Eminem drops new album 'Music to be Murdered By'

Eminem has left everyone in surprise with his "Music to be Murdered By."

While there were rumours of Eminem working on new music, there were no confirmations, and so the rapper left his fans surprised on Thursday night after he tweeted the news of the release of his 11th album.

"It's your funeral," the 47-year-old wrote on social media while announcing that his new album "Music To Be Murdered By" is out now. The album is available on his official store and to stream and download on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Play and Apple Music, reports Mail Online.

The Detroit rapper has also released the video for his first single of the album, titled "Darkness." He teased the video on Twitter with the caption: "Hello, Darkness, my old friend."

The six-minute video shows Eminem walking around a dark stage in a grey hoodie, white t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers while cutting back to a scene at a Las Vegas hotel room where it appears he is sitting on a sofa. The scenes in the hotel room don't show his face, and it is revealed in the end that the person is someone else.

The song is about Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, who opened fire into the crowd at the Route 91 Music Festival on October 1, 2017, killing 58 people and injuring 413. The video subtly protests against US gun law, with the lyrics: "Going Keyzer Soze finger on the trigger but I'm a licensed owner with no prior convictions."

"Music to be Murdered By," a 20-track collection, features collaborations of Eminem with other eminent personalities of the music industry- Ed Sheeran, Skylar Grey, Royce Da 5'9", Black Thought, Q-Tip, Denaun, White Gold, Young M.A, KXNG Crooked, Joell Ortiz, Don Toliver, Anderson .Paak and Juice WRLD. The album will also mark the last music of Juice WRLD, who died due to seizure at Chicago's Midway Airport on December 8, just days after celebrating his 21st birthday.

The album's cover art shows Eminem pointing a gun and an axe on his head and is modelled after an album of famous filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock of the same name. Sharing the original cover art on his Twitter account, Eminem wrote: "Inspired by the master, Uncle Alfred! #MusicToBeMurderedBy."

Eminem had released his last album "Kamikaze" in 2018 in a similar manner, without giving fans any heads-up about his work.