Road to the Grammy’s: Eminem’s Relapse
December 19, 2009 in Features
This is part five in a five part series chronicling the five albums nominated for Best Rap Album Grammy at the 52nd Grammy Awards on January 31st, 2010. For part one about Q-Tip’s The Renaissance, click here. For part two about Mos Def’s The Ecstatic, click here. For part three about Common’s Universal Mind Control, click here.
Stories of Eminem’s own relapse from pills and drinking have already been told. They’ve been stripped down and hollowed out to the point where it’s now common knowledge. We know the album set up, goofy first single aimed at knocking off pop stars and celebrities, then the dark & morbid second single and then an inspirational thing single just for kicks.
Even with all the lauded praise and commercial success (at the time of this article, Relapse is still the highest selling hip-hop album of 2009), this was Eminem rebuilding song by song what we assumed by the time the curtain closed on Encore: a focused Eminem is still better than 98% of the genre on any given day.
In contrast to any previous Eminem album, this one starts off with Em actually wanting to let go of his vices and stick to the plan and follow the steps. However, it’s an Eminem album and no vice truly dies as evident by the album opener “3 A.M.” which is Eminem utilizing the voice of a serial killer and odes to The Silence of the Lambs.
It’s not anything we haven’t heard from Marshall before; after all he wanted to drag bodies and paint the forest in blood back in 2000 and wanted to stuff his wife/ex-wife/wife/ex-wife in the trunk of his car back in 1999. The same trends continue on “My Mom” and “Insane” where Em brings up his troubled childhood and his mom’s drug use and compares it to his own drug use.
Celebrities get it in full force, starting with Nick & Mariah on “Bagpipes from Baghdad” (probably served as a precursor to the summer diss, “The Warning”) then the double shot of “Same Song & Dance” and “We Made You”. It’s at this point in the album when you begin questioning things. Are we happy that Eminem is back in hip-hop, doing his proverbial best while working out the rust or did we expect something much larger and grander? We hold some artists to impossible odds (see everybody wishing Nas would make another Illmatic) but there’s no possible way to catch that magic in a bottle twice.
So it’s almost as if this is Em working through all those things which previously made him the hottest commodity in music and that no one could really touch him because he was visceral, in your face and unapologetic to anybody in walking distance. That is what may dismay many about Replase in the first place because you can easily consider it as a remix of his three other great albums from 1999-2002.
Then again, you must realize that two of those previous albums in which Em was a focused lyrical monster took home the top Rap honor. Relapse wasn’t about subject matter, that can be obviously understood since the first half of the album rehashes things we already know and knew.
The second half however does lead into Em’s actual relapse and how somber and sober he is. The technical pieces that many overlook in hip-hop, flow, word choice, presence and command of your attention are great. All these intangibles which also make a rapper maybe more than just looks – shine as bright as ever on any Eminem release. Tracks like “Déjà Vu” and “Beautiful” openly discuss the overdose and subsequent return to being remotely sane and alive as opposed to the maniacal Slim Shady who essentially took over this entire album save for the end.
Frantic and rapid fire thoughts are usually what we get from the left hand of Eminem, as “Underground” represents everything we’ve come to love from Eminem and then some. Yes, Dr. Dre helped craft an album to rebuild the six million dollar man and came through in spades. But if you want to know why it will be this album talking home the prize come January 30, understand this – Eminem has not lost an award this season. He took home the AMA and the VMA in his category and I can’t see any doubt in him not taking home the Grammy as well. Nothing has changed really, it’s still the offensive rapper from Detriot who still doesn’t give a fuck, except he’s off drugs and much more clear in thought.
Now onto next year’s Grammy Awards, in which you might find Drake battling Jay-Z & Raekwon. In other words, a harder challenge to grade indeed.
