Eminem is freaking me out on the cover of XXL Magazine. His eyes look photoshopped on from another photo in which his face was at a different angle, his muscles seems enhanced and he generally looks menacing. XXL is trying to show Eminem as comic book character The Punisher so I guess the effect they were going for worked.

Inside the magazine, Eminem opens up about his drug addiction and deep depression after the murder of his best friend, Proof, in the spring of 2006. Eminem took a break from music for nearly three years afterwards. There were rumors that he gained a lot of weight in the interim, although no photos surfaced that showed him looking heavier and he’s certainly as fit as ever now. In this latest interview, the rapper admits that he was going through a very tough time after Proof’s death, and calls the depths to which he sunk “a little bit selfish”:

On Proof’s Death
“Everyone felt his loss, from his kids, to his wife, to everyone. But, for some reason, in hindsight, the way I felt was almost like it happened to just me… Maybe at the time I was a little bit selfish with it. I think it kind of hit me so hard. It just blindsided me. I just went into such a dark place that, with everything, the drugs, my thoughts, everything. And the more drugs I consumed, and it was all depressants I was taking, the more depressed I became, the more self-loathing I became… By the way, I’m just now at the point where I’m better talking about it. It took me so long to get out of that place where I couldn’t even speak about it without crying or wanting to cry… Proof was the anchor. He was everything to D12. And not just the group-for me, personally, he was everything.”

On T.I., Lil Wayne & Hip-Hop
“I stayed up on the music, and obviously I watch TV and saw what was going on. And without naming any names, it just felt like hip-hop was going downhill. And it seemed like kinda fast. You know, in them three years, it was like everybody just cares about the hook and the beat; nobody really cares about substance. But with this new T.I. album, with this new Lil Wayne album of recent, it seems like things are looking a lot better now. You can appreciate Lil Wayne using different words to rhyme and actually rhyming words that you know. Or T.I., where you hear shit and you’re like Whoa, ah, I wish I would have thought of that! You know what I mean? Or you hear all the compound-syllable rhyming and all that. It just seems like now the craft is getting cared about more.”

[From XXL Mag]

Many of you said you don’t like Eminem’s new single “We Made You” in which he rips on pseudo celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Jessica Simpson, and Sarah Palin. I found the video funny and I enjoy the song, but I talk about these people for a living so I’m biased. I think this guy is incredibly talented. He obviously has his demons but it’s nice to see him back. Maybe he’s figured out enough about himself in these past few years to have a healthy relationship for once without fantasizing about killing his girlfriend.