3.5/5
Maybe there’s a reason why Em’s been looking more and more like a butch lesbian in the tabloids ‘mdash; he’s actually his mom. At least, that’s what he claims on ‘My Mom,’ a tribute to painkiller addiction in standard Mathers sing-song: ‘Because my mom loved Valium and lots of drugs/ That’s why I’m on what I’m on ’cause I’m my mom.’ Relapse, the celebrity-roasting rapper’s first album in nearly half a decade, is coated in similar pill-popping cheekiness ‘mdash; an evaluation of his recent disappearance into drugs, alcohol and cellulite. The result is a mashup of the expected (‘Hannah Montana’ masturbation, chainsawing dicks off, Dre’s huger-than-life beats) and the unexpected: a sober, almost grown-up criticism of therapy and self-destruction.