Eminem

Highly anticipated 2009 album from one of the most successful Rap artists in history. He's sold more albums than most Rock and Pop superstars. He's a Grammy winner. He's an Oscar winner. He's been on the cover of practically every music magazine since his debut album dropped in 1999. Now, 10 years after The Slim Shady LP, Eminem marks his 10th anniversary as a Hip Hop hurricane with Relapse, yet another skillful collaboration with Dr. Dre. Features the single 'Crack A Bottle' (which features Dre and 50 Cent).

Eminem Presents: The Re-Up (Shady Records/Interscope Records), began as a street mixtape project--an underground, unofficial CD with raw production values--designed to help launch new Shady Records artists Stat Quo, Ca$his and Bobby Creekwater. "But what happened is that the material was so good and the tracks were getting produced like a regular album," said Eminem. "Instead of putting it out there rough and unfinished, I thought we should add some other new tracks, make it a real album, and put it in the record stores to give these new artists a real boost." The album was executive produced by Eminem, who also produced the majority of the songs. A handful of selections were produced by The Alchemist, who also compiled the album in true mixtape fashion. The Alchemist is best known for his work with Cypress Hill, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Mobb Deep, and Jadakiss.

Each of the tracks makes its official CD debut on Eminem Presents: The Re-Up, though Stat Quo's "Billion Bucks," and Obie Trice's "Cry Now" (Remix), produced by LT Moe, was recently released on mixtapes and to radio. The first single and video will be "You Don't Know" from Eminem, 50 Cent, Ca$his and Lloyd Banks. With Eminem and Ca$his from the Shady camp and 50 Cent and Lloyd Banks from G-Unit, the rap illustrates the unity of the two organizations.

The Re-Up also gave acclaimed hip-hop producer The Alchemist a chance to work with Shady's new regime. After joining forces on-stage as Eminem's DJ on last year's Anger Management 3 tour, Alchemist and the Shady camp began collaborating in the studio. This new album features the results of this anticipated collaboration with new tracks produced by The Alchemist featuring Stat Quo, Ca$his, Bobby Creekwater and Obie Trice.

Among the album's other recordings are "No Apologies" from Eminem; "Talkin' All That" from Ca$his; "City Of Gold" from Bobby Creekwater; "Murder" from Bizarre and Kuniva (both of D12); and The "Smack That (Remix)" with Akon.

Stat Quo, hailing from Atlanta, was signed to a joint deal between Shady Records and Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment after Eminem and Dre heard him on the Underground Atlanta mixtape series. Creekwater, also from Atlanta, was inked after Eminem heard his work on demos and in the studio with The Alchemist. Ca$his, a Chicago native transplanted in his youth to Orange Co., California, was a member of West Coast underground favorites The Renegadez.

Rampant misinformation about Eminem Presents: The Re-Up included many false internet tracklistings and that the mixtape would be a tribute to D12's Proof, the recently slain rapper and close friend of Eminem. "The D12 album and those unreleased songs with Proof are coming," said Eminem. "But The Re-Up is about these new artists and these new songs. It isn't fair to them or to the memory of Proof to mix them up."

How Eminem was able to assemble so many credible emcees of today and yesteryear (Jay-Z, Rakim) to endorse his Holly'hood coming out party is anyone's guess. What is clear, however, is that (dare we say it) the Shady One might be growing up. On "Lose Yourself" Em abandons his callous, hardcore posturing to write thoughtful hood-centric coming-of-age lyrics that would make Melle Mel proud. On "Battle," Gang Starr's Guru tears through a sick beat from rap's most prolific producer, DJ Premier. Sadly, Nas wastes more valuable studio time dissing Jay-Z (ho hum) on "You Wanna Be Me." Interestingly, once you get past the living-legend love-in and peep the skills from Em's lesser-known Shady Records roster of underground wordsmiths, such as 50 Cent ("Wanksta") or Obie Trice ("Adrenaline Rush"), you might urge Em to consider giving up his thespian pursuits to become a full-time record executive. Not even the baffling inclusion of Macy Gray's humdrum "Time of Your Life" can sink this project. --Dalton Higgins

Curtain Call includes three new songs--"Fack," "Shake That" (featuring Nate Dogg) and "When I'm Gone"--both written and produced by Eminem. In addition, the Curtain Call bonus track marks the album premiere of the controversial Eminem-Elton John live duet of "Stan" from the 2001 Grammy Awards presentation.

Executive produced by the nine-time Grammy winner, Curtain Call boasts all five of Eminem's gold and platinum singles to date, from the platinum, Oscar, and two-time Grammy-winning "Lose Yourself" (#1 Pop/#2 Rap) from the 8 Mile soundtrack and platinum "Just Lose It" (#6 Pop/#7 Rap) and "Mockingbird" (#11 Pop/#10 Rap) to the gold "Without Me" (#2 Pop/#5 Rap) and "Like Toy Soldiers" (Top 40 Pop). The other Grammy winners included are "My Name Is" (Top 40 Pop/#10 Rap) and "The Real Slim Shady" (#4 Pop/#7 Rap). Also heard are "The Way I Am" (Top 30 Rap), "Stan" (featuring Dido) (Top 40 R&B/Hip-Hop), "Sing for the Moment" (Top 20 Pop/Rap), "Guilty Conscience" (featuring Dr. Dre), and "Cleanin' Out My Closet" (#4 Pop/#5 Rap).

Curtain Call: The Hits spans contributions from all four of Eminem's major-label solo albums: 1999's quadruple-platinum The Slim Shady LP, 2000's nine-times-platinum The Marshall Mathers LP, 2002's eight-times-platinum The Eminem Show, and 2004's Encore, which is almost five times platinum. The three most recent charted #1 Pop and #1 R&B/Hip-Hop, with his major-label debut #2 Pop and #1 R&B/Hip-Hop. Each of his first three albums also won the Best Rap Album Grammy (Encore will be eligible for the 2006 presentation). Eminem has to date sold more than 65 million albums.

"ENCORE" is multi-platinum recording artist EMINEM's first full album of new material since 2002's "THE EMINEM SHOW," which spawned the hit singles "Without Me" and "Cleanin' Out My Closet." That album went on the sell over 19 million albums worldwide. He followed up in November 2002 with Music From And Inspired By The Motion Picture ‘8 Mile’, which featured the Academy Award winning song "Lose Yourself" and sold almost 9 million copies worldwide. Earlier this year, Eminem’s group D-12 released D-12 World (global sales over 3 million) and scored hits with "My Band" and "How Come".

ENCORE, Executive Produced by DR. DRE, features guest performances by 50 CENT, D-12, NATE DOGG, OBIE TRICE, and STAT QUO.

BONUS DISC: This two disc set includes a bonus CD with three previously unreleased EMINEM songs.

French reissue of the 1999 debut album with a limited edition bonus CD featuring three rare audio tracks, 'Hazardous Youth' (Acapella Version), 'Sway & King Tech' (feat. DJ Revolution w/Eminem 'Get You Mad'), 'Greg' (Acapella Version) and the CD-ROM videos for 'Role Model', 'My Name Is' and live and studio footage. Slimline double jewel case. 1999 release.

Any lingering doubts as to the depth of Eminem's skills or his potential for raw yet compelling honesty are dispelled on The Eminem Show's first track. Armed with a quicksilver flow and a thundering rhythm track (the record was exec produced by longtime mentor and partner Dr. Dre), "White America" finds Eminem ferociously mauling the hand that feeds him, lambasting his critics, the industry, and the racism that, in many ways, helped make Marshall Mathers more than just another rapper. "Let's do the math," Em sneers, "If I was black I would have sold half/ I could be one of your kids/ Little Eric looks just like this." After the bombast of The Marshall Mathers LP and Eminem's well-noted use of sexual epithets, this kind of material is made more controversial because it actually rings true. From a brutal retort to his long-estranged and equally troubled mother ("Cleaning Out My Closets") to a surprisingly tender ode to his child ("Hailie's Song"), Eminem examines his life, loves, arrests, addictions, failures, and successes with surprising insight, making this a funk-drenched hip-hop confessional well worth the hype. --Amy Linden

Japanese exclusive limited version featuring a bonus CD with remixes & video clips. Limited to 20000 copies. Differs from the Asian version.

Highly anticipated 2009 album from one of the most successful Rap artists in history. He's sold more albums than most Rock and Pop superstars. He's a Grammy winner. He's an Oscar winner. He's been on the cover of practically every music magazine since his debut album dropped in 1999. Now, 10 years after The Slim Shady LP, Eminem marks his 10th anniversary as a Hip Hop hurricane with Relapse, yet another skillful collaboration with Dr. Dre. Features the single 'Crack A Bottle' (which features Dre and 50 Cent).