by ArtiSiN

Created on: May 23, 2009   Last Updated: May 24, 2009

Ten years ago the world was first introduced to the brilliant lyricist Marshall Mathers and his alter ego, Slim Shady. His breakthrough album The Slim Shady LP was chock full of drug induced shock raps, tales from his childhood, and vulgar pop culture references that led to Em's heralding as an underground rapper with a grudge against the mainstream. Fast forward ten more years through a brutal divorce with Kim (again), the death of his best friend and fellow rapper Proof, an addiction to pain killers and Eminem has relapsed back to his old Slim Shady days with the release of Relapse. This latest release from Eminem is filled to the brim (even more so than the Slim Shady LP) with drug references and murder, offering little in the way of the introspection that many thought the album would comprise. While there are no hate songs to Kim, ballads dedicated to Hailey, or to Proof for that matter; Relapse should not be judged on the content that we were hoping for, or with The Slim Shady LP has a measurement, but rather on what Relapse does offer. With that said, Relapse offers nothing brand new in the way of Slim Shady content as Eminem once said, "you're not even impressed no more, you're used to it", but with a beautiful flow leap years ahead of his previous work you'll enjoy every minute of it.

Setting the tone of the album is the dark, but comical, 3 AM. Dr. Dre's ominous piano chords, hits, and head nodding rhythm mesh well with Em's high pitched iambic rhyme schemes. This psychotically murderous song offers up assonance drenched lines such as, "Your walking down a horror corridor/ it's almost four in the morning and your in a nightmare, its horrible/ right there's the coroner, waiting for ya to turn the corner so he can corner ya/ your a goner, he's on to ya". Immediately after comes "My Mom" in which Eminem recounts his childhood drug abuse from his mother. While the track is of comical fashion, it offers up glimpses into the darker side of his drug addiction to pills such as Valium with lines like, "Man I never thought that I could be a drug addict/ nah, F%$# that, I can't have it happen to me/ But thats actually what has ended up happening". Keeping up with the tradition of Slim Shady controversy comes the next track, "Insane", another childhood relic that would perhaps been better off left there. Eminem does more than hint at his childhood rape by his step father with the track starting off rather to the point with inflammatory lyrics that paint a

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