Sampling — Eminem

EMINEM
RELAPSE
Aftermath/Interscope 2009

By Nick McGregor

Eminem is one twisted dude. We knew that back on his 1999 debut album, The Slim Shady LP, when the most popular Caucasian MC of all-time shocked the world by rapping about murdering his wife and trash-talking his mother. We knew that on 2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP, when he personified a deranged fan, disparaged homosexuality, and again fantasized about dismembering his wife. But who knew that a decade into his prolific career – and nearly four years after his last album – Eminem would deliver another overly long record full of torture and rape references, celebrity bashing, and excessive drug abuse?

Luckily, amongst all the horror-core and homophobia and tired G. Funk samples courtesy of longtime producer Dr. Dre, Eminem employs enough blunt self-assessment and brutal honesty on Relapse to overlook the album’s multitude of clichés.

The project came together as Eminem went through another divorce from his wife Kim, the murder of his best friend Proof, and several stints in rehab for pill addictions. Yet for all of his rapid-fire rhymes and intricate tongue twisters, he also utilizes a lazy, raggamuffin-like accent on several songs that works only to take away from his outsized lyrical strength.

For all the Auto-Tuned missteps (“Hello,” “My Mom,” “Same Song And Dance,” “Crack That Bottle”), classic moments do occur, especially when Eminem drops the superstar façade and returns to his introspective ways. “Déjà Vu” recounts a near-overdose in front of his daughter Hailie, while “Beautiful” rides a moody, downtrodden beat and slurred lyrics to an unexpectedly uplifting chorus. And “We Made You,” whose well-circulated music video skewers Jessica Simpson, Kim Kardashian, Lindsey Lohan, and Sarah Palin, boasts the kind of ballsy cockiness that Eminem first gained fame for. That track’s jauntiness is a welcome respite from the dark serial-killer imagery of “3 A.M.” and the violent pedophilia of “Insane,” which both cements Em’s position as a superb lyricist and serves to repulse 99 percent of his listeners.

But – and this is a big one in today’s nose-diving music industry – Relapse still moved more units than any other record so far in 2009, selling an impressive 608,000 copies in the U.S. while also debuting at #1 in the UK, Norway, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, Ireland, Hong Kong, France, and Canada. So there are still millions of fans out there for hungry for Eminem’s patented brand of shock-rap. The question is, how many more Relapse(s) do we have to suffer through before Eminem fundamentally changes the rap game like he did in 1999?