Jul 28, 2015

Actually listened to Encore in its entirety while running yesterday. Reactions:

• Marshall had nothing new to rap about. He covered everything interesting between MMLP & TES. He wasted all his creativity on the 8 Mile OST. The entire album consists of whiney songs about girls, rap beefs, anti-fame, and the surface of Eminem's racist reference.
• Eminem's leaked racist reference was blown out of proportion on the album. He's lucky this happened in 2004. If it happened now, it would have been EVERYWHERE, but 11 years ago, mainstream media didn't really cover it. As a high school sophomore I never caught wind until I heard the album. Even then, I didn't really understand the reference. He mentions it in multiple songs, either justifying or apologizing. Almost seemed like a PR move than legitimate song lyrics. Yellow Brick Road is dedicated to it. Looking back, it's not really that big of a deal.
• Something happened during album creation to actually cause Marshall "not to give a f---" for the first time. This is the biggest one. Whether that was the leak, label issues, the Moby incident, or drugs (probably mostly drugs): it's clear Eminem wanted to just turn in the album and quit working for a while. This lead to the creation of songs like My 1st Single, Rain Man, Big Weenie, Just Lose It, a--- Like That, etc. Essentially the 2nd half of the album. Eminem has always claimed "not to give a f---", but he always churned out quality, carefully crafted music. Encore was not that.
• Drugs. You can clearly hear the vocal difference between normal Eminem and drugged up Eminem. This makes for depressing, subpar lyrics and delivery.
• It's worth noting, some songs had glimpses of greatness. The beginning of Evil Deeds sounds like we're about to experience another classic Eminem album. Never Enough has a classic Nate Dogg chorus / 50 feature. Yellow Brick Road covers history we've never heard before. Like Toy Soldiers possibly has Eminem's best production. Bonus tracks are better than most of album. Encore is his last release that truly feels like an Eminem album.

Encore is a weird album. Interesting at best, which is more than we can say about Recovery/MMLP2.

 

Jul 28, 2015

This idea that Encore was going to be an amazing album until a few good songs leaked is total fiction kept alive by stans who want to make excuses for Em. We As Americans, Love You More, etc came out in November 2003, a full YEAR before Encore was released. Even if you buy into this idea that Em couldn't have included the leaked songs on the album (which isn't true, there are countless examples of songs leaked far in advance that still ended up on an album), he had a f---ing year to get his act together and write some halfway decent songs. Instead, we got songs about a puppet dog and "weenies". Pathetic album, no idea why anyone would still want to make excuses for it a decade later

 

Jul 28, 2015

haha! Homophobia always makes me giggle! (I'm 11 years old)

 

Jul 27, 2015

Sometimes I feel like I'm reading the same old thread

 

Jul 27, 2015

I can give a few details from that time frame. For months the song Mosh was promoted as a big backlash against George Bush but it didn't get released when it was supposed to infact it was released AFTER the elections and obviously was nowhere near as vicious as it was made out to be which led to rumours of Eminem being made to re-record the song. It was also earlier in the year that Eminem came under fire from the leaked We As Americans song where he mentioned the President and supposedly wanted him dead.

I remember Jason on D12World talking about when Just Lose It was released and he called a friend to ask about it and the friend said is that the one where he goes ah ah ahhhhh in the hook and he laughed. Obviously people had heard the song long before it was released. Obviously they found it funny.

In the Winter of 2004, December, shortly after Encore was released Eminem went to the UK and appeared on the Tim Westwood show and filmed a performance for Like Toy Soldiers for Top Of The Pops, which was a big music show at the time and Eminem said on the Time Westwood show that he recorded 20 songs for Encore and the only thing he didn't like was the fact that you could only fit 80 minutes on a CD and he wishes he could have put them all on there but he put 3 on a bonus disc. Now minus the skits, there are 15 tracks on Encore. In 2005 Curtain Call was released and it was said in various interviews that the only NEW song on there was When I'm Gone and Eminem went into detail about it, Jimmy Iovine didn't like it, he felt like it was just a Mockingbird Part 2 and at that point Encore was only a year old so he felt like there was nothing new but Eminem explained that this is him telling the story in a different way, the big selling point was this NEW song. If Eminem really did record 20 songs for Encore, and 15 made the main album, 3 made the bonus CD, that makes a total of 18, the other songs on Curtain Call that were not previously released were Fack and Shake That and I think all fans would agree that the sound of Fack and Shake That, the production, the content, the overall vibe..........would easily fit on the Encore album so when you take the 15 songs on the Encore album, you add the 3 bonus tracks and Fack and Shake That, it gives you 20 songs. There is no doubt in my mind that Eminem gave fans the Encore album he wanted in 2004, the other 2 were simply kept back and ended up on Curtain Call. That is your Encore album. I know many of you wont believe it, you'll find some kind of conspiracy to back it up but what was released is what he wanted you to hear. People need to get this idea out of their head that there is hidden classics locked away in the vaults. It doesn't make sense to hide good songs. It makes good business sense to release the best music you have.


DId he release some songs to annoy his hardcore fans? No doubt. He references it quite often. There is one line in Big Weenie that slaps you right across the face with it. Absolutely he was angry at his fans that only want him to talk about being poor and hating his Mom and being sad and angry at the world. The truth is YEARS BEFORE Encore was even dreamt up Eminem was a self made millionaire. He was a millionaire by the year 2000. There was no need for him to rap about being angry at the world anymore and radio stations in Detroit not playing his music and whatever else he could be mad at. Fans just wanted him to stay that way because their life HAD NOT changed and it carries on to this day. You see the hate with Relapse, Recovery, MMLP2, Shady XV. You have those older fans that are still having a hard time in life, maybe a bad home life, maybe not a lot of money in the household, they have it hard and they absolutely will not accept that their rap hero Eminem is now a millionaire. It's the same with Dre and Chronic 2001, you have a lot of people in the hood still bumpin that album because that's what they ASPIRE to be, they want to be Dre, they want the big tall women with the big boobs out, the smoking of blunts and drinking beer and driving fast cars. It's like The Fast And The Furious movies. You have people sitting in the cinema watching it, dreaming, man............i wish that was my life. Driving the fast cars in the sunshine, nice women, shooting guns and getting paid. That's what goes on in people's minds and it's fake. It's fiction. It's not reality but it takes over their mind and when that happens it takes over their life and at that point the only thing left is anger and bitterness.

 

Jul 27, 2015

who cares, it's a relatively fantastic hiphop album

s--- is illmatic

 

Jul 27, 2015

There was a track named Chrisopher Reeves on the original tracklist.
(I am too lazy to find the link right now, but you can use the wayback-machine to view eminem.com in the time before Encore got released and see for yourself.)

 

Jul 27, 2015

Didn't bother reading past this in the book you posted but it's absolutely false. The instrumental was played during the VMA's and there were rumblings it was a song called "Where I'm Standing" but other than that nobody knew a f---ing thing about it until it premiered on like the 19th of October. The title, content, ect... nobody had a clue about any of that until the song was heard. Cool fabricated story though, lying fa----.

 

Jul 27, 2015

Nothing was changed. In 2003, the bonus tracks were leaked by his Half-Brother, which is why inferior songs like My First Single, Big Weenie and a--- Like That ended up on Encore instead.

 

Jul 28, 2015

Throw out the s--- songs and the overall vibe of the album is too dark and depressing .... and not in a good way like the MMLP was.

 

Jul 27, 2015

Can I b---- was an Eminem Show era throwaway. That would never have been on Encore, especially since the beat is just an unfinished version of Without Me

 

Mar 12, 2025

I was on Rap Basement (rip) when Encore leaked, and remember the cope being quite potent. Some ppl were convinced it was a fake leak designed to smoke out leakers and the official album would contain the actual versions of Big Weenie, My 1st Single etc. Dark times.

 

Jan 15, 2025

The original leaked songs came out a year before Encore so fans need to stop acting like he had to rush songs out to meet a deadline. He had a full year to go and found time to record and release D12 World.


He wrote 17 songs with Dr Dre and recorded 11 of them. So there's at least 4 Dre songs from those sessions we haven't heard. Eminem said on a Westwood interview when the album came out he had a few more songs he wanted to put on it but you can only get 80 minutes on a CD so he couldn't do it. That's why the bonus disc is there.

He himself needs to stop blaming the leaks. He had a full year to make new songs. The reason Encore Is the way it is is because he wants it that way. All these songs people complain about are there because he wants them there. Not because leaks happened in 2003.


And as far as any last minute changes, there is only one and that is the removal of Christopher Reeves which was on the tracklist up until his death which was weeks before the album came out so it was a literal last minute change before they started pressing the album.


And if this week has shown anything to you all, he has tons of material. Enough with all this talk of he had to replace songs and he had to do this and that. I promise you he has plenty of songs from 2003 and all the way through 2004 that were good enough to be on the album. It is that way because he wanted it that way and the truth is...he had nothing to prove so why not have fun? It's the same thing in 2024. Who is gonna outrap him? Outsell him? Whose better? He's done it. He's on mount Rushmore. He's the best. He's earned the right to gloat and make silly songs.

Same thing with Fack. Do you think.....after this week knowing how active he was in 2005 that Fack was put on Curtain Call because he had no material? Fack was on there the same reason the other songs made Encore. He was gloating, he was showing off. The biggest artist in the world at the time putting out his first Greatest Hits album and he opens it with Fack. That's a message to every rapper in the industry. That's how good he was.

 

Jan 4, 2018

The whole album didn't leak. Just 6 or 7 songs. These were the songs featured on the "straight from the lab" mixtape.
The original We As Americans didn't have the word "president" beeper out in the president dead line.

Apparently Nathan, Em's brother leaked them. But I didn't hear about that at the time.

Just imagine if the first anyone ever heard from sitting through Encore for the first time we're songs like We As Americans and Love You More and not a--- Like That and My First Single.

 

Jul 27, 2015

like toy soldiers is a god d--- masterpiece

 

Jul 27, 2015

Idc tho. Encore was released at a time where I was makin' some solid moves in middle school. I love it cause of the nostalgia effect.

 

Jul 27, 2015

Those would have improved Encore a fuckload imo.

 

Jul 28, 2015

agreed about like toy soldier production

great post

 

Jul 28, 2015

offtop : i remember when Recovery tracklist leaked, everybody thought that is a joke.