Relapse: A Retrospective
It’s Eminem Week on radorbad.net!
I’ve stanned for Relapse since the day it released. I’ve always thought it was up there with MMLP and The Eminem Show.
But there are a lot of people who don’t like Relapse, and for fair reasons. The accents are bad, the content is uncomfortable, there are too many rape references, and there’s not a certifiable hit on the album.
I don’t think it was ever meant to be more than a cult classic, though. It has B-Movie horror movie vibes, which are my favorite movies. I love shitty horror movies, which makes sense as to why I love Relapse.
But Relapse isn’t shitty, and it’s the last time Dre and Em were locked in a room together and recorded an album.
A lot of people have clowned Em in the past 7 years over whatever flow he’s using nowadays. It’s a weird, choppy, stop and go flow mixed with yelling at the top of his lungs and it’s not pleasant to listen to. I mean, I still listen to his later stuff regularly, but you have to be on meth to think it matches up to his early shit.
I think one of the reasons I love Relapse is because it serves as a bridge. It was like the old Eminem was passing the torch to new Eminem. His flows on Relapse are unrivaled, especially on “Stay Wide Awake,” which is just as good as anything on MMLP. His bars on “Underground” are legitimately fun. His story telling on “DÉJÀ VU” was sad, sincere, and scary without being preachy.
And we haven’t even gotten into “3 AM.” Em spazzes on the song, building a mythology about a serial killer who kills at 3 AM. The rhymes, the wordplay, and the song being a fun listen makes it the best on the album, and it’s the opener!
The knock I think this album deserves is its lack of cohesiveness. There was a chance to build a character and tell a story through a concept album, and there is a story there if you customize the tracklist, but going from 10 songs about getting fucked by your stepdad and killing Lindsay Lohan, to a song about how everyone is beautiful kind of kills the reason for the album existing. I think “Beautiful” is a fine song, but “My Darling” is a much superior version of what he’s trying to get across.
I’ll always love this album because it’s the last time we’ll see flashes of the old Em. The goofy, serious, and angry Em who could flash all 3 at the same time without missing a beat is more than likely over now. I understand artist evolution, but it feels like he’s hustlin’ backwards.
It doesn’t matter, though. I’ll always love Eminem, and I’ll always think Relapse (Refill also) should be held in just as high regard as his earlier shit. It was hated on release and for the next 6 years after that, but people are finally coming around on it.
