Say what you will about Eminem’s first Relapse album, but it was a concept album that took lots of risks artistically. It was a concept album using horror core themes such as homocidal murders, rape, and famous serial killers as a metaphor to Eminem’s drug addictions. And majority of the songs were done with this strange voice that he created. In other words, there wasn’t a whole lot of potential for number 1 singles on this album. Which explains why they decided to throw “Crack A Bottle” onto Eminem’s album.
Anyways, a little bird closely dropped us some information about “Relapse 2″ that we thought we should share. We will call these tidbits RUMORS for now, but these are juicy nonetheless.
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Apparently, Interscope was very happy with the sales of the first Relapse, but they also paid very close attention to the feedback on the album. Rumor has it that Interscope surveyed a ton of people and found that African Americans weren’t bumping to Relapse as much as Eminem’s white demographics. Interscope felt the first Relapse could have sold more albums if it had been a more “traditional mainstream” hip hop album.
- Eminem submits the first cut of the album to Interscope higher ups a few months after Relapse 1. Around this time, the most successful single on Relapse is a song that has nothing to do with horror or silly parodies of celebrities. It’s an introspective song called “Beautiful” about Eminem’s depressing and coping with drugs and stress. Interscope and Eminem debate over the album’s content with Interscope demanding more songs like “Beautiful”.
They also start demanding more songs that might appeal to blacks. Interscope figures whites will buy anything Eminem makes no matter what, but any blacks they can get to buy Eminem’s albums will make things much sweeter.
- Insiders say Eminem wasn’t too thrilled about Interscope forcing him to make a more emotionally driven album because he’s tired of being in a sad and depressed state of mind all the time. He wants to get out of that mind state.
- The songs that they did keep from the original Relapse 2 do have that “new” serial killer voice from Relapse 1 that people complained about. Expect less songs with that voice on Relapse 2, but not a lot less.
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There was a debate on whether to call the album Relapse 2 or give it a name change since the album felt so significantly different from the first Relapse. The decision of whether it will be called Relapse 2 all decides on how many of the old “horror core” songs from the original version of Relapse 2 will make it on this more “traditional mainstream hip hop” version of Relapse 2. Even though they continue to call it “Relapse 2″, theres still a slight chance the album name might get changed at the last minute to reflect how different this album is from the last album. With that said, still expect between 3-4 tracks similar to the content on Relapse 1.- Interscope starts pressuring Dr. Dre to finish up “Detox”. They ask Dre to start promoting products and getting his face out in the public more often to boost hype for “Detox”. This includes Dr Pepper ads, headphones, and now a computer. Dre puts all of his focus into finishing Detox. With Interscope wanting a more mainstream Relapse 2, and Dr. Dre putting all of his attention into wrapping up Detox, Eminem scraps a lot of Relapse 2 (not all of it) and brings in Just Blaze and Denaun Porter to take over from where Dre left off on. Eminem hopes that Just Blaze can challenge him creatively since it is the first time either of the two have worked together.
- Relapse 2 was originally meant to be released early fall, but Interscope decided against it because of how well Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint 3″ was doing. They couldn’t do November because it would steal thunder from 50 Cent’s Before I self Destruct album. Rumor is that The Game’s R.E.D album was pushed back because they want to release Relapse 2 before R.E.D.
- Interscope is pushing Eminem hard to have his album out in December just in time for the Grammys which occur January 31st, 2010. Some executives have complained that Eminem might miss the 4th quarter because he is being too much of a perfectionist on the album.
- No singles have been released for Relapse 2 because they are waiting for 50 Cent’s album to drop. They don’t want to derail any hype for 50’s album. They want 50’s album to have HUGE Black Friday sales. They want 50’s album to be the hot topic of November which is why you’ll hear about no singles until after Thanksgiving/Black Friday is over with. Start expecting to hear a LOT more about Relapse 2’s first single after Thanksgiving week.
- A song between Eminem and Slaughterhouse members has been recorded as a way to get Interscope more excited about the possibilities of Slaughterhouse being signed to Shady Records. It is not known whether this song will end up on Relapse 2 or if it will be aired on Shade 45 without being attached to any particular album. Eminem feels strongly about signing Slaughterhouse as an attempt to replace all the guys who left his label such as Obie Trice, Stat Quo, etc. Interscope hasn’t been too thrilled with Shady Records’s track record of picking rappers who aren’t very marketable, so Eminem is trying to reconstruct the talent roster at Shady Records from the bottom-up.
Did Interscope Interfere with “relapse 2″? | Musicouch
