NEW YORK, June 26, (RTRS): “Make some noise for a gentleman who’s come a long way.’’ It’s a muggy, breeze-less June night in New York, and some 200 fans have pressed into Bowery Ballroom under the pretext of watching local rappers with questionable names like Kosha Dillz and Quest McCody berate one another with questionable lines like “You sound like a character from ‘The Legend of Zelda.’’’
Really, though, everyone was here for Eminem.
The rap superstar was rumored to be headlining this freestyle battle event, Red Bull EmSee: The Road to 8 Mile, named after his own Detroit origins and the Academy Award-nominated 2002 movie that chronicled them. Now, the night’s host has finally confirmed that Marshall Mathers will take the stage.
From the moment he does — with “Despicable,’’ a freestyle that was leaked in April to hype his new album, “Recovery’’ (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope) — Eminem looks furious. Neck pulsing, eyes alight, he plows through bars with the intensity of someone who has spent the past five years fighting just to stay alive, which, in fact, he has, in large part as the result of a near-fatal addiction to prescription medications including Vicodin, Valium, Ambien and methadone.
“Better not let up, better not let them breathe,’’ he spits. “Last shot, give it all you got.’’
His set ends not 10 minutes later, after he performs two tracks from “Recovery’’: “On Fire’’ and the explosive “Won’t Back Down,’’ featuring pop outlier Pink on the chorus. Only when he says goodbye does Eminem hint at the calmer artist behind the lethal-as-ever rhymes.

“I do realize, man, for real, that if it were not for you guys I would not be standing up here right f—-ing now,’’ he tells the crowd. “Honest to God, man — thank you to each and every one of you.’’ As he leaves, fans scream and chant “Encore, encore!’’ to no avail.
Eminem has good reason to feel grateful: June 21 marked the release of “Recovery,’’ his second studio album in as many years after a long and turbulent hiatus. The first one, “Relapse,’’ was released last May and followed 2005’s “Encore,’’ which sold 5.2 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Perhaps more so for Eminem than any other artist, “underwhelming’’ is a relative term when it comes to sales. At 2 million copies, “Relapse’’ has significantly lower sales than his previous sets but was the top-selling rap album of 2009, affirming the continued loyalty of his fans and his music’s ability to withstand leaks. All told, Eminem has sold 35.7 million albums in the United States in slightly more than 11 years and was the best-selling artist of the last decade.
In its first week of release, “Recovery’’ is projected to add around 600,000 copies to his grand total.
“I don’t think I’ve actually stopped to think about it,’’ Eminem says by phone from his home in Detroit, while on a brief break between trips to promote “Recovery.’’ “I never thought that my life would amount to this. But to be able to sit back and digest it is so strange to me, because I still feel so regular. I don’t understand what people think the big deal is about me. It’s a very strange relationship that I have with fame.’’

Merit
What Eminem has spent a great deal of time thinking about, however, is artistic merit. He continues to speak openly about what he believes is the mixed quality of his last two albums. “I was pretty much in full-blown addiction while I was creating (‘’Encore’’),’’ he says, “and as far as ‘Relapse,’ when I first got sober I got really happy because I was not a prisoner of addiction anymore, so life was brand-new to me. I was like, ‘S—t, man, trees are beautiful again. What a nice day it is.’ I don’t think I was paying attention to what the average listener might like or not like.’’
During the four years between “Encore’’ and “Relapse,’’ Eminem grappled with events that would turn anyone’s life upside down: the death of best friend and fellow Detroit rapper DeShaun “Proof’’ Holton in 2004; a second divorce from his high school sweetheart, Kimberly Mathers, in 2006; and a deepening dependency on pills. When he says, “Technically, I’m not even supposed to be here right now,’’ on the introduction to “Recovery’’ cut “Cinderella Man,’’ he’s not joking.

“Anybody who’s known someone fighting this kind of addiction knows it can be extremely challenging,’’ says Paul Rosenberg, Eminem’s longtime manager. “During that period I lost a friend, and I certainly didn’t have as much of a business partner. All that’s back now, though, and it’s incredible.’’
Like “Relapse’’ before it, “Recovery’’ could be considered a personal triumph simply for existing. But the album succeeds at more than that. Eminem has written his most complete rhymes in years. Slim Shady, the offensive alter ego that made him such a cultural hot button in the early aughts, is largely absent on “Recovery,’’ and the severance feels necessary for an MC who will turn 38 in October.
For the first time, too, Eminem collaborated with producers outside of his tight-knit circle (Dr Dre, Mike Elizondo, Mark Batson), employing Just Blaze, Boi-1da, Jim Jonsin and others. The new sound reinforces Eminem’s lyrical dominance and presents a clearer vision of his potential as a mature artist.
“It’s everything that you would want to hear from him at this point in his career,’’ says DJ Khalil, who helped craft four tracks on “Recovery.’’ “He’s the best rapper, period, and he has a lot to say right now.’’
“As (‘’Relapse’’) was coming along, I heard the song structures and production get broader and better,’’ Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine says. “It all came together in the last month or two to a real crescendo. His last albums haven’t sold as much, but this one will appeal to a much broader base. He shows all the signs of being one of the great lyricists, on par with (Bruce) Springsteen, Bono and (Bob) Dylan.’’

Eminem promised fans a different set of releases last year — “Relapse’’ and “Relapse 2’’ — but shifted gears almost as soon as he started the latter. In December, he released “Relapse: The Refill,’’ a deluxe album with bonus new material, to keep fans satisfied as he kept recording.
“He already knew what sort of mistakes he had made with the previous album and where he wanted to go from there,’’ says Just Blaze, who was the first producer to enter the studio with Eminem for “Recovery’’ sessions late last year.
“I would go back and listen to songs off ‘The Marshall Mathers LP,’ ‘The Eminem Show’ and some of ‘Encore’ and ask, ‘Why don’t my music feel like this anymore?’’’ Eminem recalls. “‘The Way I Am,’ ‘Criminal’ and ‘Toy Soldiers’ were songs that meant something. I wanted there to be a reason why I was making each song, instead of making it just to make it.’’