Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	59/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
The A.V. Club	C–
Robert Christgau	B–
The Guardian
The Independent
NME	5/10
Pitchfork Media	4.8/10
Rolling Stone
Slant Magazine
Spin	4/10

Relapse is the sixth studio album by American rapper Eminem. The album was released on May 19, 2009, under Aftermath Entertainment, Shady Records, and Interscope Records. It was his first album of original material since Encore (2004), following a four-year hiatus from recording due to his writer's block and an addiction to prescription sleeping medication. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2005 to 2009 at several recording studios, and Dr. Dre, Mark Batson, and Eminem handled production. Conceptually, Relapse concerns the ending of his drug rehabilitation, rapping after a non-fictional relapse, and the return of his Slim Shady alter-ego.

One of the most anticipated album releases of 2009, Relapse debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 608,000 copies in its first week. It produced three singles that attained chart success and has been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album received mixed reviews from most music critics, who were divided in their responses towards Eminem's lyrics. It has sold more than 2.3 million copies in the United States.

Since 2005, Eminem intended to take a break from recording his own music to become a hip hop producer for other rap acts, especially for the artists signed on his own label Shady Records. However, Eminem entered his hiatus after cancelling the European leg of the Anger Management Tour in the summer of 2005 because of exhaustion and an addiction to prescription sleeping drugs. In the following year, the rapper's remarriage to his former wife Kimberly Scott lasted only eleven weeks before a second divorce, while his best friend and fellow rapper Proof was later shot and killed during an altercation outside a Detroit nightclub. Devastated, Eminem relapsed into prescription drug abuse and became increasingly reclusive. In a June 2009 interview for XXL, Eminem elaborated on the impact of Proof's death on him, stating:

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