Eminem Relapse Live

[Marcelo Chaplin]

Relapseis the sixth studio album by the American rapper Eminem. It was released on May 19, 2009, through Aftermath Entertainment, Shady Records, and Interscope Records. The album serves as Eminem's return to original material since Encore (2004), following a four-year hiatus from recording due to his writer's block and an addiction to prescription sleeping medication from 2005 and 2007. Recording sessions for the album took place between 2008 and 2009 at several recording studios, and Dr. Dre, Mark Batson, and Eminem handled production.

Relapse is a concept album that revolves around horror, drug rehabilitation and relapse. A return of his Slim Shady alter ego, Eminem stated that the album's theme was more reminiscent of The Slim Shady LP (1999) and The Marshall Mathers LP (2000).[4] In September 2007, Dr. Dre stated his intention to dedicate two months to the production of the album.[5] Working with Dr. Dre allowed Eminem to pick the beats from Dr. Dre's catalog that challenged his rhythm to experiment with different flows.[6] During the recording period, a handful of songs intended for Relapse were leaked on the Internet.[7]

One of the most anticipated albums of 2009, Relapse debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 608,000 copies in its first week.[8] It also reached number one in twelve other countries. It produced five singles: "Crack a Bottle", "We Made You", "3 a.m.", "Old Time's Sake", and "Beautiful". "Crack a Bottle", which features Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Relapse was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Critically, the album received mixed reviews once released. Reviewers generally praised its production, but were divided in their responses towards the writing and overuse of accents throughout the album. Nonetheless, it won Eminem the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, while "Crack a Bottle" won for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. Despite the lukewarm reception upon its initial release, Relapse has been the subject of re-evaluation from both fans and critics over the years. This has resulted in the album developing a strong cult following, while also being viewed more positively as occupying a unique position within Eminem's wider discography.[9][10][11][12][13]

After releasing Encore in 2004, Eminem planned to take some time off from recording his own music to become a hip hop producer for other rap acts, especially for the artists signed on his own label, Shady Records.[14] However, Eminem entered his hiatus after cancelling the European leg of the Anger Management Tour in the summer of 2005 because of exhaustion and an addiction to prescription sleeping drugs.[15][16] In the following year, the rapper's remarriage to his former wife Kimberly Scott lasted only eleven weeks before a second divorce,[17] while his best friend and fellow rapper Proof was later shot and killed during an altercation outside a Detroit nightclub. Devastated, Eminem relapsed into prescription drug abuse and became increasingly reclusive.[17][18][19] In a June 2009 interview for XXL, Eminem elaborated on the impact of Proof's death on him, stating:

"Everyone felt Proof's loss, from his kids, to his wife, to everyone. But, for some reason, in hindsight, the way I felt was almost like it happened to just me... Maybe at the time I was a little bit selfish with it. I think it kind of hit me so hard. It just blindsided me. I just went into such a dark place that, with everything, the drugs, my thoughts, everything. And the more drugs I consumed, and it was all depressants I was taking, the more depressed I became, the more self-loathing I became..."[20]

Eminem had continued recording throughout 2005, and released most of this work on his Shady Records compilation album Eminem Presents: The Re-Up. He had also written a track called "Beautiful" when he was in rehab and finished it after he got out in rehab in 2005 and it became the fifth and final single on Relapse, and also one of the only songs on the entire album in which Eminem recorded when he wasn't sober.[31] Eminem began the recording stages of Relapse in mid-2008, after completing a 12-step program to control his drug addiction. Record producer and long-time Detroit collaborator Jeff Bass of the Bass Brothers worked with Eminem on 25 tracks, two years after the rapper had received treatment for his sleeping pill addiction in 2005.[18][32] Depressed by Proof's death, Eminem fell into a period of "writer's block", where he felt everything he wrote was not worth recording.[20] To compensate for this, Bass chose to follow a production style that would allow the artist to rap "off the top of his head, as opposed to writing a story".[32] Eminem would then freestyle or record vocals one line at a time before interrupting and then recording another line.[20] At the same time, according to Eminem's song rights supervisor Joel Martin, the rapper began to collect additional songs without noticing it. He would often record or produce material initially intended for the musical projects of other artists, but end up with tracks he really liked.[32]

Eminem purchased the Effigy Studio in Ferndale, Michigan, in 2007, and ended his working relationship with much of his former production team of the 54 Sound recording studio, including the Bass Brothers.[32][33] In September 2007, Dr. Dre stated his intention to dedicate two months to the production of King Mathers.[5][34] Working with Dr. Dre allowed Eminem to concentrate on the processes of songwriting rather than the production, which was largely taken care of by Dre.[5] The rapper justified his choice of using Dr. Dre for the vast majority of the production due to their long collaborative history and a musical "chemistry" only he and Dr. Dre shared.[7] This allowed the rapper to pick the beats from Dr. Dre's catalog that challenged him rhythm-wise to experiment with different flows.[6] The making of the album progressed at the Effigy Studio up to a year after, as recording sessions were then moved to Orlando, Florida, in July or August 2008.[18][20] By then, Eminem had begun to start writing verses again at such a pace that he often took more time to record the lyrics than write them. He credited sobriety for his new creative run, acknowledging that his mind was free of the clutter that "blocked" him during his drug abuse in the last years.[20][29] Dr. Dre would start the song-writing process by giving a number of his beats on a CD to Eminem, who in a separate room in the studio would listen and select the ones he preferred and inspired him the most. Eminem would then write lyrics to the instrumentals, while Dr. Dre and his production staff continued to create new music. Once he felt he had written lyrics for enough songs, Eminem would dedicate an entire day to record his songs to the point that he would lose his voice for the following days. At that point, the rapper would then begin to write lyrics for new songs.[20][35] The process continued for the next six months and allowed Eminem to have enough material for a second album, initially called Relapse 2, which became Recovery.[36]

During this recording period, a handful of songs intended for Relapse were leaked on the Internet, including an incomplete version of "Crack a Bottle".[7] The song was finished in January 2009 and featured vocals from Dr. Dre and 50 Cent.[37] Despite the leak, the album was being completed in a state of near-total secrecy, according to the British newspaper The Independent.[18] Even Polydor Records, the multinational owner of Interscope, had no information on the album at the time.[18] On April 23, Eminem suggested he and possibly Dr. Dre were the only ones in possession of the final copy of Relapse; his manager Paul Rosenberg added that even Eminem's record labels were not in possession of the music less than a month before its release to prevent possible bootlegging.[38]

In an interview for XXL, Eminem described the concept behind Relapse to be the ending of his drug rehabilitation and thus rap as if he was on drugs again, as well as the return of his fictional alter-ego Slim Shady.[20] According to the interviewer Datwon Thomas, Eminem's influences for the album came from his own past drug issues and from television shows and documentaries involving crime and serial killers, as the rapper was fascinated by "serial killers and their psyche and their mind states".[29][39] In a May 2009 interview for The New York Times, Eminem discussed his view of serial killers, stating:

"You listen to these people talk, or you see them, they look so regular. What does a serial killer look like? He don't look like anything. He looks like you. You could be living next door to one. If I lived next door to you, you could be."[29]

Music critic Robert Christgau interpreted the opening line to the album featuring the phrase "horror corridor" as Eminem telling listeners that it is a horrorcore album.[40] Ben Kaplan of the Vancouver Courier also categorized it as a horrorcore album.[41] Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times said that the album's "horrorcore scenes" show Eminem as "a madman created by the hypocrisy of therapy".[42] Music journalist Rob Sheffield remarked on its sensationalist drug references and said that Relapse is "a hip-hop version" of comedian Richard Pryor's Live on the Sunset Strip (1982).[3]

After "Hello", where Eminem re-introduces himself after years of being absent "mentally",[35] he continues his violent fantasies on "Same Song & Dance", where he abducts and murders Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears.[3][45] The upbeat rhythm of "Same Song & Dance" reminded Eminem of a dance track, which inspired him to write something in order to "get women to dance to it and not really know what the fuck they're dancing to" without listening to the lyrics.[35] On the ninth track of the album, "We Made You", Eminem mocks several celebrities and plays the role of a "pop star serial killer".[47] Eminem noted that his various "celebrity bashings" were not meant to be seen as personal attacks, but it was rather "picking names out of a hat" that rhymed with the words he wanted to use during the writing process.[48] On "Medicine Ball" Eminem mocks and impersonates deceased actor Christopher Reeve in order to get his audience to "laugh at it, and then almost feel bad for laughing".[35][3] The next track is "Stay Wide Awake", which Eminem raps about assaulting and raping women. Dr. Dre also has a guest appearance on "Old Time's Sake", a duet Eminem described as a "fun, yet reminiscent record old times" in which he and Dre rap back and forth between each other, advocating the use of marijuana for creative and financial benefits.[35] Song "Must Be the Ganja" follows, where Eminem raps that working in the recording studio is like a drug and an addiction for him.[35]

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