SLIM SHADY IS BACK!! EMINEM’S ‘RELAPSE’ SET FOR RELEASE MAY 19TH; FOLLOW-UP, ‘RELAPSE2’, COMING BEFORE END OF THE YEAR
SANTA MONICA, CA – March 5, 2009 – Eminem, the biggestselling music artist of the decade, officially announced the street date of hiseagerly awaited new album; his first original studio album in over fouryears. Relapse (Interscope/ Aftermath/Shady) will bereleased on May 19, 2009. The first single from the album and itsaccompanying video will see a simultaneous release on April 7th.
Anticipation for Relapsehas been building since the fall, when Eminem first announced the album titleand debuted the freestyle, “I’m Having A Relapse,” during an interview on hisShade 45 satellite radio station. Last month, the release of “Crack ABottle” from Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent brought that anticipation to ahead. The track soared to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Eminem’s second #1after 2002’s “Lose Yourself”) and set a Nielsen SoundScan record for openingweek download sales (418,000). The recording ranked third in the historyof all weekly download sales. “Crack A Bottle” will be included as analbum track on Relapse.
With the announcement of the release date for Relapse also comes confirmation ofsomething that had been rumored in recent weeks: Eminem is already working on afollow-up album, Relapse 2, that fanscan expect in the second half of 2009. “A lot of people were expecting Relapse to drop last year,” saidEminem. “I was one of them. Then Dre and I went back in the studio inSeptember for a few days, and that turned into six months. We were on such a roll;we wound up with a ton of new music produced by Dre. Putting out Relapse 2 will let everyone get all ofthe best stuff.”
Eminem has sold more than 75,000,000 albums worldwide. His previous studio album, Encore,reached #1 and dominated the charts in late 2004. Certified quadrupleplatinum and spinning off four Top 40 Hot 100 hits, the Grammy-nominated dischas sold more than 11,000,000 copies around the globe. The #1, doubleplatinum, 2005 greatest hits collection, CurtainCall: The Hits and #2, platinum, 2006 various artists compilation, Eminem Presents: The Re-Up, followed. InOctober 2008, Eminem released “Eminem: The Way I Am”, a bookcompiling thoughts, stories, and memorabilia from various points in his life.The book entered the New York Times Best-Seller list at #11.
