Eminem
Relapse (Aftermath/Interscope)
Eminem, like Jay-Z, Kanye West, and, more recently, Lil Wayne, is a true rap artist. As in, he’s a phenomenally talented MC who’s spent the majority of his life opening, reopening, exploring, and even destroying his God-given gift, searching every nook and cranny for new forms of, and approaches to, creative expression. Eminem hasn’t released an album since 2004’s Encore (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope) and in the interim he’s battled addiction to pharmaceuticals and depression following the murder of lifelong friend and D 12 member DeShaun “Proof” Holton in 2006. So on Relapse, his fifth and newest album, he’s settled into the deepest and darkest corner he could find and delivered a project that should make every real rap fan rejoice.
But, admittedly, Relapse—theoretically a high concept album about an escaped psychopathic homicidal maniac with an outrageous drug habit—is spotty. Lead single “We Made You” and the so-called street single “Crack A Bottle,” which features Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, work against the high concept, taking listeners too far away from the dark, twisted vision Em paints so vividly elsewhere and forcing them back into the harsh commercial reality that is The Eminem Show. And while it’s true that both records are a testament to Em’s continued ability to craft little rap ditties determined to get stuck in your head no matter how much you may try to resist, here they’re both out of place.
It’s when Em dives deep down the dark, violent, drug-addled wormhole, on records like “3AM” and “Same Song & Dance,” that Relapse becomes addictive. Throughout his career, Eminem has logged hours upon hours (and moved millions of units) rapping about being Eminem, about being a reluctant superstar, about being a malcontent MC embraced by the mainstream all too easily by virtue of his lack of melanin, about doing anything and everything he can just to remind you how much hating you all reminds him of just how much he hates himself. But when Relapse ditches Eminem the craaaazzzyyy white rapper, in favor of a maniacal narrator obsessed with graphic rape and violence (subjects much more in line with hip hop’s forgotten horror-core subgenre than anything to do with being a superstar rapper in 2009), Em works wonders with words, expanding the boundaries of the art of rap itself. He reminds everyone that rap’s horizon lies somewhere beyond the realms of Auto-Tune and infinite similes.
Relapse is compelling because Eminem is once again rapping just to rap. Rapping because he’s good at it. Because he likes making words do strange things, and he finds pleasure in putting them together in tight mathematical patterns that weave stories, or, in this case, nightmares that bend and bleed their way around and through beats by Dre (primarily) and take the listener on one hell of a ride. Technically speaking, it’s a thing to behold. On the hook for the album’s conceptual high point, “Stay Wide Awake,” Em spits his statement of purpose over a bed of driving synths: “Soon as my flow starts, I compose art like the ghost of Mozart…” This go around, the composition is experimental and abstract, a master toying with form for the benefit of his audience—rap fans and rappers alike—but perhaps most importantly, for himself.
Eminem's "Relapse" is in stores 5/19/09
Relapse Track Listing
1. Dr. West (Skit)
2. 3am
3. My Mom
4. Insane
5. Bagpipes From Baghdad
6. Hello
7. Tonya
8. Same Song & Dance
9. We Made You
10. Medicine Ball
11. Paul (Skit)
12. Stay Wide Awake
13. Old Time’s Sake feat. Dr. Dre
14. Must Be The Ganja
15. Mr. Mathers
16. Deja Vu
17. Beautiful
18. Crack A Bottle feat. Dr. Dre & 50 Cent
19. Steve Berman
20. Underground/Ken Kaniff
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