To avoid confusion we have just confirmed the track list and artwork for Eminem's upcoming "Relapse: Refill" album with his manager, Paul Rosenberg. The new album will hit stores on December 21st and feature seven new tracks. Eminem's recent VooDoo concert (his only concert of the year) will broadcast on Shade 45 on Fri 11/27 6:00 pm ET and Rebroadcast: Sat 11/28 12:00 am ET; Sat 11/28 10:00 am ET; Sat 11/28 6:00 pm ET
"I want to deliver more material for the fans this year like I originally planned" Eminem says. "Hopefully these tracks on The Refill will tide the fans over until we put out Relapse 2 next year". Eminem has been busy in the studio creating even more new material since Relapse was released. "I got back in with Dre and then a few more producers, including Just Blaze, and went in a completely different direction which made me start from scratch. The new tracks started to sound very different than the tracks I originally intended to be on Relapse 2, but I still want the other stuff to be heard."
Emimen strode out onto the American Music Awards' stage on Sunday night (November 22), looking very much like a prizefighter ready to deliver a knockout.
"In this corner, weighing 175 pounds, with a record of 17 rapes, 400 assaults and four murders," Em shouted, channeling his inner Michael Buffer, "The most diabolical human in the world ... Slim Shady."
He then launched headlong into a hulking version of "Crack a Bottle," delivering lines like body blows, bobbing and weaving across the stage, his face covered by a hood. Em spit with fire and hunger, and the crowd nodded their heads with the beat and went nuts when Em welcomed a very special guest to the stage: none other than another heavyweight brawler, 50 Cent.
The two exchanged daps in the middle of the stage and then 50 got to work on his verse, looking lean and mean in a stocking cap and bubble vest.
50 disappeared just as quickly as he'd arrived, and Em's DJ cut "Bottle" short, flipping instead into the chorus of Drake's massive hit "Forever." The crowd threw their hands in the air and Eminem, now with his hood removed and his eyes scanning the audience, dove into his verse of the song.
The censors got on most of his lines, but there were sill jokes about macadamia nuts and fromunda cheese (we told you he was hungry). Then, at the end of his tight verse, he thrust his fist into the air as the crowd cheered wildly, further proving he's still the champ.
Eminem is a man of his word. He promised fans he would drop off two doses of music this year, and it looks like it's happening. On December 21, the rhyme legend is putting out a new version of his Relapse LP, subtitled The Refill, according to RapRadar.com. It will include five brand-new songs as well as the hit "Forever" and "Taking My Ball," which was featured on the Eminem/Jay-Z "Renegade Edition" of "DJ Hero."Source: MTV & RapBasement
And Slim Shady said this is just a taste of what's to come. "I want to deliver more material for the fans this year like I originally planned," Em told the Web site. "Hopefully these tracks on The Refill will tide the fans over until we put out Relapse 2 next year."
Eminem has been working on Relapse 2 for several months now, and in October, he revealed that Just Blaze was one of the producers on the record. During an interview on his Shade 45 satellite radio show last month, he said the sequel will be different from the original.
"[The album] is gonna be a lot different than people expect," Eminem told DJ Tony Touch. "As far as the contrast from the last album to this one, I got a couple of tracks with [D12's] Mr. Porter, two tracks with him so far. Four, possibly five with Just Blaze. The overall basis of this record, I went back to songs that are more emotionally driven. The last record I made, I think I was concentrating more on spitting. On this album, I feel like there's some of that, but I went back to songs with [feelings] to them as opposed to just rap records."
Apparently, Travis Barker doesn't sleep. At all. Which is how he's able to keep cranking out remixes while simultaneously working on a new Blink-182 record, his own solo album, and rehearsing for an upcoming show with none other than Slash (a November 22 benefit for the Los Angeles Youth Network). And that's not even getting into his business ventures, or his role as a rock-and-roll dad.
"Yeah, I wake up at 6," he laughed. "I'm a busy man, I guess."
Seriously, the guy never rests. And as if you need further proof of this, check out his brand-new remix of Drake's "Forever" (with video of Travis drumming), which Barker emailed to MTV News Wednesday (November 11) morning. It's just the latest in a long line of hip hop tracks he's remixed (earlier this year, he took a stab at Eminem's gory "3 A.M." and his take on Soulja Boy's "Crank That" has already established itself as a YouTube staple), and it just proves that he can't leave a good beat alone.
"This song gets played so much — whether it be on TV or on the radio or XM — and I think songs like this that you can't escape, you start to get ideas in your head about how you'd want to flip it," Barker said. "And this song is awesome; every verse is crazy. Who could ask for a better lineup as far as rappers? And everyone's going in on their verse. So I was excited about it, I didn't have to think twice about getting on it."
Working strictly off an a cappella track, Barker crafted his "Forever" mix from the ground up, spending a week tinkering in the studio with his production partner, Sweatshop. The main goal, he said, was to build a drum line that matched the constantly shifting mood and tempo of the song, which famously features verses from Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem, even if that meant showing a bit of restraint on the remix — something he's not used to doing.
"Remixes are hard, because some of my critics will be like, 'Trav, you shoulda gone bananas on it,' but going bananas on it will sometimes take away from how cool a song is — it's a happy medium," he laughed. "With this one, I see a gradual crescendo — it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, all the way up until the last chorus, where I crash out and there's a big Phil Collins moment, with a drum-fill solo underneath Drake's chorus. It was a tough one, man."
So is Drake happy with the end result? Barker has no idea — seems Drizzy hasn't even heard the remix yet. No one has. Until now, that is.
"No one's heard this!" Barker said. "Actually, Marshall [Mathers, a.k.a. Eminem] heard it, and he loved it — but no one else has."
Eminem's "Till I Collapse" track featuring Nate Dogg was used on the trailer for the upcoming "Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" video game. The beat of song, which was on Eminem's "The Eminem Show" album, is first used showing scenes from the game then later Eminem's rhymes start and later Nate Dogg's chorus is featured.
Not much is known about Eminem's upcoming "Relapse 2" album but a producer on the album (and fellow D12 member) Mr Porter recently talked about the much anticipated album. Saying this is the "first time I’m producing songs for Em under me without D12 [since Infinite]. That’s big for me," Porter says one of the songs they did together is "as if we were back in the day." Many of Eminem's critics who say his early work was better than his new stuff, will be happy to know "everyday the kid is writing. I don’t know if Jay-Z is writing all day. He owns multi-million dollar businesses. Em writes all day," he said before adding "I’m fighting, because Just Blaze came in and kicked ass."
Just Blaze, who has been very quiet about his work with Eminem, kept details out of it when he said "It’s a challenge for both of us in the sense we’ve never worked with each other before. We’ve both been in the business 10 plus years." He continued "We’re both very self-contained. He has his own production compound, and I have my situation with Bassline Studios in New York. Sometimes I’m like I need this [song] back in New York and he’s like I need it back in Detroit. It’s interesting because we’re both protective of the work and not wanting it to leak out. I’m in the same boat, because we both would lose money. Creatively it’s a good process. When it goes beyond a business arrangement, it always works out. I’ve had cases where people just want a beat because you’re Just Blaze. But here we are 2 people that are fans of each other’s work."
Eminem and Lady Gaga have been added to the performer lineup for the American Music Awards. The 37th annual show, which airs on ABC live from Los Angeles on November 22, will also feature performances from Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Lopez, the Black Eyed Peas and, in the television debut of the title track from his upcoming album For Your Entertainment, Adam Lambert.
The show will be an "American Idol" reunion of sorts, as alumni Kelly Clarkson, Chris Daughtry and Carrie Underwood will perform as well.
The awards show will feature a similarly glittering array of nominees determined by data from Nielsen SoundScan radio and retail figures, with Taylor Swift in the lead with six nominations, followed by the late Michael Jackson and Eminem at five apiece. Though Jackson had not released new material for nearly a decade, his nominations are based on the strong sales of his catalog albums following his June 25 death.
Swift's nominations include Artist of the Year; Favorite Country Album (for Fearless); Favorite Female Pop or Rock Artist; and Favorite Female Country Artist. MJ was also recognized in the Pop or Rock Artist of Year category, Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Album (for Number Ones). Em's nominations include Artist of the Year; Favorite Male Pop or Rock Artist; Favorite Male Rap/Hip-Hop Artist; and Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album (for Relapse).
Other multiple-category nominees include Lady Gaga, T.I., Kings of Leon, Beyoncé and the Peas, who all have three. For the third year, winners will be determined by online voting.
Eminem fans braved mud, rain and high winds over the weekend to catch the rapper's only full concert of 2009 thus far. (He played a 35-minute set in Detroit in May.) Taking the stage at the Voodoo Festival on Friday night — nine years after his first appearance at the gathering — Slim Shady played with a full band (dressed in glow-in-the-dark skeleton costumes) for most of the set, hitting fans with a bevy of his biggest hits, opening with the homicidal "3 A.M." and asking fans, "Did you miss me? I missed you too, man. It's been a minute, huh, New Orleans?"
The kind words likely did little to warm the crowd, which was standing in a mud bog created by an earlier downpour that afternoon, as well as temperatures that dipped below freezing by showtime, which reportedly put a damper on the typically robust last-minute walk-up sales at the three-day event.
Wearing a black hoodie over a white T-shirt and black jeans, Em ran through "Hello," "Kill You," "The Real Slim Shady," "The Way I Am," "We Made You," "Superman," "Cleaning Out My Closet" and "Stan," freestyling lyrics on the latter to make it about an obsessed fan he met in New Orleans.
The show featured a series of cameos from Em's D12 crew on songs including "My Band" and "Purple Pills." It included a tribute to the rapper's late bandmate and best friend, DeShaun "Proof" Holton, who he referred to as "the real singer of the band" as a giant image of the late MC was projected on the big LED screen behind him.
The segment, the first joint appearance by the Detroit crew in nearly five years, also found Em — who chronicled his struggle with prescription pills on Relapse — joking about his formerly drug-abusing ways, recalling a time in Amsterdam when he was in haze before breaking into a slightly re-tooled version of "Under the Influence."
The upbeat, fast-paced 75-minute set ended with the one-two punch of "Without Me" and a rousing run through his ambition anthem, "Lose Yourself."
The festival also featured sets from Kiss, Jane's Addiction, the Flaming Lips, Justice, the Black Keys, Wolfmother, Silversun Pickups, Gogol Bordello and Lenny Kravitz.
