

Since then he has managed to have the kind of career longevity that is rare in the rap industry, especially for someone who has been involved in as many feuds and controversies as he has. Thereafter, his family moved to Detroit.Īfter years of living in poverty, dealing with a drug addict mother and being bullied in school, Mathers emerged onto the rap scene with his debut album “Infinite” in 1996 under his stage name Eminem. The award-winning artist hasn’t shown any signs of retirement since he returned from a five-year hiatus due to going to rehab for drug addiction from 2003 to 2009.Įminem was born Oct. Well, Eminem turned 40 this week, and it looks like story time is going to have to wait. “But when it’s all said and done I’ll be 40 / Before I know it with a 40 on the porch telling stories / With a bottle of Jack / Two grandkids on my lap / Babysitting for Hailie while Hailie’s out getting smashed,” sings Marshall Mathers, more widely known as Eminem or Slim Shady, way back in the year 2000 on his track “Drug Ballad” from his bestselling album “The Marshall Mathers LP.” He’s in a league of his own.Īs a byproduct of his reawakening, Eminem seems interested in making hit songs for the first time in a while, and his collaborations with pop singers Rihanna and Pink - the midtempo burner “Love the Way You Lie” and the raucous, fiery “Won’t Back Down,” respectively - will likely have more impact and staying power than any Eminem singles in a long time.Commentary: Eminem over the hill, on track for 'Infinite' success However, with his urgent delivery and loop-de-loop rhymes, Em still manages to run circles around just about any other MC working today. His storytelling skills aren’t as crisp as they were on past works such as “Kim” and “Stan,” and as such, the extended hip-hop-as-female metaphor “25 to Life” and the broken love song “Space Bound” suffer. His verses on the Lil Wayne-assisted “No Love” (which makes surprisingly efficient use of Haddaway’s “What Is Love”) and on the Proof tribute “You’re Never Over” mark two of his most dizzying, driven flows ever. Dre produces only one track, the deliberately lurching “So Bad.”) Musically, it finds Em working with the most varied lineup of producers of his career, providing a range of new ideas for the 37-year-old rapper. Making amends to those you’ve done wrong is one of the 12 Steps, after all, but it’s a surprising statement for an artist of Eminem’s caliber to completely disavow two multiplatinum recordings.įor what it’s worth, though, “Recovery” indeed feels like a fresh, reinvigorated work, and is just as notable for what’s not on it (songs about his mother, mentions of Christopher Reeve, scattershot drive-bys on current pop-culture figureheads, the bizarre accents that had in recent years become Em’s preferred method of lyrical delivery) as for what is. Drew Pinsky.Įm makes promises to listeners throughout the album that he won’t let them down again, acknowledging he feels he did so with his last two studio albums, 2004’s juvenilia-filled “Encore” and the haunting “Relapse,” which was actually relatively well-received by critics and fans. Dre “Recovery” feels like it was executive-produced by Dr. Keep your head up … It does get better!” Forget Dr.

In the liner notes, Em says, “This album is dedicated 2 anyone who’s in a dark place tryin’ 2 get out. On much of the album, most specifically the inspirational first single “Not Afraid,” Eminem presents himself as someone who’s been to hell and back and is now reaching out to others to help them through their personal struggles. “Recovery” delves deeply and probingly into Eminem’s psyche, but rather than giving into his demons the way he did on “Relapse,” the focus here is on conquering them.
#Eminem recovery album track 17 free#
No one’s ever accused Eminem of not being an open book, and he emotionally purges himself in a manner few other artists would feel comfortable doing on his latest album, “Recovery.” Feel free to take that title very literally: This is Eminem explicitly working through his myriad issues, from his drug addiction, to the 2006 death of his best friend Proof, to his perceived flop of last year’s “Relapse” album. Review: Eminem’s ‘Recovery’ comes from a dark place – The Mercury News
