Album Review: Eminem- Relapse

Average Rating: 5.9/10

Overall Rating: 4/10

 1. Dr. West (Skit)
2. 3AM (8.5/10)
3. My Mom (5.5/10)
4. Insane (8/10)
5. Bagpipes From Baghdad (1/10)
6. Hello (7/10)
7. Tonya (Skit)
8. Same Song and Dance (5/10)
9. We Made You (2/10)
10, Medicine Ball (3/10)
11. Paul (Skit)
12. Stay Wide Awake (7/10)
13. Old Time's Sake Ft. Dr. Dre (8/10)
14. Must Be The Ganja (1/10)
15. Mr. Mathers (Skit)
16. Deja Vu (7/10)
17.  Beautiful (10/10)
18. Crack A Bottle Ft. Dr. Dre, 50 Cent (7/10)
19. Steve Berman (Skit)
20. Underground (9.5/10)
21. Kenn Keniff (Skit)

   Eminem generally had a strong career. It was full of memorable moments, both good and bad, it all started when he released his debut album in 1999, The Slim Shady LP which was huge success critically and commercially, in 2000 and 2002 he released two of the best albums in hip-hop history, The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show, then in 2004 he made a more or less mediocre album, Encore, a year after that we thought he left us forever, but in 2007, it was announced that he is working on a new album, and now, it’s finally here, Relapse is what it’s called, but was it worth the wait?

    Eminem brought back Slim Shady in this album, but this time it’s a bit different, Instead of having an overreactive, more violent alter-ego, he made Slim Shady a celebrity bashing, serial killing rapist, which could have been a good change, but it didn’t work at all on this album. Eminem overdid the serial killing, raping and celebrity bashing, plus he had a really annoying accent, and since it’s Eminem first album after his drug addiction and hiatus you would think he would have a lot to open about, and not just constant talks about which celebrity he wants to rape or murder. 

    As I mentioned, one really huge problem with the Relapse album as the whole are the annoying accents. Almost every track on Relapse had an annoying accent that was felt really stupid and overused, again, since this was Eminem’s return it kinda hurt more, because this was expected to be a serious album that will not only keep the hardcore Slim Shady fans, but also reel in new fans, Relapse really failed to do that, and it also failed to keep the hardcore fans waiting and wanting more new Eminem music.

      Relapse was kinda a long album, it has 21 tracks, 15 songs, and 5 skits. Most of the songs on Relapse faced more of the same issue, an annoying accent along with constant celebrity raping and killing, but honestly, none of them were really tracks, because Eminem’s strong flow kinda saved most of the songs from being stuff worth spitting on, songs like “We Made You” the most disappointing first single of all-time, “Must Be The Ganja” one of the worst songs on the album, “Bagpipes From Baghdad”, one of the worst most disappointing diss tracks of all-time and “Medicine Ball” a song that’s welcoming people to hating Eminem again, but even failed to make people hate him for the reason he wanted them to hate him for.

     Despite all that rough listening, combined with poor concepts and dumb accents on Relapse, The album did have some positives from saving it from being a really poor and ugly album, his flow was pretty much excellent on the album, and in some tracks it’s felt like the real Eminem is still somewhere around all those accents and celebrity shots, and his flow was really constant which proved that the real Eminem is still somewhere in there.

      The album did have a small amount of great tracks though. “3AM” and “Stay Wide Awake” where the only tracks on the album about serial killing and celebrity bashing track that felt creative and good. “My Mom” talked about Eminem’s drug addiction, and how his mom was part of the reason, I only wish he didn’t use an accent, and then it would have been a great song. “Hello” was a generally good party track; again, it would have been better without the accent. “Old Time’s Sake” was a stoner track; it had an excellent flow, as well as strong verses by Dr. Dre. “Crack A Bottle” had a generally strong flow, and was a decent song lyrically. “Underground” felt like a Marshall Mathers LP era track. “Deja-Vu” talks about Eminem’s tough time with his drug addiction, but I only wish the accent wasn’t used, it never went with the album, but particularly this song, and “Beautiful” which was easily the best track on the album, and one of the best tracks of Eminem’s career, it dealt with depression, and the fact the people should believe in themselves in every situation, it’s rhymes, flow, lyrics, and message where all touching and wonderful, there really there is nothing to hate about Beautiful.  

     Relapse can easily be summarized as the biggest disappointment anyone could ever ask for. It wasn’t Eminem’s worst album, it’s better than Encore, but the album has so many negatives that only the really Eminem fans, or in other word hardcore Stans can see that this is actually a mediocre album. The problems with Relapse where over-the top constant, the positives where very few, and really what hurts more about all of this is that the greatest rapper of all-time returned to the music industry in a way that nobody would want him to come back, a deep, emotional album was expected, not a drugged-up high album which includes Slim Shady having an identity crises.