Eminem announces Relapse release date – and Relapse 2!

Eminem: readying Relapse for 19 May.
Eminem: readying Relapse for 19 May.

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)

Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.