Eminem - King Mathers (2007)

The unreleased Eminem album.

King Mathers is a strange album with little information about the recording and formation of it, but the discernible start to its legacy begins with the release of Eminem’s 2004 album Encore.

After the incredible success of his last 3 albums, Eminem released his 2004 album Encore after a mighty 2 years of anticipation, and once it released people noticed that... something was off.

Many critics noticed the subpar lyrics, a massive drop-off from his previous album The Eminem Show’s lyrical genius, and this sudden falloff even from the previous year (2003 was a good year for Eminem, with steady releases of solid guest verses, none of which indicated this)

They thought something had happened that may have shifted his creative direction, and something had indeed happened.

Eminem’s addiction started with his tours, when someone would give him some pills to help him go to sleep, and that led him to seek out other medication that would do the same, notably Vicodin, Ambien and Valium.

This fuelled the subpar lyricism and unclear vision of a complete album that became Encore.

When his addiction worsened, and after Proof’s death, he began writing some music and recording it during his worst days, and this was going to become a new untitled album, as was pushed by Tony Yayo and 50 Cent.

And this is where King Mathers comes into the story. In early 2006, the rapper Ca$his was signed to Shady Records, and he would go on to play a very important role in this, by starting the whole thing.

Ca$his mentioned something repeatedly in songs and interviews in 2006, the name King Mathers. It was confirmed in an interview with HipHopDX in 2012 that it was an album, and since he was releasing lots of music in 2006 and 2007, it could only be assumed to be an Eminem album.

^Keep in mind that Ca$his worked closely with Eminem on the album.

Lots of speculation ensued, including discussions, fake album tracklistings and covers, and much more, and meanwhile Eminem’s new album, which he planned to be his last and his retirement from music, took shape in the studio.

And that’s when it happened.

Near Christmas in December of 2007, Eminem was admitted to hospital after a near-fatal dose of the equivalent of 4 bags of heroin on methadone, after being given some unidentified blue pills by an acquaintance.

Luckily he survived, and what would’ve been one of music’s largest tragedies didn’t happen.

This situation is tearfully described on his masterpiece Arose, which would be released in 2017 on his, fittingly masterful album Revival.

After he miraculously survived (if he had been admitted 2 hours later, his organ failure would be too substantial to recover and he would pass away from overdose), he kept the King Mathers style for a bit, and had a momentary relapse a month afterwards.

After going to rehab and getting help from his friend, Elton John, and on the 20th of April, 2008, he officially became sober and was back in the studio with a new idea.

Throwing aside most of King Mathers, Eminem decided to work on something fresh, and through re-recording some of his 2006-2007 work and expressed all of his feelings from the past 5 years on his next large outing Relapse.

As for what happened with King Mathers, it’s fate is known quite well. It got tossed aside, and gained a cult following of its own eventually.

Eminem is now 12 years sober, and counting!

(end of thread)

Just would like to add as a footnote, I know I shouldn’t be talking about these topics at my age, and no I do not know anything about drugs. All of this information I gathered from the internet, and my thorough research.

If you want to listen to the album here’s the most accurate version of it I could find on YouTube, it has all the songs

I didn’t expect this to be so long, damn