Eminem

After endless speculation as to when hip-hop superstar Eminem would drop his follow-up to 2004's Encore, the reclusive Marshall Mathers himself has surfaced to reveal that the long-awaited record will finally arrive in spring 2009.

Speaking to Billboard.com, Eminem confirmed the forthcoming disc's title, Relapse, as well as super-producer Dr. Dre's involvement in the project. "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. Dre will end up producing the majority of the tracks on Relapse. We are up to our old mischievous ways."

However, the rapper quashed recent rumors placing producer Swizz Beats  joining for a "Stan 2" track. "I haven't worked with Swizz on this album. Stan drove his car off a bridge and I'm not writing a song as Stan's ghost," he said of a follow-up to the 2000 hit about an obsessive fan. "That would just be really corny."

Hip-hop's great white hope also commented on the recent spate of leaks from the still-unfinished album -- specifically album cut "Crack a Bottle." "It's like someone peeping in your window before you got the Spider Man costume all zipped up! Nobody is supposed to see that. We are gonna finish it up though and get it out there how it's supposed to be."

Listen: Eminem, "Crack a Bottle"