Eminem’s 12 Steps to Recovery

If Eminem’s 2009 album Relapse was any indication, Marshall Mathers was still working to exorcise his demons. Long plagued by depression and an addiction to painkillers, Em avoided pushing past his problems, instead hiding behind foolish accents, soaking his lyrics in a bath of pop culture and making references to his drug addictions to painkillers while still working through them.

On his seventh album, Recovery, Em finally sees himself for the way he was and rises above his issues like a phoenix from the ashes. Throughout this darkly shaded album, the Detroit emcee consistently acknowledges that Relapse was far from his best work, using a spread of beats from Just Blaze, Boi1da and DJ Khalil as a background for his lyrical 12-step program. Em nimbly darts his way through tales of remorse, acceptance and forgiveness as if each track is its own therapy session, doting on his afflictions with drugs, suicidal thoughts and depression brought on by the death of his best friend Proof.

Consider it an album where Eminem uses lyricism as his own personal 12-step program. Here, we take a look at the lyrics of Recovery and break them down according to the 12-step program of Narcotics Anonymous, a process that Em may or may not have known he followed.

NEXT PAGE: RECOVERY STEPS 1-3