Recovery and rebirth of hip-hop

To say that I'm an Eminem (aka Marshall Mathers or Slim Shady) fan is a pretty big understatement. I have followed him ever since his "Real Slim Shady" day's through all of the drama that followed with the fame he got because of the talent he brought to the hip-hop game. He lost his wife to divorce, his best friend Proof due to a shooting, and nearly his life because of an addiction to pills that he started to take after Proof was shot to cope with the depression that came with his death. People started to wonder if the wonderbread rapper would ever be the same or even rap again at all. He went back and forth with retirement and basically went off the deep end. He tried to come out with a new album last year called "Relapse" which Dr. Dre produced and he just wasn't the same and he admits Relapse was trash in his new album "Recovery".

In Recovery he gives Proof, late member of D12 and best friend, most of the credit for him getting his life together and getting clean. He talks about how and why he turned his life around in "Your Never Over" when he says

"Homie I know I’m, never gonna be the same with you/

I woulda never came in this game, I’m going insane without you/
Matter of fact it was just the other night, had another dream about you/
You told me to get up, I got up and spread my wings and I flew/

You gave me a reason to fight, I was on my way to see you,"

which is a dedication song to Proof. He talks about the frustration of not being able to produce raps at the level that he knew he could and how he about came out with a song dissing lil' Wayne and Kanye in the song "Talkin to Myself", which would have ultimately ended Eminem's reputation and career as the world knew it. He admits his struggles were due to the drug addiction, his head wasn't clear at all. But after months of being in a rehab center, he managed to become clean and if you thought his CD "Encore" was good while he claims he was on drugs, "Recovery" blows it out of the water with his genius lyrics and assassin like flow.

He says a lot more than I have included on here, but like most of anything, you can never feel or understand the full effect of something until you try it so I suggest you find a way to get your hands on that CD. Maybe your little brother has it and he'll copy it for you, if your lucky of course. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Two other rappers have also caught my attention this past couple of months, B.o.B and Drake. I

will have separate posts explaining why I think these two (along with return of Em and Wayne getting out of jail) can help to bring hip-hop back to the level of popularity it had in the 90's. But until then I'm out!