First the Xmen Wolverine film, then Cassie's tata's (conveniently timed with her next singing debacle, my girl should stick to the whole black kate moss ish) now Ems Relapse album's leaked... standardly I grabbed my free loving student mitts on it ASAP. Regardless of the best things in life being free, some one is quite blatantly going to get the SACK, shame... leaking a critically acclaimed artist's album a week before it's release= FAIL at job.
Album cover- mosaic of pills to make up his face... got to love the commitment to the prescription drugs.
I've got to be honest I totally expected to hate this album, in fact to be perfectly honest I wanted nothing more than to hate Relapse (haterrrr). I was jamming with everyone else in the hate wagon (you may have heard me say he's probably addicted to robutussin) However Em has managed to weave once again an intricate tapestry of half truths, witty social commentary and painful personal realities; his content, delivery and flow is on point.
As per usual we have some hilarious skits in it, one that I feel particularly highlights the general feel of the album is 'Paul (Skit)'... "ahh em it's paul... ahh I just listened to the entire album and you've got to be fucking kidding me I mean with this Christopher Reeve shit, you know the guys dead right? and then the whole gay stepfather incest rape thing, I don't have your back on this one I can't even fucking handle it. I'm done."
After giving this album a good couple of listens it's reminded me of something that rings true with most tortured artists, musicians and poets (and I guess to a certain degree you and I alike) is as Philip Larkin former poet laureate so eloquently put it, "They Fuck you up your mum and dad, they may not mean to but they do". As you listen to Relapse being familiar with Eminem's family history you see the repercussions of his past seep into his present. He still however manages to forcibly draw you into his subconscious painting twisted scenarios with narrative ease and flair. True to form, he goes hard on a lot of topics and people (OBVIOUSLY his mum) conjoined twins, Nick Cannon, Mariah Carey and a whole host of other females (yeah that's right I AM indeed calling Nick Cannon a lil bitch). Nothing is sacred, I mean this is coming from the man that once said "put anthrax on your tampax and slap you till you can't stand" Though delivering the old Em that we all know and love with surface jokes that teeter on the edge of being criminally insane he conveys using snippets of his past the reason he has a tortured present and most likely future.
Relapse a two part CD largely produced by Dre bar a couple tracks which are either a joint collaboration ('We Made You') or done by Em himself ('Beautiful') brings a completely different sound to the normal Mr. NWA that we're used to but as always with the beats it's an outstanding production, each track following on really nicely. Even though I'm still not feeling 'We Made You' it's clear that Relapse is an undeniably conscientious production. There are so many mentionable tracks in the album it's untrue, 'Hello' Has a great beat and I absolutely love the blues esque piano intro in 'Crack A Bottle', the Dre and Em combo of course delivers to the highest standard... Then enters fuckwit-Fiddy and you're literally sat there BEGGING for him to complete the song but as per usual he's chatting about shit I don't fucking care about and is generally the same shallow boring wasteman thus ruining the ending and depicting tha t he is blatantly only in there on a mates rates policy. 'Old Times Sake' takes us back to the days of 'Guilty Conscious' the dynamic duo back lyrically enthralling the masses- "nah nah he aint playing he gone take the AA and aim it right at your brain" "Dre get on the mic and make them dribble and shake" Dre claims to have the midas touch when rolling in this track (one wonders if he would roll me a splif... hmm ) "if at first you don't suceed, won't hurt to smoke some weed" mm loverly... Heavy beats throughout the album with some awesome bassy tracks like 'Medicine Ball' followed by an example of Em's penchant for the arabic flex, by bringing in a hypnotising arabic flute in 'Bagpipes From Bagdad'
I struggle in part with the whole likening himself to Ted Bundy and other serial rapists/killers as boredom of that route sets in for me but lyrically, I can't fault him at all, mainly because he's not been pressurised by media to stop writing about his past and addresses these criticisms throughout the album, kind of like music therapy (maybe him and Winehouse should hook up). I suppose it can come across as moaning about the same hard life but in order to be a good rapper you need to rap about the shit you actually know in order to convey a certain degree of honesty in your delivery and he had it hard, fact.
Album is deep, with tracks like 'Deja vu' and 'Beautiful' making us question whether no man really is an island. After a 4 year hiatus from music to produce an album with people baying for his blood, Em still manages to confidently take you through his drug problems, addressing his internal and family struggles making Eminem our protagonist in this riveting and crazy circus he calls Relapse, he is our "comedian trapped behind the tears of a clown"
8/10
