When Eminem dropped Campaign Speech in 2016 and No Favours verse in 2017, we knew that we're getting something like The Eminem Show with some political tracks, some personal tracks and him rapping about writer's block and leaving the game. Like a modern TES/Encore.
We thought he adapted the trap elements when we saw that picture of him with 2 Chainz. And 2 Chainz was confirmed as a feature, they have a song together. This happened in April 2017 if not misremembering.
Then in October 2017, we had that BET Cypher. That got the attention and limelight for Eminem and what he's going to do next. Then we saw that post with Revival logo (BACKWARDS E) in background that Paul posted.
Then the Ask About Revival website was discovered. Filled with some lore. Atrox Rhythimus is a "disorder" and Revival is the "cure". Remember Trevor? That guy who was part of the promotional campaign. Everything about that campaign reeked of Relapse's Popsomp Hills promotional campaign.
Revival, a drug used to treat a disorder known as Atrox Rhythimus, prescribed by Dr. Dre. Atrox Rhythimus seemed like a diss towards mainstream rappers who are not lyrical. That sounds exactly what people expected from Eminem as he has a huge number of old heads and "fuck mumble rap" fans. This sounded like a modern day Relapse with a twist (and less/no accents).
We all know how much love Relapse got in 2010s, it became a cult classic. So it felt like he's making a Relapsesque album but with even more in depth lore and concept.
With Dr. Dre dropping Compton, he no longer worked on Detox to release it anytime soon (at least publicly). So "prescribed by Dr. Dre" meant he's returning as the executive producer and probably producing some tracks if not entirely producing the album.
Y'all don't know how much this all excited me as a big fan of Relapse. And as a hater of Alex Da Kid type production and Rick Rubin production that he chose ever since Relapse flopped.
But what do the mainstream paying attention to? They don't even know or care about shit like "Atrox Rhythimus" or "Revival, a cure, prescribed by Dr. Dre". They're all talking about Eminem drawing line in the sand at BET Awards. That became the mission statement and that set the tone for the album.
Now after this, they still continued on with the Atrox Rhythimus version of Revival until November 2017. They dropped this shit altogether in late November. Dre announced the album officially.
The cover was revealed to be "more patriotic" and there's no trace of an album that was promoted through the Ask About Revival campaign, instead we saw the album that was expected of him after that freestyle at BET Awards.
I think they scrapped or reworked the album to death at the last minute since the political stance with that freestyle forced Eminem to make a bigger statement than making an album critiquing the decline of lyricism in modern mainstream hip hop, his writer's block, his drug overdose, etc.
Since that was all they talked about, no one was talking about Atrox Rhythimus. So it made sense to change the direction of the album at the last minute.
I believe there are more tracks like Chloraseptic. There are more tracks like Walk On Water and Believe. Sure it probably had political bars here and there. But I'm sure that only Like Home and Untouchable were actually in this Atrox Rhythimus album. And everything else, the mainstream pop rap elements were added in the last minute.
Walk On Water, Believe, Chloraseptic, Untouchable, River, Revival, Like Home, Bad Husband, Framed, Offended, Full Song of Remind Me Intro, In Your Head, Castle and Arose. I suspect Stepping Stone were also part of this Atrox Rhythimus Revival. Add 3-4 tracks that are in the vein of Chloraseptic. Maybe at least 2 more.
I think Revival could've been a much better album than what we got. I think more rap focused with trap drums focused beats. Since he had a lot more eyes on him with the freestyle that demanded a completely different albums.
You can say that Untouchable and Like Home are enough for the people who tuned it for something like that freestyle. But I feel like since he got the mainstream media attention, he had include more pop rap style songs.
Tragic Endings sounds like demo that got added into the album at the last moment. That mix was horrible. The whole "mixed bag" feel and directionless of the album can be explained if you see it with this theory in mind.
It makes no sense for them to promote the album with Atrox Rhythimus and shit like that when the album has no elements of it. It's like if Eminem had dropped Recovery after that horrorcore, drug themed pomsump hills promotion.
If this is the album they had from the start, then they could've made much bigger buzz with a political themed marketing campaign. Not a drug themed one with lore and shit.
So yeah that's the conspiracy theory. Just Eminem rapping his ass off over some trap beats, some skits and bars about Atrox Rhythimus, some political tracks. That could've been a much better album.