Jul 28, 2015

Mockingbird is still freaking good after all these years. Still sad that the album overall doesn't do it for me...

 

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 28, 2015

But.... Drugs

 

Jul 28, 2015

yep it's awful but I'd still take it over relapse and recovery

 

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

agreed about like toy soldier production

great post

 

Jan 4, 2018

Encore might end up as Eminem's most interesting masterpiece. So many flaws, yet so many highlights, and the good songs only got better overtime. Encore is up there with TES for best aged sound.

I wonder what the original track listing would have been if the album didn't get leaked. And I don't know why he would change songs just because it got leaked. I will never understand ''a--- Like That.''

Imagine if he didn't include ''a--- Like That'' and ''Big Weenie'' Replaced them with ''We As Americans'' and ''Love You More.''

 

Jan 4, 2018

What most probably actually happened: The label or Paul forcing him to include songs he doesnt want to make, just as they always have.. (The Real Slim Shady situation). And since Em was on a destuctive path, he might not have put the effort in it he normally would have which is how we ended up with Just Lose It instead of another TRSS or Without Me. Same thing happened with We Made You.

After Relapsr flopped, he went full on "TRSS/Without Me/Just Lose It/We Made You/Not Afraid/Monster" etc.

 

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.

 

Jan 5, 2018

I always remember reading a review about it in the Sun (uk newspaper) by Tim Westwood and he was saying how incredible it was and this is Eminem' s best album yet.

I know he has to say that sort of s---, but then the leaks came. It's because of this I half believe the theory he put on the likes of bug weenie to say "f--- it".

 

Jan 5, 2018

Didn't D12 World give everyone indication that Em was falling off ?

His showing on that entire project bar 2 songs was average at best.

 

Jan 18, 2018

Where is pinned sections???

 

Jan 21, 2018

Do u still believe?

 

Jan 23, 2018

I remember when the same thing happened with Revival.

 

Jan 23, 2018

Some of the tracks that leaked in 2003 should have given an indication that he was falling off. Drugs are bad.

 

Jan 23, 2018

Bully, monkey see monkey do, and can I b---- were never going on encore. That's why they weren't even on the bonus disc. The diss songs wouldn't have fit the like toy no soldiers theme. The two songs that leaked that were going on the album were we as Americans and love you more. They leaked before the title of encore even came out, about a year early. Had they never leaked, encore would have been the same except replace my first single and big weenie with those two songs. Still, would have changed most people's opinions on the album. He should have just kept them on the album regardless..

 

Feb 20, 2018

 

Feb 20, 2018

Was the first Em album I bootlegged but still ended up goin to best buy to buy it after it was released

 

Feb 20, 2018

The good ol days

 

Feb 20, 2018

this section is doing so well people are replying to threads from 2015