Just eleven years ago today, Slim Shady dropped one of my all time favorite albums ever, Recovery. While I don’t consistently listen to Recovery now, that album was what primarily blasted through my white over ear Sony headphones in middle school. A combination of Recovery, Curtain Call, and Encore. Twelve year old Andrew Diaz LOVED Eminem.
Recovery follows the 2009 album Relapse and Recovery almost feels like it’s a comeback story and looks at what mental health issues Eminem dealt with.
Songs like Going Through Changes, Space Bound, and 25 to Life go through his struggles. Four years prior he went through a divorce that he commonly references in songs. In Space Bound and 25 to Life he raps about his marriage.
In 25 to Life, Eminems first verse is angry. It radiates anger towards is ex Kim. “I don't think she understands the sacrifices that I've made, Maybe if this bitch had acted right I would've stayed, But I've already wasted over half of my life I would've laid, Down and died for you I no longer cried for you, No more pain bitch you, Took me for granted took my heart and ran it straight into the planet, Into the dirt I can no longer stand it, Now my respect I demand it, I'm a take control of this relationship, Command it, and I'm a be the boss of you now goddammit.”
The same theme follows in Space Bound, the song that is in the nine slot on Recovery. Space Bound doesn’t start off angry but it takes you through a journey of Eminem and Kim or another lover. He says that he loves and lusts the woman in the first verse but in the last one he is yelling to this lover about how he’s mad at her, dreams of killing her by strangulation, and ends with him blowing his brains in his lap.
With Going Through Changes, he raps more about the mental aspect of what he’s gone through. He says “Feel like I’m losing control of myself” and “But life keeps on complicatin’ and I’m debatin’, on leavin’, this world this evenin’”. I really respect Eminem rapping about his issues because prior to this, he was the only rapper that talked about his struggles with mental health. He really was a trailblazer for rappers like Juice WRLD, XXXTENTACION, and Iann Dior.
The whole album isn’t depressing though, songs like W.T.P and Won’t Back Down are on repeat at the gym. They’re heavy hitter songs .
Another one that drops in this category is Talkin’ 2 Myself. While the song is how he felt after Relapse and the way that “hatred was flowing through his veins”, it’s pretty much an apology to other rappers that he went at when he was in a poor mental state. He knew that he’d get bodied by guys like Kanye and Lil Wayne but still went at them as he “put on false bravado”.
Those songs are great pump up ones but two of my all time pre football and pre wrestling songs are Cold Winds Blow and On Fire. Those are NASTY and mean. In On Fire, Eminem demolishes everyone from the media, Hulk Hogan, and homeless vets. He wants people to drink his piss from a straw, wants to whoop your ass again, and lets us know that we couldn’t make a bulimic puke.
For Cold Winds Blow, Eminem states how he is on the biggest stage and when I heard this song, thirteen year old Andrew didn’t know that there were this many curse words or what a cunt was. What I like about this song is that the chorus has a very similar “oh, oh, oh, oh, oh” to Led Zeppelins song D’yer Mak’er.
The big hit off the album is the seventh song Not Afraid. It has a famous build up following Eminem to get out of a dark place and is a song about achieving your goals. Beating the person in front of you and making sure that you take a stand.
Happy eleventh birthday Recovery.