Today, new music leaked on the web from Eminem, or, rather, his alter-ego, Slim Shady.

With a spoken intro welcoming back "the undisputed, most diabolical villain in the world, Slim Shady," "Crack a Bottle," is a sinewy, slow-burner with lazily rolling beats. Eminem shares the mic with both producer Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, who contribute verses.

Worth the wait? Yes and no. It's instantly catchy and impossible to keep from tapping your toes, but it is nowhere near Eminem's best like "Stan" or "Lose Yourself." Lyrically, it's pretty tame stuff: references to oral sex and "bitches hopping in my Tahoe" who forget to bring condoms. It's a scary thought that Eminem is doing more to preach safe sex than the outgoing administration ever did.

In an exclusive e-mail interview with Billboard last month, Eminem talked about "Relapse," his new album due this Spring on Shady/Interscope. It's his first studio CD since 2004's "Encore." "Me and Dre are back in the lab like the old days, man," told Billboard's Jonathan Cohen. "Just him banging away on tracks and me getting that little spark that makes me write to it. I don't have chemistry like that with anyone else as far as producers go -- not even close. Dre will end up producing the majority of the tracks on Relapse.' We are up to our old mischievous ways ... let's just leave it at that."