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Eminem will release Relapse: The Refill — and not Relapse 2 — on December 21st, the rapper announced on his official website today, November 19th. The Refill will include the entire Relapse, plus seven songs that didn’t make the album. The DJ Hero exclusive “Taking My Ball” and the Drake/Lil Wayne/Kanye/Eminem collaboration “Forever” will be included on Refill, Rap-Radar reports, with the other five songs being previously unreleased. So essentially, it’s Slim Shady’s The Fame Monster.

Check out photos of Eminem onstage at the Voodoo Festival.

As Rolling Stone reported in March, Eminem promised not one but two doses of the Dr. Dre-prescribed Relapse would be released in 2009, but with the scheduling of the first installment’s Refill, it appears Relapse 2 is now slotted for release in 2010. “I want to deliver more material for the fans this year like I originally planned. Hopefully these tracks on The Refill will tide the fans over until we put out Relapse 2 next year,” Eminem said. “I got back in with Dre and then a few more producers, including Just Blaze, and went in a completely different direction which made me start from scratch. The new tracks started to sound very different than the tracks I originally intended to be on Relapse 2, but I still want the other stuff to be heard.” (more…)

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Trying to resolve Eminem’s contradictions is a loser’s game. How do you reconcile the artist who asked the men in the audience at Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans Friday night to yell, “Fuck you, bitches” (and the women to answer, “Fuck you, assholes”) with the guy who encored with the encouraging “Lose Yourself”? The scabrous pop culture critic with the MC who penned murder fantasy “3 a.m.,” which opened the set with a bloody, Saw-like trailer? The audience at Voodoo didn’t try; they were just thrilled he was there.

See photos from the Voodoo Music Experience 2009

This year’s Halloween weekend festival includes Kiss, Jane’s Addiction, the Flaming Lips, Lenny Kravitz and Justice, who chain-smoked their way through a DJ set on a damp, biting Friday night. A downpour soaked the grounds of City Park and dropped the temperature 20 degrees, which cut down any walk-up traffic for one of Eminem’s only 2009 shows, but it didn’t hurt the gig. For the occasion, Eminem had a live band dressed in skeleton costumes that added muscle, particularly in the closing “Without Me.” To further beef up the sound, he was joined onstage by a hype-man throughout, and D12 for part of the show. He took time out to salute the late Proof, “the real leader of the group” in one of the set’s few tender moments. (more…)

Last night, BET aired their annual Hip-Hop Awards show, which featured a series of “cyphers” showcasing rappers like KRS-One, Wale, Nicki Minaj and Joe Budden trading verses and rhymes. Mos Def, the Roots’ Black Thought and Eminem passed the mic in one of the three segments, and although all three MCs killed it when their turn came up, Em’s short verse included a controversial statement that was bleeped by the censors: “My dick is so big if I add another inch to it you would swear when I raped you that you was actually into it.”

The crowd emitted an audible “oh no he didn’t!” gasp as Slim Shady finished his verse. The fact that even the semi-edited line made it to air is surprising, since BET is owned by Viacom, the parent company of MTV and VH1 — two networks who have famously censored videos and artists whose lyrics include violent imagery. (Even Madonna’s “What It Feels Like For a Girl” clip was banned for excessive violence after it showed a fiery car crash).

Do you think Em’s rhyme should have been broadcast? Let us know in the comments.

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Eminem’s “Taking My Ball,” the new track featured on Slim Shady’s DJ Hero Renegade greatest-hits compilation, leaked October 16th after making its debut on Eminem’s Sirius satellite radio station Shade45. As Rolling Stone reported, “Taking My Ball” is a leftover from the Relapse sessions, and it’s essentially a less controversial version of that album’s scathing celeb-basher “We Made You.” The song was cut in 2008, yet on “Taking My Ball” Eminem makes stale pop culture references to Tara Reid, Mischa Barton and feeding Rosie O’Donnell McDonald’s while watching The Sopranos. Listen to it over at Nah Right.

While no firm details regarding Relapse 2 have been announced yet, it seems unlikely that “Taking My Ball” will appear on the Eminem’s sequel to his May 2009 album. Em had previously told his Shade45 that Relapse 2 will be more “emotionally driven” than its predecessor, and “Taking the Ball” sports the immature, antagonist tone of Relapse’s non-serial-killing, non-drug-addled lighter side. (more…)

DJ Hero has announced its massive 93-song in-game track list — which boasts Beastie Boys blended with Foo Fighters and 50 Cent vs. David Bowie — and now Rolling Stone can exclusively reveal the track lists for Eminem and Jay-Z’s Renegade compilations that will accompany the DJ Hero Renegade Edition of the game (the Renegade comps aren’t playable tracks, but best-of CDs).

Jay-Z’s Renegade collection is the first best-of comp of Jigga’s career — though there’s reportedly talk of another coming in November — so Jay-Z sticks to the hits. Eminem, however, opts for deeper cuts and rarities from his arsenal, including a brand new song called “Taking My Ball” that will feature exclusively on the DJ Hero Renegade disc. Both rappers hand-selected their respective track lists.

“The tracks we put on this disc are mostly overlooked or rarer favorites of mine from all different parts of my career,” Eminem said. “I also put a brand new, unheard song on there so even the biggest fan has something new.” (more…)

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With Relapse 2 reportedly due out by year’s end, Eminem appeared on his Sirius radio station Shade 45 this weekend to talk about his new album, the second prong of a two-tier attack that launched with the release of Relapse earlier this year. But even though Em was on his home turf, he was still elusive about Relapse 2 and failed to divulge information like an estimated release date or potential singles.

Eminem did talk about one song that he and 50 Cent recorded together in Las Vegas. The pair recorded two tracks, one bound for Relapse 2 with the other headed to 50’s oft-delayed Before I Self-Destruct. According to Em, the song will find Em and Fiddy going back and forth at each other, which sort of sounds similar to Eminem and Dr. Dre’s “Guilty Conscience.” “We’ve kind of done it on other records, but not like to the extent on this one,” Em said. (more…)