Eminem – Relapse

Not exactly PRT material but I have to admit that when “The Slim Shady LP” came out in 1999, I was hooked. I’ve never been a big fan of hiphop but the rhymes that Eminem seemingly pulls out of thin air border on genius at times. And he just kept getting better with “The Marshall Mather LP” and “The Eminem Show”. After that things went downhill with “Encore” and as if he knew it, Eminem called it a day and devoted himself entirely to his drug addiction.

He’s back now though with “Relapse”, an album about drugs, rehab and the inevitable relapse. The singles “Crack A Bottle” and “We Made You” didn’t sound very promising but after having listened to the album a couple of times, I have to say that ol’ Em is still pretty damn good at what he does.

Nevermind the skits or 50 Cent’s annoying contribution or a couple of tracks on here that are yawn-inducing (“Same Song & Dance”, “Must Be The Ganja” and the abovementioned singles among others)… when Eminem is good, he’s really good and in the end that still saves this album. “3 a.m.”, “Bagpipes From Baghdad”, “Déja Vu” and “Beautiful” are a couple the cuts on here where he dishes out some razorsharp lyrics.

With 20 songs, “Relapse” is simply way too long. If he would’ve trimmed it down, it would’ve been a better album. Later this year Eminem will drop the second volume of “Relapse”… maybe he saved the best stuff for last? Let’s hope so!
Score: 7 out of 10
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