Eminem Confirms Two 2009 Albums: "Relapse" Due May 19th

3/5/09, 11:40 am EST

Eminem's "Crack a Bottle" is a hit on the singles chart, and now the album it likely comes from — his long-awaited comeback LP Relapse — finally has a release date. Interscope announced that Relapse will go on sale May 19th, and a second album, titled Relapse 2 will come out in the second half of the year.

"A lot of people were expecting Relapse to drop last year. I was one of them," Eminem said in a press release. "Then Dre and I went back in the studio in September for a few days, and that turned into six months. We were on such a roll; we wound up with a ton of new music produced by Dre. Putting out Relapse 2 will let everyone get all of the best stuff."

Eminem hasn't released a studio album since 2004's Encore; a greatest-hits compilation called Curtain Call dropped the following year. In October 2008 he put out an autobiography called The Way I Am, in which he confirmed a new LP was on the horizon: "I've been recording the new album mainly in the crib. Makes it very easy for me. It's like the old days, only there's a lot more than a rusty four-track in my basement." In December, he told Billboard, "Me and Dre are back in the lab like the old days, man. Just him banging away on tracks and me getting that little spark that makes me write to it."

When "Crack a Bottle" leaked, Em said he was "heated." "It's like someone catches you peeping in your window before you got the Spider-Man costume all zipped up! Nobody is supposed to see that." Still, the track broke digital records by rocketing to Number One in February.