eminem relapse album appreciation

[Xbox One X]

Em's last good album

 

[Headcase]

Honestly, Relapse was kind of a disappointment. Most of the verses Em spits are dope, but would be better suited for radio freestyles than actual songs.
The beats were fantastic though, I just wish Em could have done more with them.

Deja Vu is a top 10 Em song of all time though, maybe even top 5.

 

[SunZoo]

Eminem is a whiteboy who can rap. His whole mainstream career is a gimmick. The 1999-2002 period was amusing and he put out great quality music during the time. After 8 Mile he started taking himself seriously, trying too hard and his releases took a big decline (The Eminem Show is so corny when you look at it for what it is). Of course, at that point Marshall Mathers was heavy on drugs and had no creative control whatsoever while Eminem was the brand that had to be exploited to the maximum. I believe the record execs pushed him far beyond the mark he was aiming for and he couldn't handle it. Eventually he ran out of gas and fell off the map for a couple of years.

I like TES a lot actually but it has it's flaws too. People prefer it because the subject matter was toned down but I would def put Relapse ahead of it.

But if you listen to him on TES and take into account the concept being a play on the "Truman Show" (if you've seen the movie), he's spelling it out plain as day that he's tired and how self aware he's become about how he's being used (like Truman). He's talking of retiring, saying "goodbye to hollywood" like they were going to let him just fall back while he was that hot

You hear him already speaking of having some sort of a burn out and desire to chill and be with his fam...you give your fans an open window into your life and all the drama, which only creates more of the same only to get turnerd around and asked for MORE (an encore) of your pain for peoples amusement? Encore, from the cover and inside art, to the opening track to the last is really just an album...about not wanting to make a fukking album. Who the fukk does that and why?



His skills were in tact, he was just burnt out. He said as much on the previous album and was forced to tap dance and troll his way through and album he wasn't really ready to release. Then he "kills" shady and disappears for an extended period of time.

Almost like the drugs and OD'ing was his way out of having to be the golden goose for a while, almost permanently.

Relapse, for what it is, is about as honest as Eminem can get and it was not even his intention. The themes speak for themselves - drugs and the insanity that comes with abusing them. What is great about the album is the atmosphere it creates, save for a few tracks. The serial killer theme and the accent might put you off at first, not to mention the stories of Eminem being fukked by his stepfather but it's all a part of the mess that's going on inside his head. Everything you do catches up eventually. The production is flawless - Dr. Dre is a producer that can make a timeless classic if you pin him down onto your project and cut him off from the rest of the world. Eminem is a godly writer if he gets down to it. This was the perfect case - they were both out of touch with the world, Relapse sounds like it was recorded in timelessness. Apart from some songs that were obviously forced into the album for some mainstream appeal, this was an album that had nothing to do with the rap game at the time.

This is a good thing because Eminem's next album Recovery was the exact opposite - template singles, missing subject matter, production all over the place, basically all the marketing tools were there and the artist's personality was completely missing again. As a result, Recovery is unlistenable today and Relapse is a piece of art.

Exactlyyyyy

 

[Akio]

It was the last album where he had complete control... Once Interscope felt like it tanked, they handled everything from there on out


Some of the Relapse 2 stuff I've heard about sounded light years ahead of the Recovery Era

 

[Tetris v2.0]

The Bonus cuts and the Refill tracks along with the album are some of the best Em records to me. Many hit the nail on the head already. This is Em in his natural state. Raw lyrics, multis, flows, dark humor

 

[pointproven214]

The Bonus cuts and the Refill tracks along with the album are some of the best Em records to me. Many hit the nail on the head already. This is Em in his natural state. Raw lyrics, multis, flows, dark humor

what wasn't raw about eminem on his other albums.

 

[Tetris v2.0]

what wasn't raw about eminem on his other albums.

He was raw on other albums, but on this record you get the impression that he gave ZERO fukks more so than his other albums

 

[pointproven214]

He was raw on other albums, but on this record you get the impression that he gave ZERO fukks more so than his other albums

the only case i could say that, that was the case was on encore he was trash but other then that he was on point with the lyrics and the music on his other albums not encore.

 

[SunZoo]

It was the last album where he had complete control... Once Interscope felt like it tanked, they handled everything from there on out


Some of the Relapse 2 stuff I've heard about sounded light years ahead of the Recovery Era

I always felt like these two joints were for Relapse 2 but ended up on Recovery.



Bodied that shyt.

 

[oO J Smooth Oo]

album is fukking incredible and his best work

 

[oO J Smooth Oo]

Oh yeah honestly I feel like if he limited the accents to just one or two songs then everything would've been fine and this actually would've been one of my favorites. SSLP's good to do drugs to and MMLP's good to work out to, after that I just lose interest in most of his catalog besides some individual songs.

I just get sick of the accents, it's the same reason I can't listen to a Childish Gambino album all the way through, his content's tight but his delivery gets annoying.

But yeah having Dominic West / Jimmy McNulty do the intro for the album was a GOAT tactic. Really set the mood, plus it's real funny to hear Detective McNulty luring Em's persona back into hard drugs on that shyt haha.

i didnt know mcnulty was doing the skits

 

[BK The Great]

I will never bump this shyt in public, the beats saved the album. The content is hot garbage. Thank god he's made Kamikaze and the new album cause those are alot better than this.

 

[Figaro]

 

[Bondye Vodou]

All my Westside bytches throw it up
Put a balloon inside your p*ssy, queef and blow it up

Eminem is the king of making syllables rhyme the amount of syllables he can make rhyme.
is ridiculous.

Feminem fans

 

[ArchStanton]

I love this album.

I can also completely understand why someone else wouldn't care for it. Matter of fact can say the same for Eminem period.