New Album Relapse Available May 22

Eminem, the biggest selling music artist of the decade, officially announced the street date of his eagerly awaited new album; his first original studio album in over four years. Relapse (Interscope/ Aftermath/Shady) will be released on May 22, 2009. The first single from the album and its accompanying video will see a simultaneous release on April 7.

Anticipation for Relapse has been building since late 2008, when Eminem first announced the album title and debuted the freestyle, “Im Having A Relapse,” during an interview on his Shade 45 satellite radio station. Last month, the release of “Crack A Bottle” from Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent brought that anticipation to a head. The track soared to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Eminems second #1 after 2002s “Lose Yourself”) and set a Nielsen SoundScan record for opening week download sales (418,000). The recording ranked third in the history of all weekly download sales. “Crack A Bottle” will be included as an album track on Relapse.