Eminem Goes Dark on Killer Second "Relapse" Single, "3AM"

When Eminem told fans listening to his Sirius XM radio station Shade45 yesterday that Relapse's second single "3AM" has a darker tone than the snarky "We Made You," he wasn't joking. In fact, "darker" is an understatement — "3AM," which leaked late yesterday, casts Eminem as a serial killer as he drops the choppy rhyme "It's 3 a.m. in the morning, put my key in the door, bodies laying all over the floor and I don't know how they got there, but I guess I must have killed them." Em said he already filmed a video for the single in his native Detroit, but considering the grisly nature of the lyrics, the clip may be destined for an R rating. (Hear the track at Rap Radar.)

"3AM" features some of Em's classic, wickedly witty wordplay: Kicking off with the line "I remember the first time I dismembered a family member," there's a verse about how Slim strangles his cousin with Christmas lights, cuts him up into little pieces and drinks his blood. Then as a bridge between two verses, Em quotes the creepiest line from Silence of the Lambs, "She puts the lotion in the bucket, she puts the lotion on the skin, or else she gets the hose again." Em has also developed some kind of crush on Kim Kardashian, name-checking the reality star (and her ass) in both "We Made You" and this track. Kim, maybe double-lock your door — you do share a name with someone Em has rhymed about murdering before.

Eminem's serial killer fetish first came to light when 50 Cent revealed that a track featuring Em called "Norman Bates Motel," a reference to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, would appear on Fiddy's Before I Self-Destruct. Despite the grisly lyrics, "3AM" does boast an awesome Dr. Dre beat, and Slim Shady's dexterous cadence is evidence of the extra time he was given experimenting with his prose while Dre alleviated the pressure of producing Relapse. Still, if Em's claim that "3AM" mirrors the overall tone of Relapse is true, we'll need a night light to make it through this album when it hits stores May 19th.

Related Stories:

• Eminem Opens Up About "Relapse," Acting in Shade45 Interview: "I Am Back"
• Eminem Takes "Relapse" Viral With Rehab Clinic Website
• Eminem Confirms Two 2009 Albums: "Relapse" Due May 19th

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Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

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