Eminem drops new song featuring Beyonce

After a two-day teaser campaign, Eminem dropped a new song — featuring a hook from Beyonce — called “Walk on Water” on Friday.

The unexpectedly downbeat song - featuring a simple piano track, synthesizer, a haunting string section and muted percussion — is surprisingly rough-hewn, with the sound of the rapper scribbling and swearing to himself in the background in between verses. Despite its arrogant-sounding title, the song —co-written with Beyonce and Skylar Grey — is a depressive meditation on trying and failing to meet up to expectations.

The rapper is set to appear on “Saturday Night Live” November 18 as the musical guest.

The song's title was written on a prescription note with a logo for “Revival”, which is presumably the name of his forthcoming album, which has no official release date but is expected to drop at any time between now and the end of the year. The album's title, which was at the centre of an elaborate fake advertising campaign earlier in the month, could complete Eminem's sequence of albums referencing his admitted struggles with prescription drugs, 2009's “Relapse” and 2010's “Recovery”. His most recent album was 2013's “The Marshall Mathers LP 2”.

Last month during the BET Hip-Hop Awards, the rapper delivered a ferocious freestyle takedown of President Trump called “Storm”.