By JOSEPH BARRACATO
Last updated: 5:04 am
September 14, 2008
Posted: 4:37 am
September 14, 2008
THE king has not left the building - "King" Marshall Mathers, that is. For the past four years, Eminem, hip-hop's most controversial rapper, has been in hibernation dealing with a slew of physical and emotional issues. The laundry list of setbacks includes: a Christmas-season emergency-room visit for pneumonia; coming to grips with the death of his closest friend, D-12's Proof, who was gunned down at a Detroit after-hours club; and a second divorce from his ex-ex-wife, Kim.
Despite the drama, Eminem has kept himself off the front page by remaining isolated in his Detroit mansion. He's also close to finishing the most-anticipated album of 2008, "King Mathers."
Even without an official release date for his sixth studio project - his first in four long years - several insiders are convinced the record will be released before the ball drops on New Year's Eve.
"The album is a bit of a mystery, but we've heard it will be out before the end of the year," says Chuck "Jigsaw" Creekmur, co-founder of the influential Web site AllHipHop.com. "There's a huge buzz on the street right now . . . we're hearing some positive things."
Details of the album are scarce, as his management team continues keeping a tight lid on the project. Dennis Dennehy, Em's rep at Interscope, warns: "There's no release date, no information on the album, and [Eminem] is not doing any interviews."
As buzz about the album grows, fans have been waiting for Slim Shady's first public appearance in at least two years.
No such luck.
Eminem didn't show his mug at any of the countless summer pop festivals, a single Detroit Tigers game or at last week's MTV Video Music Awards, though there had been rumors about the VMAs.
"People wonder and people ask, but no one seems to know where Eminem is and what he's doing," says a close follower of the Detroit hip-hop scene.
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