What if Relapse was marketed as a concept album?

[2PointOBoy]

What would have happened if Relapse was released, not as a regular album/treated as Eminem's comeback record, but as a concept album with the "serial killer" theme, that was just Eminem coming back into the game - showing off his lyrical skill & creativity. Like, finding his feet, getting back into the groove of making & putting out music - showing that you can't fuck with him concept-wise & lyrically, & reviving hip-hop (at that time), by bringing the focus back to the lyrical content.

I think Relapse caught a lot of flak, for one, just because of the fact that people were looking for a diffrent kind of music - or in simpler words - they were looking forward to finding "Eminem", but Relapse Em was just into this "serial killer" / "depression & addiciton phase" thing and the songs on there are certainly not "feel" songs & the 5-year hiatus thing just hyped it even more. Secondly, the accents, understandably, threw some people off.

I feel like, Eminem was interested in putting out this "serial killer" record & recorded songs that reflected only that. The only songs on the album that vastly differ from the rest are "Crack A Bottle" - (originally meant for 50s album & released as an Em record bcoz of the response it got after being leaked), "Beautiful" - a song written mostly when Em was in rehab & not into the "serial killer" mindset & "We Made You" - obviously written as a lead single, meant for radio.

I feel like Interscope (read Jimmy Iovine) pushed for the aforementioned songs to be on the album, because the album would not be up to par to be marketable as a regular album & also because of the dark content of the rest of the songs.

If it was promoted/marketed as a concept album, the critics' opinions wouldn't be the same as they are now, because they would have then considered/treated it as an album focused on a certain subject matter & measured how Eminem performed with respect to that. And certainly, he fuckin' killed it. And it would be, if anything, accepted better by fans.

Relapse, in my opinion is out-of-this-world lyrically & no other rapper can emulate the kind of quality Relapse has in terms of technical skill or rapping on a concept.

Though a lot of rappers haven't spoken about the shit, but any cat in the game who's heard Relapse would have been convinced that you can't fuck with Eminem's rap skills & ability at all. I can confidently say there's not a lot of rappers who can do what Em's done on the record. Tyler, The Creator is probably the biggest celeb fan of Relapse [ http://a.ly/BF ] & Game recently game Relapse props on "Infrared"..

If you take it as a concept album, its probably one of the best there is. What do you guys have to say, about the reception, if it was marketed/promoted as a concept album & the effect it would've had?

[EminemBase]

Well, it was marketed as a concept album.

There's no direct one story or overall concept. But as you can see from the imagery right there... Eminem was in-character. As obviously, he doesn't chop women up and eat babies and carry a machete around with him.

You had the game etc. marketed with it too and the whole popsomhills thing. Most just didn't get it, or couldn't separate Eminem from his music. Or just couldn't get past the 'accents'.

What ruined the album were the tracks where he was Eminem. If he had removed all elements of his life and made it a totally abstract indulgence and went full-on with the visuals too, could of been a masterpiece. Such a waste.

[JakeBlack]

What ruined the album were the tracks where he was Eminem. If he had removed all elements of his life and made it a totally abstract indulgence and went full-on with the visuals too, could of been a masterpiece. Such a waste.

What tracks are you talking about?

[OMEGA]

Relapse was marketed as a concept album. Remember the pomsomphills "fake news", the point & click adventure game website, even the promotion. People had the wrong assumptions that since this was Eminem's comeback album, he'll talk about lots of personal stuff, like Proof's dead and stuff like that.

[EminemBase]

What ruined the album were the tracks where he was Eminem. If he had removed all elements of his life and made it a totally abstract indulgence and went full-on with the visuals too, could of been a masterpiece. Such a waste.

What tracks are you talking about?

"Deja Vu" and "Beautiful".

"Deja Vu" is a great track, and fits in with the album due to the style. I think any track can fit an album if the style is the same. Style and music are most important. It's just the fact they're referencing HIM, Eminem, the real life person in amongst an album full of indulgence of character. You can't have it both ways to such extremity...

It wouldn't be so bad if it was like... a constant mix throughout. And whilst he does juggle the persona, and is like an exaggerated version of himself more-so than a fictional killer, all the other tracks are still abstract and bizarre. And then to have such a minority... of two tracks, be totally real-life and self-serious... that's what creates the flaw for me.

It'd be like there being a scene in Taxi Driver where De Niro looks at the camera and starts analyzing his career for the viewer. It breaks the fourth wall and when we're in a flight of fantasy, trying to lose ourselves in madness... anything like that just breaks it. And ruins it.

For me at least.

But in terms of great art, I think Relapse and that whole phase could of been a new high for him. He definitely had the right idea in just indulging in fantasy and I even remember the press releases saying Em was thinking bigger now and didn't want it to just be about his life.

So, right from the get go he knew what he was doing, and had his eyes set on bigger ambitions, rather than retreading. So, it wasn't that he was loopy from drugs or slap-happy and that nonsensical excuse they made up when he did Recovery.

"Crack a Bottle" and "Beautiful" are the two tracks that ruin the album for me. Due to the style. They sound stupid there. But... overall, the entire project for me is dampened and ruined by the fact he didn't fully commit.

It's so absurd for him not to fully commit given how extreme an artist he is too. As, when he decides to play into the theme or a character ("Stay Wide Awake") - there's absolutely no compromise and he writes as a killer as if he was himself. And yet... he still felt the need to try and balance it or put some 'real life shit' there or put some safety tracks there.

Such a shame that he clearly cares about more than just the art. If Relapse 1 and 2 were totally extreme, not a single Eminem track in there - and insane fucking visuals... it probably would of been my favourite Em era. As, people forget, what made The Marshall Mathers LP brilliant was the fact it's totally bull-headed.

Yeah you got the comedy track "The Real Slim Shady"... but even that is still angry and smart-ass in theme with the album. The entire album is relentless. He doesn't try to balance it with 'this' kind of track then 'this' kind of track. He just had a vision and steamrolled it.

Notice that he's only ever ended up in bad territory when he's listened to others or tried to balance his albums? albums don't need to be balanced. If an artist has a vision, the more they totally bombard you with it the better. The Marshall Mathers LP is proof of that. At least in Em's case anyway. He's just too extreme to try and logically balance things.

The Eminem Show wasn't really a balance either. You had different kinds of tracks... and although his peak, this was arguably the tipping point of his demise too. As this is when he began to think of albums like stories that needed certain chapters. He started trying to please both sides of the camps, fulfill every personality and just treat his albums like 'an update'.

It's so easy to see through what he does now. As much as I like Recovery, the fact it feels unbalanced to some, beyond the production, again... is because - just look at the tracklist. He has an all out psycho angry track to open up, being an ultimate, unapologetic smart-ass... then right after it has a track where he admits his weaknesses whole-hardheartedly and apologizes lmao. Now, I know Em probably did this to some degree on purpose, to glare his contradictions, to make it more interesting...

But even so, it's like he can't help himself with apologizing for what he just said, or analyzing it, or making a track to justify the last track. It's too self-conscious. I wish he'd just totally lose himself in the music, the art, like "Almost Famous" - all the time.

[Devil'sAdvocate]

Relapse is cray!

[Wreck]

Beautiful, and Deja Vu are great tracks. And I consider Beautiful to be one of his best songs ever in his career. What ruined the album was

-Insane
-Crack A Bottle- i liked it, but it wasn't that great, and he's better when he has a lot of conceptual, storytelling songs, in comparison to 500 million club songs on the same album, like say Encore for example.

-3 AM, Beautiful, Deja Vu, Hello, Stay Wide Awake, and SSAD were all good tracks.

-I liked Bagpipes From Baghdad, but it wasn't that great, just a fun track, and the rest of the songs were decent.

[EminemBase]

^ No, "Beautiful" ruined it because it sounds nothing like the other tracks.

And "Deja Vu" and "Beautiful" ruined it because they're real life and totally out of context with the rest of the album. Nothing to do with the QUALITY of the tracks though. So don't know why people keep saying they're great, when did I say anything about the quality of them.

It's to do with tone and context. And subject-matter. But with "Beautiful", the style. Made for a different album, as was "Crack a Bottle".

And yes, before anybody writes a 10,000 word response telling me how they fit due to his addiction etc. - point is, on the other tracks he's totally abstract and bizarre.

It'd be like randomly having "Stay WIde Awake" or some serial killer track on TES.

Either make a introspective album, or a psychopath album. As those two, don't mix.

[Devil'sAdvocate]

No,while i agree that "Beautiful" and "Crack a bottle" dont go with the relapse theme,i disagree about Deja Vu.

while the track is personal and Em is not in character,the track still is described in a cartoonish way,the theme is as dark as the other tracks on the album,it brings the album as a whole up.

[shadygeneral]

Crack a Bottle was originally for Detox..dont know how ppl got the idea it was for 50s album.

Original song was 2 dre verses and 1 Em

[Solace]

Crack a Bottle was originally for Detox..dont know how ppl got the idea it was for 50s album.

Original song was 2 dre verses and 1 Em

Agreed. Eminem was doing Dre's 2 verses for him in the leaked one.

[TheGentlePlayer]

Relapse, in my opinion is out-of-this-world lyrically & no other rapper can emulate the kind of quality Relapse has in terms of technical skill or rapping on a concept.

This

[Bananastyle]

Beautiful was ruined for me at the end when the guy starts singing again and it is so fucking far off beat that it's hard to listen to. Ruined the whole song for me.

[flyingmonkey10]

There's no direct one story or overall concept. But as you can see from the imagery right there... Eminem was in-character. As obviously, he doesn't chop women up and eat babies and carry a machete around with him.

that's what you think

[Fa-Q]

people would have loved it, minus the accent and minus Beautiful and Deja Vu.....I guarantee it