Eminem placed himself in exile shortly after Encore wound down, a seclusion initially designed as creative down-time but which soon descended into darkness fueled by another failed marriage to his wife Kim and the death of his best friend Proof, culminating in years of drug addiction. Em none too subtly refers to that addiction with the title of Relapse, his first album in five years, but that relapse also refers to Marshall Mathers reviving Slim Shady and returning to rap. Relapse is designed to grab attention, to stand as evidence that Eminem remains a musical force and, of course, a provocateur spinning out violent fantasies and baiting celebrities, occasionally merging the two as when he needles one-time girlfriend Mariah Carey and her new husband Nick Cannon. Strive as he might to make an impact in the world at large -- and succeeding in many respects -- Relapse is the sound of severe isolation, the product of too many years of Eminem playing king in his castle in a dilapidated Detroit, subsisting on pills, nachos, torture porn, and E! Daily News. As he sifted through junk culture, he also tweaked his rhyming, crafting an elongated elastic flow that contrasts startlingly with Dr. Dre's intensified beats, ominous magnifications of his thud-and-stutter signature. Musically, this is white-hot, dense, and dramatic not just in the production but in Eminem's delivery; he stammers and slides, slipping into an accent that resembles Paul Rudd's Rastafarian leprechaun from I Love You Man and then back again. His flow is so good, his wordplay so sharp, it seems churlish to wish that he addressed something other than his long-standing obsessions and demons. True, he spends a fair amount of the album exorcising his addiction -- smartly tying it to his never-abating mother issues on "My Mom" -- but most of Relapse finds Eminem rhyming twitchily about his old standbys: homosexuals, starlets, and violent fantasies, weaving all of them together on "Same Song and Dance" where he abducts and murders Lindsay Lohan, suggesting more than a passing familiarity with I Know Who Killed Me. The many, many references to Kim Kardashian's big ass and minutely detailed sadism can get a wee bit tiring, Relapse isn't really about what Eminem says, it's about how he says it. He's emerged from his exile musically re-energized and the best way to illustrate that is to go through the same old song and dance again, the familiarity of the words drawing focus on his insane, inspired flow and Dre's production. That might not quite make Relapse culturally relevant -- recycled Christopher Reeve jokes aren't exactly fresh -- but it is musically vital, which is all Eminem really needs to be at this point.
The one thing Relapse gets extremely right is having a strong concept that flows ridiculously well from each song to the next. Quite the feat., when you consider some of the songs are the most twisted things you will hear from a modern day artist. The album is brutally honest, at the same time it [...]
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May 20, 2009 | Cutting through what is likely to be the biggest major-label marketing hype-blitz of the year, it's time to simply check out the music
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It's been five years since Eminem dropped his last solo album Encore. Since then, a lot of shit has happened to Em. Proof's murder, drugs, overdose, rehab...the list keeps going. A question a lot of fans (and probably Em himself) are asking is where the hell does one as high profile and as talented as Em go from here? Back to the beginning, of course. Now, Marshall Mathers' perverted alter ego
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Some people grow up, and others just get older. Em may be closing in on 40, but his rhymes are more immature than ever. It's getting sad -- Flava Flav sad.
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Eminem. Marshal Mathers. Slim Shady. Egotistical homophobe. Drug-riddled rap-star. Lyrical genius. Whatever you want to call the man or however you feel about him, theres no denying that he's possibly one of the biggest names in rap history. Let's rewind for a second, way, way back to when Eminem had just dropped The Slim Shady LP (ten years ago exactly).
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First off I would like to state that Relapse really didn't live up to my expectations. I am not saying I did not like the album but that it wasn't everything it was being hyped up to be. There were songs off of it that I like a lot while others I got sick of really quickly. I think there were four or five skits on this album, and letting all of you know, I hate skits unless they make me piss my.
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6.2 out of 10 starsI think as an Eminem fan and as a hip-hop fan in general, there is a certain level of genius that I have come to expect from this man. If the first half dozen listens of “We Made You” are any indication, the first single from Relapse (what was “Crack A [...]
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Relapse bonus tracks, anyone? And I did these last two posts concurrently on purpose. Props to X.DOWNLOAD: Eminem - My Darling | MediafireDOWNLOAD: Eminem - Careful What You Wish For | Mediafire
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This video is how I imagine it would be exploring each other's musical collections by becoming them, album by album. A montage of multiple personalities and dripping with pop culture references. (Or more simply, iTunes album flow with an Eminem plug-in?)Eminem's new video for "We Made You" ft. Jessica Simpson, produced by the chronic crusader himself, Dr. Dre: Maaaaaaadness!! This video is b...
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Head over to Spin.com to take a listen to Eminem's new song "Crack A Bottle" featuring Dr. Dre and... of course 50 Cent. Some of you might hear some elements of a beat you have heard before. The beat is similar to Preservation's (producer) beat from the song of the same name, "Preservation," by Aesop Rock & Del Tha Funkee Homosapien off of Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture.Del & Aesop's versio...
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Yesterday morning a promotional poster for Eminem's upcoming album "Relapse 2" was spotted on Amazon.com. Given that the huge online retailer is known for leaking hot info every now and then, bloggers took the news as fact and the news spread like wildfire. However, Eminem's manager Paul Rosenberg spoke to XXL magazine and put an end to the rumors.XXLMag.com has learned otherwise. According to ...
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The album is in stores today. Do your part and support hip hop. And since we all know Em has a few screws loose, hit the jump for his latest photo taken…
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It's been five years since Eminem dropped his last solo album Encore. Since then, a lot of shit has happened to Em. Proof's murder, drugs, overdose, rehab...the list keeps going. A question a lot of fans (and probably Em himself) are asking is where the hell does one as high profile and as talented as Em go from here? Back to the beginning, of course. Now, Marshall Mathers' perverted alter ego
More >
We knew this as "Number 1", back when it leaked. Here it is now, finished and without the annoying DJ
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This is a great listen. Eminem takes us through Relapse. From the fucked up fairy tale of Insane to the amount of music actually recorded. Part 2 and 3 are after the jump…Spotted at RR.
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So while I've been sitting on my ass not doing a cot damn thing, folks in Los Angeles have been enjoying Eminem and Jay-Z perform during a DJ Hero event. *sigh… times like these (and many more) are why I hate Las Vegas. And of course, Meka lives 2 minutes from the event and didn't [...]
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March 5, 2009 | Interscope Records announced that Slim Shady is dropping two albums this year, Relapse and Relapse 2.
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This > Relapse. Just saying. Obviously credit to YN.Sidenote: Here is what Em recently said about Asher Roth:I really wanted to check him out because people have been telling me to check him out. And I think the kid is dope. I think he's good and I don't think he sounds like me. It's kinda sad that just because he's white and he raps, then he's automatically gonna get that.PigeonsandPlanes
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Its 2.15am in London. I was about to go asleep when the homie Matt from Coalmine Records sends me an email with Eminem’s first video interview. The good folks over at ughh.com had this in their vault from 1998 and have decided to unleash it to the masses now.But a young spring chicken back in 1998, [...]
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HOLY SHIT!!!Now I want to see the full video! It will be world premiered on Cinemax Sat, May 2nd at 10pm EST! PigeonsandPlanes
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Eminem. Marshal Mathers. Slim Shady. Egotistical homophobe. Drug-riddled rap-star. Lyrical genius. Whatever you want to call the man or however you feel about him, theres no denying that he's possibly one of the biggest names in rap history. Let's rewind for a second, way, way back to when Eminem had just dropped The Slim Shady LP (ten years ago exactly).
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Dr. West (Skit) |
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| 2 3 A.M. |
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| 3 My Mom |
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| 4 Insane |
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| 5 Bagpipes from Baghdad |
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| 6 Hello |
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| 7 Tonya (Skit) |
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| 8 Same Song & Dance |
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| 9 We Made You |
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| 10 Medicine Ball |
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| 11 Paul (Skit) |
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| 12 Stay Wide Awake |
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| 13 Old Time's Sake |
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| 14 Must Be the Ganja |
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| 15 Mr. Mathers (Skit) |
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| 16 Déjŕ Vu |
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| 17 Beautiful |
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| 18 Crack a Bottle |
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| 19 Steve Berman (Skit) |
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| 20 Underground |
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Click to purchase…
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 "Relapse")
