By Alex Gonzalez

In the latest edition of Vibe Magazine, Eminem reveals to the world what many privately feared what was going on during his long hiatus:  he was still addicted to pills.  Eminem went on to discuss the amount of drugs he was taking that put a halt to his music and a looming concern over him from his loved ones.

"It's no secret I had a drug problem," he said.  "If I was to give you a number of Vicodin I would actually take in a day? Anywhere between 10 to 20. Valium, Ambien, the numbers got so high I don't even know what I was taking."

Eminem had gone to rehab in 2005 for an overdose of sleeping pills, but that was attributed to a case of insomnia.   His weight had ballooned, he was out of shape, and worst of all to his fans, new music became few and far between.  Aside from his compilation album, "The Re-Up," in 2007, Eminem remained fairly quiet on the music scene.  "Relapse" will mark his first studio album in nearly five years.  While the album's title can be interpreted in many different ways, the album's cover is an image of Eminem shown in the middle of hundreds of prescription pills.  The breaking point of Eminem's addiction came when he nearly overdosed on methadone and died.

"Had I known it was methadone, I probably wouldn't have taken it," he said.  "But as bad as I was back then, I can't even say 100 percent for sure.  My doctor told me the amount of methadone I'd taken was equivalent to shooting up four bags of heroin.  Even when they told me I almost died, it didn't click."

Eminem later relapsed a second time after a knee injury, "ransacking" his home in search of a leftover Vicodin or Valium stash.  This was the first time he had been that close to death since his suicide attempt in 1995 after falling on hard times in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan.

Drug use and abuse has been a constant theme of Eminem's music since he first put out music independently in 1995.  His debut album, "The Slim Shady LP" touched on his personal addictions as well as the addictions of his mother, who suffered from Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy.  While Eminem stopped short of completely forgiving his mother, he now understands what she went through with her addictions.

 "It never once hit me that drug addiction runs in my family," Eminem said. "Now that I understand that I'm an addict, I definitely have compassion for my mother. I get it."

While Eminem claims to be off drugs for over a year now, he is in awe of how long it has been since he has recorded a song sober.  With a 2 top 10 singles from "Relapse" already, it looks like the fans have remained behind Eminem through and through.

"I hadn't recorded a song sober in seven years.  So it took me a while to even feel like I could record a song sober.  "I almost feel like a little kid again with rap. I wanna play around with different flows.  Rap was my drug. It used to get me high and then it stopped getting me high. Then I had to resort to other things to make me feel that...Now rap's getting me high again."

Based on the songs that have so far been released from "Relapse," do you like the material Eminem has put out so far?  Do you think Eminem can recapture the critical and commercial acclaim he had earlier in the decade?  Let us know what you think below.