Eminem has admitted that some of his previous work does not rank amongst his best, and that list does include Encore and Relapse, the latter which he finds retrospectively cringeworthy. Slim Shady reflected on his career during a timely interview with Sway, in which he also touches on why he decided to drop Kamikaze as a surprise album.
As much as many found that to be a publicity stunt, which was criticised by Joe Budden here, Em tells Sway that his decision to release the album without prior warning was because people had used the promotional build-up to Revival - his previous album - was led to its critical failure.
He now doesn't understand why did all those many accents on Relapse, and why he made all those sounds which were, at the time, a popular element to his flows.
"Relapse is something that I went back to and cringed at", he said. "For whatever weird reason I just... started getting on this weird serial killer vibe."
Though he says that if it wasn't for Relapse, he wouldn't have been able to make Recovery, which kinda means sometimes it takes some misfiring to nail the next project. Based on the favourable reviews Kamikaze is currently enjoying, fans should thank the shortcomings of Revival.