NEW SONG 2011 / Leaks

In an interview with The Alchemist, he confirmed a song titled "Insult to Injury" in which Eminem performs in his normal voice. He described the song as somewhat of a sequel to "Underground," the final track from the previous album, Relapse. Another confirmed song is titled "Hit Me With Your Best Shot". The song features his rap group D12, Bizarre of D12 said the new song shows the groups strength despite losing Proof, who was the founder of the group. "We're still family, but everybody's got their own situations going on," he added. "No matter what y'all do, you can't hold D12 down. We've been through a lot of shit, but we're still gonna come back and recover."

When speaking to MTV, affiliate DJ Whoo Kid stated he heard some songs from the album. He confirmed that the song, "The Warning," a diss record to Mariah Carey, was not as intense as the entire album would be, saying the album is 'maniacal'

On October 3, 2009, Eminem appeared on Shade 45 with DJ Whoo Kid where he stated that a track with 50 Cent, in which the two rap together on verses, existed. In the same interview, he also confirmed both Just Blaze and Denaun Porter as producers on the album. Bizarre of D12 stated that the group recorded a song for the album tentatively titled "Hit Me With Your Best Shot".

On April 13, 2010, Eminem tweeted "There is no Relapse 2" to his followers. When he tweeted this, people started to believe that he was not releasing an album at all, but it meant simply that the album would be changed to Recovery. He confirmed this by tweeting "Recovery" with a link to his website. Eminem said "I had originally planned for Relapse 2 to come out last year. But as I kept recording and working with new producers, the idea of a sequel to Relapse started to make less and less sense to me, and I wanted to make a completely new album. The music on Recovery came out very different from Relapse, and I think it deserves its own title."

On April 27, Eminem released a freestyle titled "Despicable" over "Over" by Drake and "Beamer, Benz, or Bentley" by Lloyd Banks featuring Juelz Santana as promo for the first single, "Not Afraid", which debuted on Shade 45 on April 29 Guests

As for guests on the album, Eminem had confirmed back when the album was still entitled Relapse 2 that he worked with both Dr. Dre and 50 Cent on the album. D12, Royce da 5'9", Lloyd Banks and Cashis had been speculated as possible features on the album. However, none of these artists are actually featured. Recovery only featured guest appearances by rapper Lil Wayne and solo singers Kobe, Pink and Rihanna. In interview with Skyrock FM Eminem said he decided to include Pink on "Won't Back Down" after recording his parts first because he "felt like she would smash this record".