explanations

Eminem Explains Relapse’s Bad Parts

Commercially, Eminem’s post-pill-addiction comeback has been an indisputable success: Not only did Relapse sell 1.5 million copies, the most sold by a hip-hop album this year, but he also worked himself back into crowd-pleasing ubiquity by doing stuff like appearing on awesome posse cuts and letting Brüno’s butt land on his face. Critically, it’s been shakier: Generally, the take on Relapse (which has a Metascore of 59) is that it was half great and half cringe-inducing. And now we know why: Eminem wasn’t 100 percent rehabbed when he was recording it.

In a new, pretty great interview with Complex, he admits:

Well, we feel better — now we can listen to Relapse and just assume all the bad parts are the pills’ fault. And thankfully, Relapse 2 will not be made up of leftover material from the Relapse sessions, as previously reported, but all new stuff. Also, irrelevant but fascinating: Eminem has seen Superbad “no lie, close to 200 times.”

“My thinking became sharper again as I went along. If you were to take a song like ‘My Mom’ or ‘Must Be the Ganja,’ those were cool — but they were the beginning stages of me coming out of the [addiction]. It wasn’t until it got into songs like ‘Stay Wide Awake’ that it felt like my mind got sharper. I became more on-point towards the end of recording the album.”

Well, we feel better — now we can listen to Relapse and just assume all the bad parts are the pills’ fault. And thankfully, Relapse 2 will not be made up of leftover material from the Relapse sessions, as previously reported, but all new stuff. Also, irrelevant but fascinating: Eminem has seen Superbad “no lie, close to 200 times.”

Cover Story: Eminem [Complex]

Eminem Explains Relapse’s Bad Parts