It's crazy to think that Relapse, Eminem's album with "Crack A Bottle," "Bagpipes From Baghdad," and more, is officially eleven years old. The celebrated album was released on May 15, 2009 to much critical acclaim. It arrived during a rough time in Em's life. The rapper was just getting sober as he was creating the body of work, navigating through his own thoughts and contemplating all sorts of things.
Now, Eminem is twelve years sober, celebrating his special anniversary in April every year. Relapse was released just one year after Marshall decided to clean up his act, and this album was a reflection of that.
The album cover shows Eminem's face made up from prescription pills, and the title information is written as though it were a medication. In addition to that, many of the songs on the tracklist deal with drug and substance addiction.
Eleven years later, Em is looking back on Relapse, celebrating its success and what it meant to his career.
"For old time's sake! #Relapse11," he wrote on social media.
Many of the legend's diehard fans are still waiting for Relapse 2, which was initially teased and then seemingly dropped. We recently published a piece on the whereabouts of that project, which you can read here.