On Thursdays we review albums that are considered “classic” and today we review Eminem’s most disturbing and divisive project, Relapse. By 2009, Eminem had all but faded from hip-hop conversation, purely in the sense of new material. Most people who cared enough to know, knew that he had been battling a harsh drug addiction the past few years and all anyone could do was wait. When talk started to surface about more new material than was capable of fitting on one album, the internet went into riot mode. People ate up any and all new developments, whether fact or fiction. Conversation started to give people a sense of what to expect – and to call the content of the album dark, would not even begin to do it justice.

When the album, Relapse, dropped, so did everyone’s jaw. Em sought to tackle so many personal issues in such a blatantly offensive way, that upon first listen of even the first four or fewer tracks, many listeners were so disgusted and soured by the visuals he was painting that the rest of the project was chalked-up as insanity. Fittingly enough, the album contains a track titled, ‘Insane’, and to this day, it is the most disgustingly entertaining song I have ever heard. The key to hearing this albums’ beauty lies within Eminem’s lyrical finesse and wordplay disguised as sick twisted serial killer fantasies and drug induced antics.

This is the kind of stuff that makes you feel like you need to shower after indulging in. The project opens with a skit in which Eminem is talking to a fictional drug-addiction counselor who has no faith in the main character’s ability to stay sober, which is met in-kind with his fictional relapse into addiction and ultimately his Slim Shady persona. From here, the album starts its steep descent into artful depravity. The first cut, ‘3 A.M.’, is quite literally a night in the life of a serial-killer. The character is played so well by Marshal Mathers, that the way he lays his hand in front of you to join him on this journey is made all the more disturbing.

The reality is that Em is simply getting his newly acquired sobering interests (serial killers, murder, the struggles of drug addiction) out of his head and into the world. We are also introduced to the accents and awkwardly pitched voice that he will heavily use for much of the album. This aspect was another major point of discussion among music fans and critics alike. Many thought the accents were carried on to a point of derailment and others argued the opposite, you could say that they gave the album character. I place myself in the latter group. The voices seem to add an element of comedy to the otherwise depressing concoction that is Relapse. Often times his voice is reminiscent of a schoolboy mocking a teacher that truly ends up sounding like Em mocking himself; which is truly what is often happening.

This self-targeting songwriting and vocalization allows him to discuss extremely personal and deep thoughts that make the album all the more intriguing to decipher. The batch of songs following ‘3 A.M.’ include, ‘My Mom’ and the aforementioned ‘Insane’; both of which deal with Eminem’s troubled childhood and his false, yet metaphorical allusions to child molestation. On previous albums, with songs like, ‘Cleanin’ out my Closet’, he has brought up his relationship with his mother and the lack of family stability due to drugs, just not quite as directly. This style affords Em to convey to listeners just how much he still battles with his upbringing to this day, almost remorsefully at how he let it affect him.

There are missteps on the album, one of which comes in the form of a lust-filled confessional aimed at Mariah Carey. ‘Bagpipes from Baghdad’ makes the then-couple of Carey and Nick Cannon a target. In the end, it doesn’t amount to more than self-parody or pity even, as the subject matter switches in the third verse to depraved and detached sexual fantasies that you can’t help but to gawk at.

It is at this point that Em decides to reintroduce himself as Slim Shady to the world. With a catchy, rhythmic chorus and an eclectic beat and rhyme-scheme, the song manages to keep the, “drugs made me this way”, material to stay relevant and interesting. By track nine, ‘We Made You’, Em is in full-comedic mode, essentially blindly throwing darts at a board full of pop-culture icons, deciding who to pick on. Sonically, it is easy to see the song making its way to the radio and MTV which is hilarious considering the lingering violent lyrics that I’m assuming the general public ate up because “the beat is catchy”.

The next few tracks (‘Medicine Ball’ and ‘Stay Wide Awake’) again find Eminem exploring his new found interest in murder and serial killers. What would an Eminem album be without a jab at the deceased, Christopher Reeves; which is only one of the staggering amount of times he crosses a decency line. The delivery and production on these two songs though, is enough to make listeners reminisce of a younger, hungrier Eminem.

Eventually, the album changes courses slightly and starts to sing a positively reflective tune. On ‘Deja Vu’ and ‘Beautiful’, Eminem confronts his prior addictions and uses the outside perspective of how his daughter and his fans look at him as a way to visualize overcoming them. On ‘Deja Vu’ he points out the irony of overcoming an addiction and being able to tell yourself that just indulging one more time wouldn’t hurt. He also confesses to the fact that he never was in the hospital for pneumonia but rather an overdose. The chorus on ‘Deja Vu’ is oddly heartfelt and well stated after an album that, until now, mostly consisted of very little remorseful thinking.

The album concludes with three songs that each have a very different feel from one another. Each song has a place in its own right, but the rapid switch of tempos and the verses’ content make it feel slightly disjointed. On ‘Beautiful’, Em is sombering and inspirational. This comes as a shock during a front-to-back listen-through of the album because it makes you feel incredibly bad for Eminem…who prior to this, gave us a platter of tracks containing some of the most harsh and disturbing, yet well constructed subject matter likely ever recorded for mass-distribution and public consumption.

From ‘Beautiful’ we are given a club-comfortable vibe on ‘Crack a Bottle’, which features Dr. Dre and 50 Cent. The track is admittedly fun and features some instances of crafty wordplay, but again, it feels misplaced in the grand scheme of things. Finally, there comes the song that does exactly what I feel like it was intended to. ‘Underground’ contains striking resemblance to the overall soundscape present on Em’s next album, Recovery. It definitely works as a double-entendre. He is returning from his drug addiction ‘death’ as a phoenix of sorts and also returning to his driven, purpose-filled delivery style from when he was still an “underground” rap artist.

Relapse is Eminem’s introduction to sobriety. It is his darkly poetic release from the binds of drug addiction. His musical talent may not ever have been so evident as it is on this album. With bewildering rhyme schemes, punch-lines and overall craftsmanship; an album that depicts the most disturbing thoughts from within the darkest recesses of one’s mind, became more than just listenable –  it became an enjoyable and highly entertaining roller coaster ride, the likes of which we may never see created again.

★★★★★