While the critical response to the rhyme schemes, lyrics, cadence and delivery has been unenthusiastic, Houdini went straight to No 1 on the US iTunes chart. Love him or not, Eminem makes his mark.

In the tense moments during the 2003 Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Australian captain, a slightly out-of-form Steve Waugh who’d been dealing with questions of retirement, found himself facing the last ball of the day, just two runs short of a century. The 100 would have been his 29th Test ton, equaling cricketing giant Don Bradman’s record.

In the build-up that can be called theatrical at its best, English captain Nasser Hussain took his sweet time to set the field, while the crowd roared. And then, just like that, commentator Kerry O’Keeffe broke into ‘Lose Yourself’ by Eminem. He rapped, on air, “Lose yourself in the moment, you own it…from the middle of the piece that begins with… If you had one shot or one opportunity/ To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment/ Would you capture it or just let it slip?”

Waugh smacked a four of the last ball.

The song, from 8 Mile (2002), a film with autobiographical elements about Eminem’s struggles in Detroit and the eponymous street that acted as a de facto divider between White and Black, rich and poor neighbourhoods, won an Oscar (the first hip-hop piece to do so) and a Grammy. It stuck, not just with O’Keeffe, but also with the 2003 English rugby team, blaring it in the dressing room as a motivational anthem. Then there was actor Jodie Foster, who recited it at the University of Pennsylvania’s commencement address in 2006. But what one absolutely needs to marvel at is how the song by Marshall Mathers as Jimmy “B-Rabbit” has zipped along, for years, and is pitched up on the Billboard charts yet again, right after he released his latest single, ‘Houdini’. The song is a prelude to the rapper’s upcoming 12th album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce), which will drop later this summer.

While the critical response to the rhyme schemes, lyrics, cadence and delivery has been unenthusiastic, even frosty at times, the song went straight to No 1 on the US iTunes chart. It was interesting and a little strange to watch a creatively weak piece by Eminem climb the charts in this manner. Its video trended at No 1 on YouTube. And despite Taylor Swift’s pervasive sway, it’s selling like hotcakes.

What ‘Houdini’ also did was bring ‘Lose Yourself’ back to No 10 on Billboard’s list of best-selling rap tracks besides spending 475 weeks on Rap Digital Song Sales chart. As if this wasn’t enough, ‘Lose Yourself’ was also presented as a cover by Grammy-winning singer SZA, who sang it like a soft ballad.

But why is Eminem, once a tsunami, making waves again? This is in spite of not really being the most important or the most controversy-generating rap star at this point. Is it nostalgia? Or popular culture’s current affection for the Y2K era? Or is it about an older, once supremely famous musician, back in the game like a bolt from the blue — Eminem saying, “Hey, y’all always asking for the old me, well here you go”. Or is it only now that Gen Z, whose parents were once Eminem fans, are discovering him? Generations streaming his music together. I think the answer is all of the above.

In the ‘Houdini’ video, his Slim Shady avatar steps out of a wormhole from 2002. One hears the old refrain, “Guess who’s back”, a tribute to his 2002 No 1 single ‘Without Me’ along with the 1982 song ‘Abracadabra’ from Steve Miller Band.

In terms of music, the charm of ‘Houdini’ lies in its light, unpretentious tenor. While it harks back to the nostalgia of the older, notorious days and equally notorious hooks, it is unlike the darker and intimate space Eminem once touched, speaking intimately of his personal life: His absent father, his complicated relationship with his mother and his difficult childhood. He won the Black game as a White guy with his talent.

But he was almost always provocative (like the shot he takes at Megan the Stallion, or his own children in “F**k my own kids, they are brats”. In ‘Houdini’, they are shown with squeamish expressions). Yes, he’s being Eminem. But at 51, one also expects him to grow up and talk of real things. Maybe a take on Gaza? Or the war in Ukraine? We’ll need to wait and watch.

But love him or not, Slim Shady is back and he wants the spotlight.