Pretty fucking good....
Now I know Em has talked down about this album on numerous occasions, especially on Recovery when he said that he threw the album away. But as a known Em stan myself, I am just gonna have to respectfully disagree with Mr. Mathers.
Relapse was Em's first solo album in 4 years since Encore. Now we all know the story about Em's drug problem so I am not gonna get into that aspect. I am gonna pretty much talk mostly about the music. Now before I go on let me just say, that this album was almost entirety produced by Dr. Dre, and in my honest opinion, Relapse is Dre's best laced album since Doggystyle, yeah I said it! From track 1 all the way to Underground, Dr. Dre showed everybody that he still has it production wise...now if he would just stop bullshitting, he should just bring out Detox already goddamnit!
Lyrically Em was back on his SHIT! Everybody wanted Em to go back to that Slim Shady content that made us all fall in love with him when he first came out. The fans wanted him to rap about all that wacky, crazy, insane shit again, and that is what Em did, with VENGEANCE! Eminem was spitting his ASS off through out the ENTIRE album. He rode the beat like only he could and he did it so flawlessly. Only Eminem can spit about rape, incest, and molestation and have you nodding ur head to the beat and reciting every lyric to it. Then you will be disgusted with yourself for actually doing it. Songs like Medicine Ball Em had poking fun at Christopher Reeves, and even rapping as him. Em was doing too much, but hey he stated it when he said "I think its time for you to hate me again!". Shady's most lyrical song on the album was Stay Wide Awake. The track was pretty much Kill You 2.0, he raped as if he was a killer from a slasher film and by the end of the song, u would be afraid to go to sleep. Em's flow on this song was INCREDIBLE and was by far the highlight of the album
The album played like a movie from start to finish, it was from the mind of a serial killer. And it played like a story from a man waking up from a nightmare. Tracks like 3AM, Stay Wide Awake, & Same Song & Dance played the serial killer theme so perfectly. However, tracks like Deja Vu, and Beautiful showed how Em was waking up and seeing how he really needs help. IMO the album was almost a masterpiece...keyword ALMOST..
Now I can see where people will get the notion that the album was bad. For starters the first single from the album is where Em fucked up with the most. IMO We Made You wasn't THAT bad of a track, Em was still maintaining his flow and lyrics and stayed within the theme. However what I was more disappointed in was that it was let ANOTHER wacky 1st single. I mean Em was gone for 4 years, and having the same theme was being a bit tired. Wacky single first, then the real music second, i mean if it worked the first few albums it would work now. However after 4 years Em should have knew better that's what his fans wanted to hear.
Another thing that people say that brought the album down was his voice. The infamous "accent" he was using got on everybody's nerves. Now IMO it wasn't THAT bad, I mean seriously if the same people that didn't like the "accent" are the same people that go and listen to Wakka Flocka's illiterate rapping ass.
Now overall Relapse was the Eminem album that everybody wanted from him. The people demanded that Em want back to his roots and rapped about that crazy shit, and that is EXACTLY what he did. I remember when the album leaked, everybody was actually SHOCKED on how good the album was. Some posters even went on to say that Em had a classic. I felt the same way, I played that album from front to back on a daily basis. I'm lucky nobody listens to tape cassettes no more or else I would have worn that tape out.
However, after about a few months want by, people started to talk down on the album, and even were comparing it to that album that nobody wants to talk about. Relapse was MILES ahead of that album by EVERY aspect and I just felt that people were just hating on Em like they usually do. But then that's when MTV had to way their opinion and do their Top 10 Hottest Emcees AKA Top 10 most popular pop artist. Even through Relapse was the highest selling rap album of 2009, after Em's return to the stage when he headlined the Voodoo concert, and his monstrous feature on Forever, MTV felt that wasn't "enough" credibility to make the list. Their reasons were bullshit of course..
After the "uproar" that's when Em decided to go a complete different direction with the next album and completely change the Relapse sequel to Recovery. Which is the complete opposite from the previous album, and was more fit for the mainstream crowd. Now I liked Recovery, it certainly wasn't a bad album for my taste, but Relapse will have that special place for me. It was the album suit for the core Em fans, that album should have made other rappers go back into the studio and re-record their shit.
Fuck the bullshit, Relapse is one of my top Em albums with Recovery being second fiddle...
Too bad we will never get to hear Relapse 2..=\
~~Mr. Busby~~
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