Do you guys remember The Warning? Do you remember Forever? Do you remember Drop The World?
These songs all feature vintage Eminem's return. Flow, content, and lyrics are all on point again. Following Relapse, Eminem in 2009 was back on top. He could have made an album on par with his first three. Hell, it could have been better than the three. These songs were all recorded in the wake of Relapse, and were genuinely great. No screaming, no stop and go, less terrible punchlines (still a few punchlines but they were pretty good).
I believe that when Relapse dropped to mediocre reviews, Eminem experienced rage he hadn't had since the late 90s. He was hungry again and had something to prove. He even tried pissing critics off. Relapse 1 and 2 were recorded in the same sessions. Refill, which had heavier accents, and cringier content was recorded in later sessions however. Why didn't Eminem record songs like The Warning, Forever, or Drop the World when he went into new sessions. He wanted to make it shittier. He knew the reactions critics had, and he used the things they hated more on Refill. He also wanted to prove he could still rape a mic, which is where The Warning, Forever, and his Drop the World verse came in.
After Refill, he got pressure from his label to change his voice, change his production, change anything Relapse related. He went poppy with Recovery based on this. When Love The Way You Lie blew up, Eminem was suddenly every teenage girls favorite rapper. That is when Eminem really started being widely accepted as having been the greatest. He rose to a higher level of fame. He wasn't hungry anymore, for the features following Recovery nor for MMLP2.
TL;DR: Eminem could have dropped a classic in December 2009, but deliberately chose not to.
P.S. If anyone knows of any dope freestyles released in 2009, post them below.