Remember when the release of Katy Perry’s latest album was upstaged by a big Taylor Swift announcement? Two can play at that game. Taylor Swift’s long-awaited, long-hyped Reputation is out today—but so is a brand-new single from Eminem, featuring his first collaboration with Beyoncé.
“Walk on Water” is acutely conscious that Marshall Mathers hasn’t been around for a while, and done anything especially noteworthy in longer, and his verses are preoccupied with the difficulty of meeting his own past achievements. (Quite the humblebrag, Em.) The track opens with Beyoncé’s voice, putting its best foot forward, but it’s disrupted by the sound of a scribbling pen and Eminem softy cursing before he steps to the mic in earnest. “Why are expectations so high?/ Is it the bar I set? … I feel the ice cracking.” Of course, this being Eminem, that modesty only lasts so long. As he reminds us at the end, “Bitch, I wrote ‘Stan.’ ”
