US rapper Eminem has confirmed that he's working on his next studio album.

The rapper told his radio station, Sirius Satellite, that after working on side projects he's now focussed on his own release.

"I'm concentrating on my own stuff right now — just banging out tracks,” he said.

“The more I keep producing, the better it seems I get. I start knowing stuff, learning the boards like the back of my hands."

Eminem's comments come days after fellow hip-hop star 50 Cent confirmed that the rapper was hard at work on the project.

He told the BBC: “A lot of material he wrote prior to this is being scrapped. He's got to feel like it's just happened, it's new and it's current. That's just how he is creatively as an artist.”

Reports earlier this year suggested that Eminem's as-yet-untitled new album will be released in the final quarter of 2008.

(by Jason Gregory)