[14] However, Eminem entered his hiatus earlier than expected after cancelling the European leg of the Anger Management Tour in the summer of 2005 because of exhaustion and an addiction to prescription sleeping drugs.

[15][16] Eminem faced a number of setbacks in 2006, with his remarriage to former wife Kimberly Scott lasting only eleven weeks before a second divorce,[17] while his best friend and fellow rapper Proof was later shot and killed during an altercation outside a Detroit nightclub.

[23] By the end of the year, additional musicians associated with Shady Records – including The Alchemist, Bishop Lamont, Cashis and Obie Trice – had confirmed on different occasions that the rapper was effectively working on a new album.

[20] To compensate for this, Bass chose to follow a production style that would allow the artist to rap "off the top of his head, as opposed to writing a story".

[6] The making of the album progressed at the Effigy Studio up to a year after, as recording sessions were then moved to Orlando, Florida, in July or August 2008.

[20][29] Dr. Dre would start the song-writing process by giving a number of his beats on a CD to Eminem, who in a separate room in the studio would listen and select the ones he preferred and inspired him the most.

[36] During this recording period, a handful of songs intended for Relapse were leaked on the Internet, including an incomplete version of "Crack a Bottle".

[41] Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times said that the album's "horrorcore scenes" show Eminem as "a madman created by the hypocrisy of therapy".

[42] Music journalist Rob Sheffield remarked on its sensationalist drug references and said that Relapse is "a hip-hop version" of comedian Richard Pryor's Live on the Sunset Strip (1982).

[45][46] After "Hello", where Eminem re-introduces himself after years of being absent "mentally",[35] he continues his violent fantasies on "Same Song & Dance", where he abducts and murders Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears.

[47] Eminem noted that his various "celebrity bashings" were not meant to be seen as personal attacks, but it was rather "picking names out of a hat" that rhymed with the words he wanted to use during the writing process.

On this final track, Eminem sought to bring back his music and lyrics to the subject matter and punchlines reminiscent of "The Hiphop Shop times" (The Hiphop Shop was a clothing store in Detroit where local rappers, including Eminem, would compete in freestyle battles[50]), before he had become famous and thus did not have worry about the explicit content of his lyrics.

It was not until September 15, 2008, at an event held by Shade 45 to celebrate the publication of Eminem's autobiography The Way I Am, the rapper confirmed his plans to release a studio album by the title of Relapse.

[52] In regards to the album's release date, Rolling Stone wrote in its October 2008 issue that Virgin Megastores had planned to distribute Relapse on November 27, 2008, in the United States.

[54][55] In a phone conversation during the finale of Total Request Live on November 16, 2008, Eminem asserted that Relapse would be released during the first quarter of 2009, precisely during either of the first two months of the year, explaining that he was in the process of selecting the songs for the album.

[36] In similar press statements after March 5, Universal made public the regional release dates for Relapse: as early as May 15, 2009, in Italy and the Netherlands; most other European countries and Brazil on May 18; and the following day in the United States and Australia.

Additionally, the record label also announced a second album by Eminem, then called Relapse 2 but later titled Recovery, which was to be released by the end of the year, but expected in June 2010.

[69] On April 4, 2009, CBS featured Eminem during the network's coverage of the 2009 NCAA Final Four in a segment where he recited the spoken word "Love Letter to Detroit".

[74] While on the Never Say Never tour, fellow group members Swifty and Kuniva (D12) along with Royce Da 5'9" stopped by KISS 100FM for a live interview and spoke on Relapse.

[19] Gil Kaufman of MTV News described the cover as a reference to the rapper's struggle and addiction to prescription drugs, adding that it follows Eminem's habit of displaying personal issues in his art.

"[84] NME's Louis Pattison found Eminem's wordplay "wicked in the depths of its depravity", but felt that "the overriding feel is of an album just too jaded, too joyless to truly count as a return to form".

[86] Slant Magazine's Eric Henderson viewed that "the further Relapse strays from narrative veracity, the more one suspects his fanbase feels he's tapping into his bottomless well for horror-show grandstanding.

[3] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic described the album as "musically white-hot, dense, and dramatic" and said that "his flow is so good, his wordplay so sharp, it seems churlish to wish that he addressed something other than his long-standing obsessions and demons".

[93] Although he found its concept "spotty", Vibe's Benjamin Meadows-Ingram praised Eminem's lyricism, writing that "Em works wonders with words, expanding the boundaries of the art of rap itself [...] the composition is experimental and abstract, a master toying with form".

- Mark Batson[96] Despite the lukewarm reviews at its release, Relapse gained a strong cult following and it is considered by many as one of Eminem's classic albums.

[105] HipHopDX called Relapse a "horrorcore masterpiece" and said: "the record stands as an artistic achievement that further solidifies Eminem as one of the greatest, most creative MCs to ever pick up a microphone.

[107] Furthermore, in the song "Talkin' 2 Myself", Eminem states that he was deep in the process of getting clean from his drug addiction when he produced the album, claiming this heavily contributed to its subpar status.

Before the YouTube premiere of the "Godzilla" music video on the Lyrical Lemonade channel, Eminem answered fan questions on the live chat.

However, on this occasion, Eminem responds defending Relapse, acknowledging its critical reappraisal and the cult status that it has gained among his fanbase: "For what it’s worth, there’s an entire generation of people who think that (album) is a fucking classic.

[145] The album was subsequently pushed back for an early 2010 release, so Eminem decided to re-release Relapse as Relapse: Refill, which includes a bonus disc featuring seven new tracks, including the single "Forever" (originally on More Than a Game soundtrack) and "Taking My Ball" (released with DJ Hero), as well as five previously unreleased tracks.