official product.

Give people a peek.

The tools are available to get your followers/demographic/fanbase excited about your next move.

Show Confidence. Be smart and use them.

Eminem’s new single “Not Afraid” was released on itunes on Tuesday.

The song is great. Some of the lyrics are a bit self deprecating. I always like it when an artist drops the ego and gives you something honest. In one of the lines, he weaves in “….In Fact, Let’s Be Honest. That Last Relapse CD Was Ehhh…”

However, I was most surprised to see that the song received nearly 5000 itunes ratings in just 48 hours and over 4400 of them were 5 star ratings.
I cant wait to hear the rest of the record when it comes out on June 22nd.

If you want to give the song a listen, I’ve embedded a youtube video below uploaded by a fan. The official video is in production now.