Eminem has announced that Relapse, his long-awaited new album, will be released on 19 May. However, in a move that no-one had predicted, he's also revealed that he'll be putting out another record, Relapse 2, later in the year.
His press release reads: "A lot of people were expecting Relapse to drop last year. I was one of them. Then Dre and I went back in the studio in September for a few days, and that turned into six months.
"We were on such a roll; we wound up with a ton of new music produced by Dre. Putting out Relapse 2 will let everyone get all of the best stuff."
Interscope-Geffen-A&M boss Jimmy Iovine said last year that Eminem had "hit a streak", but the news that he'll be releasing two albums in 2009 still comes as a massive shock.
Whether this will further delay the releases of Dr. Dre and 50 Cent's albums, which were in a queue behind Relapse, remains to be seen.
A new single from the album will debut on radio and TV on 7 April.
(Via MTV)
