New Eminem single makes a hot debut

Guess who’s back -- with a brand new rap? Eminem, that’s who. The Detroit rapper is quickly becoming ubiquitous on the radio once again with his latest single, “Just Lose It.” The record went to stations last week and is posting impressive results on airplay charts due this week.

More than 100 Top 40 stations jumped on the record last week, reflecting the changing landscape on the pop airwaves.

That made it the most-added new record on stations with mainstream pop formats, reported Radio & Records magazine.

“Everything has really shifted in the past six months to a year,” says KIIS-FM (102.7) program director John Ivey. “The middle of Top 40 is way more urban. Where Britney and Justin used to be the middle, now it’s probably Usher and Nelly. Hip-hop is very mainstream, like Houston or Lil’ Flip. Very melodic ... not very scary.”

The performer born Marshall Mathers has maintained a relatively low profile since the time when it seemed he was in the news daily -- from the release of his first album, “The Slim Shady LP,” in 1999, through his other multi-platinum works, “The Marshall Mathers LP” (2000), “The Eminem Show” and the soundtrack to the film “8 Mile” (both 2002).

He played a central role in one of this year’s biggest-selling albums, “D12 World,” by his extended rap crew D12, but the new single, heralding the Nov. 16 arrival of his “Encore” album, puts the Grammy-winning artist behind such earlier smash singles as “The Real Slim Shady,” “Without Me,” “Stan” and “Lose Yourself” back squarely in the pop spotlight.

It’s not only his absence that may be making hearts grow fonder of Eminem, whose raps once struck fear into most ears. Because hip-hop and R&B; now dominate mainstream pop radio, there’s been little hesitancy to put Em’s newest on the air.

“We’ve been playing it since the first day,” says Ivey. “The record is actually very novelty-like -- similar to the D12 song ‘My Band.’ ”

“Just Lose It” does sound as if it were created as the first single -- as a chorus of voices announces, “Guess who’s back? Back again. Shady’s back ... tell a friend.”

The track references a number of celebrities, including James Brown, Michael Jackson and, naturally, Eminem himself.

It also addresses the long-standing debate about how literally listeners should take the rapper’s words: “Papa’s got a brand new bag of toys / What else could I possibly do to make noise? / I done touched on everything but little boys / That’s not a stab at Michael / That’s just a metaphor -- I’m just psycho / I go a little bit crazy sometimes / I get a little bit out of control with my rhymes.”

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-- Randy Lewis