I mean, in 2009 he was kinda tryin to capture the mood of the SSLP and MMLP but in an even darker way. He was different from the old Eminem of course, he wasn't blonde anymore, he started to dress less goofy (2003-2008 plz ...), but you couldn't tell in his songs at that time how mature he's become. Relapse wasn't that personal (except for Déjà Vu maybe)
But the moment Em really showed up different was when Recovery came out. And let's be honest, Em's changed a lot in his music, which is a reflect of his personnality, and imo, that's on GTC that you get introduced to the new Em, more mature, still the same but different. It's hard to explain, but you gotta know what I'm talking about
I mean just look at that :
Shit it just hit me that what if I would not have made it through
I think about the things I would never got to say to you
I'd never get to make it right, so here's what I came to do
Hailie this one is for you, Whitney and Alaina too
I still love your mother, that'll never change
Think about her every day, we just could never get it together
Hey, wish there was a better way, for me to say it
But I swear on everything, I'd do anything for her on any day
This song is so personal, emotional, honest (Emile killed it), of course Not Afraid or YNO are personal too, but it feels less impactful tbh
Compare it to tracks like Kim, Love You More, 97' Bonnie&Clyde, Hailie's Song ... Em's Recovery gave him the strength to get over things. To get over Proof's death, to get other his anger against Kim. I guess that since he almost died, he wanted to come clean about everything, he realised that he almost passed away while living a messed up life, alone, drugged up and frustrated, no wonder he didn't want to live that way anymore after the OD.
Funny how your life gets better when you're sober, how your life feels less like a bunch of conflits, mostly with yourself. (I guess Em's life is always a conflit though, you can't be that famous and just go away with it)
To me Recovery is the beginning of the second and new Em era, MMLP2 is the continuity of it as Headlights is Em forgiving is mom just like the continuity of GTC about Kim, so his Shady XV (just like the Re-Up was at the end of the first era). Relapse was kind of a Prequel to it. (an even doper than Recovery prequel actually).
Em seems more peaceful today, of course he's still the crazy, mysoginist, angry blonde, but he can live with it, he manages to balance between his career and his personnal life, and this maturity was truly introduced to us in GTC and you can still figure it out in MMLP2.
It helps me realising Recovery's significance in Em's career, although it's not perfect musically (with some exceptions like GTC obviously)
Yeah I like this track, okay?
) ,the voice everything fits perfect
