Speculation on King Mathers album

[haste2492]

Ok so it seems that before Eminem decided to reinvent himself with Relapse and the Relapse type songs that followed, he was going for a more traditional album called King Mathers. Songs that we know probably would have fallen on King Mathers are:
-My Darling
-Careful What You Wish For
-Elevator
-Beautiful

Would you have preferred an album like this instead of Relapse? I think an album like this would have sold much better than Relapse, and been more popular with fans. Feel free to speculate

[embm]

ya i stil dnt kno 4 sure if tat album eva existed
i thnk it was jus cashis idea

[Satire]

Probably would have been easier to relate to, and as such, more popular in the mainstream (And fans). However, most of the hardcore fans on this site thought the lyricism in songs like "Beautiful" sucked balls (This is not my opinion. Personally, It's in my top 3 favorite songs on Relapse). So hip hop heads and underground-ers would have probably been like "Em fell off".

As for my own opinion, I woulda liked an album like "King Mathers" to go into more detail with his personal life and what the drugs were doing to him at this time, and then an album like "Relapse" to show his recovery. In short, I'd want them both

[AbramIsaac]

King Mathers would've probably been received well, but it would've been a tired, uninspired album.

He wouldn't have made any progress, and his lyricism would've probably regressed.

Glad it didn't come out, though I'd like to hear material from that period anyway.

[Relapse.LP]

So now people are making "what-if" reviews on nonexistent albums.

And life goes on.

[Fa-Q]

He'll hear it when he dies or retires

[ShadyVsEminem]

Almost sure 3 of those songs were recorded before the Relapse sessions (07),Elevator seems to be definitely from the Relapse batch.

Wether they were recorded for an album(King Mathers)or he was just recording songs is another question back in 07.

I would not mind hearing more shit like Careful what you wish for,but then again any new Em would do at this stage.

[haste2492]

I was under the impression that King Mathers was going to be released in 2008. During the time he went back to the studio with Dre in 2008 or 2009, for 6 months, he recorded a LOT of Relapse type songs in what became Relapse.

[EminemBase]

I'm pretty convinced it did exist.

I doubt Em's team would be happy with Ca$his just chatting lies. He quite clearly wouldn't just risk doing that. Ca$his just said Em scrapped it all.

Which, a public news report confirmed - Em just didn't ever admit he was working on anything or about to release an album but he did scrap a bunch of material. Which he even says himself. And he says "Beautiful" is the only one from 'that batch' (King Mathers) he kept for Relapse.

Um, I dunno why you put "Elevator" there though. That's very much in his new style. Spitfire, energetic, lots of rhyming, psychotic, that was originally going to be on the 'original' Relapse 2.

As for whether it would of been better. I think no. I'm definitely annoyed I didn't get to hear it in its full form, I think "My Darling", "No Apologies" (and all Re-Up) performance, "Beautiful" and "Careful What You Wish For" are a good indicator to how it all would of sounded.

On the plus side, it was all Em's production, which I much much prefer, often using strings and dark echoey atmospheric sound to fully realize the vision. It would of been very slow, depressive... No doubt it would of been received better by some people just because of the "no fucking accent man!" and obviously better with critics since they're suckers for emotion.

But no doubt that in rap and technical terms, Relapse is better. I'm definitely glad he did go that way anyway. I wouldn't wanna be without Relapse and we wouldn't have Relapse 2 to come Or we might but... The chain of events would of been different.

Should of released King Mathers in 2007, then he could of done Relapse 1 and 2... Although that bugs me because you can't ensure... Everything has a knock on effect, no idea what would of happened... I mean it could of spiraled him back into... Argh, hate shit like this. Okay, I'm out.

[AJS2050]

There was never an album planned called "King Mathers", it was just Cashis nickname for Em.

Relapse was always going to be the next album, Em said himself that Relapse was originally planned for a 2008 release.

[KieranLewisEM]

There was never an album planned called "King Mathers", it was just Cashis nickname for Em.

Relapse was always going to be the next album, Em said himself that Relapse was originally planned for a 2008 release.

so em wasnt recording material around 06 - to 08 then ? of course he was and maybe it might not have been called ' king mathers' but there was a album and it got scraped when he came up with the relapse project

[slimsoxshady]

its a shame to waste such a dope album title...the title alone would sell like a mafucka

[Dohc-Nyne]

I have a hard time believing that he was going to call his own album "King Mathers" he's jus not that arrogant.
Relapse was deff the right choice

Im really hoping the new album will have a totally different name than were expecting even tho R2 sounds cool...

[UofLCard]

King Mathers would've probably been received well, but it would've been a tired, uninspired album.

And Relapse wasn't? Hack, half of Relapse was overused, tiring serial killer material.

[AbramIsaac]

King Mathers would've probably been received well, but it would've been a tired, uninspired album.

And Relapse wasn't? Hack, half of Relapse was overused, tiring serial killer material.

I suppose that's a matter of opinion.

While the content got repetitive sometimes, the album itself was quite inspired. The delivery and lyricism on Relapse on some songs is completely unmatched on any of his other albums. The ability that he displayed on Relapse was done in a unique way, even if what he was talking about wasn't always unique from song to song.

I don't think King Mathers would've been that way. It would've been more like "Encore" done right. A whole album of "When I'm Gone". Sure, it would've been good, but it would've lacked innovation. Some of Relapse's quality may have suffered due to it, but it was full of lyrical innovation, and that's what makes the album itself more of a success than what I would think King Mathers would've been in my eyes.