Relapse is the sixth studio album by the American rapper Eminem. It was released on May 15, 2009, through Shady Records, Goliath Artists, Aftermath Entertainment, WEB Entertainment, and Interscope Records. It was Eminem's first studio album after a hiatus following Encore (2004), due to writer's block and an addiction to prescription sleeping medication. Eminem's mentor Dr. Dre produced every track except for "Beautiful", which Eminem produced himself. Guest appearances include Dr. Dre and 50 Cent; a reissue, released on December 21, adds Drake, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne.
Relapse is a horrorcore album about drug rehabilitation and relapse. It features the return of Eminem's Slim Shady alter ego, and Eminem described it as reminiscent of The Slim Shady LP (1999) and The Marshall Mathers LP (2000). The concept album features Eminem as a serial killer using various accents, and includes skits with performances from Dominic West, Paul Rosenberg, and Angela Yee, among others.
Relapse was promoted with five singles: "Crack a Bottle" (which topped the US Billboard Hot 100), "We Made You", "3 a.m.", "Old Time's Sake", and "Beautiful". It received mixed reviews; critics generally praised its production, but were divided over the writing and criticized Eminem's accents. Nonetheless, Relapse won Best Rap Album at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, while "Crack a Bottle" won for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. While Eminem expressed dissatisfaction with Relapse following its release, it developed a cult following and underwent a critical reevaluation; it is now regarded as one of Eminem's best albums, with praise for its humor, performances, and creativity.
One of the most anticipated albums of 2009, Relapse debuted atop the US Billboard 200, with 608,000 copies sold in its first week, staying at top for two weeks. It also reached number one in 12 other countries. In 2022, it was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). A sequel called Relapse 2 was planned, but canceled in favor of Recovery (2010).
Background 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. However, Eminem entered his hiatus earlier than expected 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. Eminem faced a number of setbacks in 2006, with his remarriage to former wife Kimberly Scott lasting only eleven weeks before a second divorce, 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. In a June 2009 interview for XXL, Eminem elaborated on the impact of Proof's death on him, stating that while it affected many people, he experienced the loss in a personal way. He described becoming overwhelmed by grief and being in a "dark place" marked by increased drug use, which worsened his depression and self-perception.
Speculation on an upcoming album by Eminem which was named King Mathers confirmed by Cashis and many different leaks, was reported since early 2007 from announcements made by artists 50 Cent and Stat Quo, former members of Shady Records. Also, rapper Bizarre – a member of the hip-hop group D12 – stated that the release of the group's third studio album was on hold because Interscope Records wanted to release Eminem's album first. By the end of the year, additional musicians associated with Shady Records – including The Alchemist, Bishop Lamont, Cashis and Obie Trice – had confirmed on different occasions that the rapper was effectively working on a new album. On September 12, 2007, during a call at the radio station WQHT Hot 97, Eminem stated that he was in limbo and was not sure whether he would release any new material in the near future. He then elaborated that at that point he was constantly working in the recording studio and had come to terms with his personal issues. However, in December 2007, he was hospitalized because of an overdose of methadone that nearly killed him. In early 2008, he began a 12-step program to recover from his addiction; in a later interview, he said that he got sober on April 20, 2008. He has stayed sober since then.
Recording
Eminem continued recording throughout 2005 and released most of this work on his Shady Records compilation album Eminem Presents: The Re-Up. He also wrote a track called "Beautiful" when he was in rehab, finishing it after he left, which later became the fifth and final single on Relapse. 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. Depressed by Proof's death, Eminem fell into a period of "writer's block", where he felt everything he wrote was not worth recording. 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". Eminem would then freestyle or record vocals one line at a time before interrupting and then recording another line. 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.
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. In September 2007, Dr. Dre stated his intention to dedicate two months to the production of King Mathers. Working with Dr. Dre allowed Eminem to concentrate on the processes of songwriting rather than the production, which was largely taken care of by the former. 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" they both shared. This allowed the rapper to pick the beats from Dr. Dre's catalog that challenged him rhythm-wise to experiment with different flows. 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. 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. 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, he would then begin to write lyrics for new songs. The process continued for the next six months and allowed Eminem to have enough material for a second album, initially called Relapse 2, which evolved to Recovery (2010).
During this recording period, a handful of songs intended for Relapse were leaked on the Internet, including an incomplete version of "Crack a Bottle". The song was finished in January 2009 and featured vocals from Dr. Dre and 50 Cent. Despite the leak, the album was being completed in a state of near-total secrecy, according to the British newspaper The Independent. Even Polydor Records, the multinational owner of Interscope, had no information on the album at the time. 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.
Music and lyrics
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. 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". In a May 2009 interview for The New York Times, Eminem discussed his view of serial killers, stating:
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. Ben Kaplan of the Vancouver Courier also categorized it as a horrorcore album. 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". 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).
Songs Relapse opens with the skit "Dr. West", where actor Dominic West voices a drug counselor who becomes creepier as the skit goes on and turns out to be Slim Shady, his alter ego who comes back after faking his death to possess Eminem to bring back his career. The skit leads to "3 a.m.", where Eminem depicts himself as a serial killer during a murder spree. When "3 a.m." was released as a single prior to the album's own release, Eminem noted that the song closely mirrored what he believed was the overall dark tone of the album. On "My Mom", the rapper traces his addictive tendencies to his mother and shows how he became a drug addict just like her. Eminem continues his family tales on "Insane", where he imagines himself as a victim of child sexual abuse. For Eminem, the goal of "Insane" was to make song that would disgust the listeners and "make them puke", adding that he came up with this idea after thinking of the song's first line ("I was born with a dick in my brain/Yeah, fucked in the head"). Mariah Carey and her then-husband Nick Cannon are targeted in "Bagpipes from Baghdad", where Eminem raps over a pungi loop.