Rapper Eminem is battling sleep deprivation as he struggles to put the finishing touches on his new album, less than two weeks before its scheduled release date.

The Lose Yourself hitmaker is facing a race against time to perfect the tracks for The Marshall Mathers Lp 2, so he has been spending night after night in his studio in Detroit, Michigan ahead of the project's expected release on the week of 4 November (13).

He tells RollingStone.com, "Right now, I'm probably working harder than I've ever worked in my life... They (label bosses) keep telling me a different day (for deadline)...

"Aside from around the time of The Eminem Show (in 2002), when I was also doing the 8 Mile movie and soundtrack and score and s**t like that, this is probably the equivalent of that, but all focused on the record."

Eminem, real name Marshall Mathers, admits fans' expectations for the follow-up to 2000's Grammy-winning album The Marshall Mathers Lp has also made him more self-conscious of his work.

He says, "Calling it The Marshall Mathers Lp 2, obviously I knew that there might be certain expectations. I wouldn't want to call it that just for the sake of calling it that. I had to make sure that I had the right songs - and just when you think you got it, you listen and you're like, 'F**k, man! I feel like it needs this or that,' to paint the whole picture."

The rapper has teamed up with Rick Rubin to help him complete the album and he is full of praise for the iconic producer's immense talent and wide-ranging musical knowledge.

He adds, "Getting with him was like, 'Holy s**t!'. As many genres of music that he is able to f**k with, he's like Yoda. I couldn't do it. You sit me there with a rock group, I don't know the first f**king thing about banging on the drums."