The Travesty That is Eminem's Encore

So I've covered Eminem's first three major label albums, all of which are amazing. Those albums give a lot of good songs, and I could see all three of those albums ending up on a Best 50 Rap Albums" of all time. To me, each album got progressively slightly worse, but benefited in other areas. Many songs on The Eminem Show are not as catchy or memorable as songs on his previous albums, but they definitively show a maturing progression in his sound. After politically aware subject matter on his last album, I was curious to where Eminem would take this concept. Hell, the controversial Iraq War happened almost a year after his previous album, so Eminem definitely has got to have expand upon his recent anti-Bush Administration crusade.

8 Mile was a good film, and the soundtrack to the film was good. Eminem relapsed into another pill addiction frenzy during and after the filming due to the stressful work schedule of making a movie.

Unfortunately, this addiction is a primary cause for the disastrous album Encore, which I believe, besides Recovery, is Eminem's worst album to date. Eminem reportedly only worked on his tracks for about an hour or so a day and then "goof off in the studio with a pocket of pills." While Eminem's drug use has fueled a lot of his deep song subjects and clever rhyming style, his full blown addiction has led to some of his most embarrassing and laziest writing in his entire career.

The production team is a bit different than his previous albums. Dre (minus Mel-Man) and Eminem are on board, but Mike Elizondo and Luis Resto handle a majority of the album's beats.

It's hard to believe that the top rapper in the game in the early 2000's, who had already sold millions of his last three hit albums, could stoop to such a low level of quality. This album comes off as a joke.

But I digress, it's time to review 2004's Encore.

Now, think about the openers on every Eminem release. Infinite had the stellar self-titled track "Infinite." The Slim Shady LP opened with the iconic "My Name Is." The Marshall Mathers LP has a song that is nearly universally loved by Eminem fans, "Kill You." The Eminem Show opened with "White America," a confrontational, anti-establishment anthem that reflected Eminem's new, more matured style. The point I'm trying to make is Eminem usually puts a straight banger on as an intro track for all his albums to hook you in. On Encore, we get a taste of what the rest of the album will be like. (Hint: it sucks)

The album opens with a fan favorite, "Evil Deeds." I not only do not understand how anyone could like this song, but have the audacity to claim it's one of his best baffles me even more. I think this is one of Eminem's worst songs EVER. The beat is the only good thing about the song, because the "rapping" part is horrendous. This songs sums up the three main things wrong with the album. First off, Eminem sings the chorus. Now, around this time in Eminem's career, he really liked to sing. And this was around the time his voice got super annoying. And it's really obnoxious. Secondly, the writing on this song (and album) is beyond lazy. It's crazy to think that Eminem, one of the best rap lyricists ever, resorted to the music he made on this atrocity. Eminem spends part of his first verse repeating words ("Head popped off, head popped off, head popped off, head popped off"). It gets very annoying, and is an obvious use of filler for his verses. And when Eminem finally begins rapping, he does so in a slow, clunky matter, in which he barely pulls off any good rhymes. He even repeats the word "predominately" like 20 times to show us how much he dislikes the overuse of the word. That word isn't even overused. Thirdly, Eminem is trying his hardest to sound edgy. It's not coming off as smoothly as it did on his prior albums. Hell, even his immature moments on The Eminem Show didn't sound as force, and Eminem was still able to place a serious vibe on several of the songs. This album shows that something is different, something's gone.

Luckily, we are saved by a pretty good follow up to a disappointing opener, "Never Enough." I've never been a huge 50 Cent fan, I feel he isn't that good of a writer, and his voice reminds me too much of Mike Tyson. I feel Shady Records, Eminem and Dre hyped him up to much to be the next "true thug rapper", aka, the next 2Pac. However, his verse is surprisingly good. The one thing I didn't like about this song was Nate Dogg's part. sounds very similar to his verse on "Till I Collapse." He sings a cool hook, but his voice has some weird robot auto tune sound over it. I don't like it, and it honestly weighed the song's fun factor for me. Still, it is one of the better songs on this album.

Next we get "Yellow Brick Road," a spectacular track on the album. The violin style beat is great, and Eminem drops great verses as he describes his early life getting into rap, including addressing his meeting of Proof, his early rap performances and his controversial racist demo from 1992. I consider this to be one of Eminem's best song, a classic in a sea of shit.

Easily the best single on the album.

We also get "Like Toy Soldiers," which is another great song. The song details Eminem looking back on his beef with Murder Inc. and Benzino, a feud that had engulfed the attention of a lot of Eminem's diss tracks. I actually think this may be his best diss song on the subject matter, as he even admits that, even though he won the feud, he spent to much time on the diss songs to the point where he felt that he over killed it. What sucks is that the video fictionally portrays the death of Proof, who ended up being gunned down less than two years later. It definitely showed the negative side to wars between rappers.The Martika sample also fits well. 

Next is "Mosh," easily one of the best tracks on Encore. It follows in the same footsteps of "White America," which carried socio-political subject matter. This song is more aimed at the Iraq War and the Bush Administrations poor handling of the country's foreign policy. The video even urges it's viewers to vote in the 2004 presidential election, to ensure that George Bush would not get to see a second term. The banned version even contains a crowd of protesters actually storming the White House. Overall, the song has great, bad ass lyrics with a killer, brooding beat. Another banger on this album. no doubt.

So far, the album doesn't seem half bad, Sure, "Evil Deeds" sucked ass, but we still got a decent track and three Eminem classics already. But this all changes with the next several tracks, all of which bring the album from it's so far decent status to shit grade material. 

"Puke" is the first in a series of shitty and mediocre songs. There's a lot to say ab out this one, so I'll out with the least worst thing about the song: the beat. It's not bad but it's nothing spectacular. I can't say the same thing for the rest of the track. It's another one of those Eminem tracks about family drama, with this example being his ex Kim. Now if there was any song on this album that was recorded while Eminem was in a depressed, alcoholic haze (I'm sure a few of the songs on the album were like written in this state), it would be this song. Eminem literally whines the whole song. It's as if he wrote this song as a song for his personal diary, a song for him to cry to. It's another one of those tracks where the rap verses are sung out in a different style. It's not his worst example of doing this ("Evil Deeds" is a little more annoying), but his voice just off as rather annoying in this style. And the worst part would have to be the chorus, where Eminem flat out sings fully in a very obnoxious fashion. Even the rhyming in the chorus is lazy, in which Eminem sings the last word all drawn out in that super annoying fashion (i.e. "Shi-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-it"). We understand you have your issues Em, but this was definitely not the way to express your feelings. Hell, I may even take "Kim" over this. You should not have let you fans hear you in this emotional state, because, especially now, this song is very cringe worthy.

So after that crap, we sadly get even more crap. "My 1st Single" is yet another dud on this album. The beat is...well, it's not bad, but it's definitely not amazing. Only a good rapper could make make the track worth it. But Eminem fucks this beat up to. Granted, he raps a lot more than he did on "Evil Deeds" or "Puke", but it just doesn't flow well at all. His voice is for some reason really annoying on this track, and most of the verses make no sense. Yeah, they rhyme (at times), but he's not really saying anything. I guess it's supposed to be a work of satire, as Eminem is poking fun at how little sense he's making. Still, it's just another example of lazy writing. He also devotes more than half a verse making a joke about child porn featuring Justin Timberlake and Brittney Spears when they were on the The Mickey Mouse Club. The only reason I laugh when I hear the ending about Justin Timberlake cumming is because it's so embarrassing. I'm thinking "damn, this guy must've of been pilled out beyond his mind." The song is, in laymen's terms, is one of the worst tracks Eminem has ever recorded. 

Oh, and the unnecessary shit noises in the song are symbolic of how I feel about this track.

How high did Eminem have to be to think his singing was good enough to base entire songs around it, and that his corny, overdone toilet humor would please fans? 

"Rain Man" is so fucking bad. The beat is pretty awesome, and could've made the track a banger, but Eminem once again fucks this song up as well. The main problem of the song, besides being off topic the last track is and relying on immature humor that isn't as funny as his earlier work, is that he's taking his self-referential style of rap to a whole new level. This man has the nerve to troll his fans by bragging that "I ain't even got to make no God damn sense, I just did a whole song and didn't say shit." Look, it's okay for you to maybe have one song doing that, but most of Enocre relies on self-referential and juvenile potty humor. On the surface the track doesn't seem that bad, but you'll quickly realize how often you skip it. 

And it just keeps getting worse. Eminem performed many diss tracks on Benzino, a couple of hwich could've been album tracks. "Bully" from the Straight from the Lab EP would've been a much better substitute for this shitty song. The chorus is extremely cringe worthy, as he sings in a high pitch voice about Benzino being a bully. You were able to convey that Benzino was a bully on the song "Bully", among other disses like "Nail in the Coffin." You didn't have to resort to an annoying, cartoony style voice to talk shit on Benzino. The verse is also extremely basic, and the beat is nothing special. I'd would also consider this one of Eminem's biggest flops. 

Sums up how I feel about this song...and album...and Michael Jackson, too. 

"Just Lose It" is another mix bag for me. It's sort of a guilty pleasure to me. The beat is catchy, but at the same time, a little corny sounding. The verses are also infectious and fun, but at the same time, you feel like Eminem is beating a dead horse. "The Real Slim Shady" and "Without Me" were similar lead singles with Eminem's signature Dre produced style beat. Since Eminem was already in his early 30's at this point, it feels a little weird to hear him trying to do another smash hit in the vein of "The Real Slim Shady" and "Without Me." It almost sounds like a parody of an Eminem song.  Still, I'll give this song a pass. It's still pretty funny despite the obnoxious Pee-Wee Herman style laughs. Basically, this is the least worst of all the bad tracks on the album.

This video was played a lot in the early summer of 2005, and it made me associate Eminem with sucking, even though I had barely heard any of his good music. 

But then we are given "Ass Like That." What is there to say about this song? Seriously, it is in Eminem's top three worst songs of all time. It's basically Eminem copping out and performing a club stle single, much like 50 Cent did around the same time with "In da Club." Many point to Eminem's phase from post 8 Mile to his overdose on methadone as his "thug phase." He had songs like "40 Oz" with D12, and yeah, this song is kind of similar to that "gangster" theme. "You make my pee pee go doing doing doing" was cringe worthy to hear back in 2005, and it's even more face-palming worthy today. Some say the song was supposed to be a diss on Triumph the Comic Insult Dog, and if that's true, that makes this song even worse,. Eminem isn't willing to beef with Canibus (who's actually a talented rapper) seriously but he'll devote an album track and a single to diss a puppet? So this song is basically yet another Valium and Vicodin induced mess. 

Finally we get a break from onslaught of shit. Well, it's not the greatest track, but it's still pretty good compared to the last several tracks. It's another anti-ho anthem, and I like the relaxing and atmospheric beat. Obie Trice and Eminem's verse are pretty good. Eminem's singing on the chorus isn't even that bad. Stat Quo verse is also pretty decent, but 50 Cent's verse is probably the  worse. He makes two references to girls sucking his dick. He compliments a girl's lips, and talks about how he imagines them sucking his dick. How romantic. Not trying to be a white knight, but it's kind of corny. So it's not a great song, but it's alright for Encore standards. 

Loved by girls and white knights stuck in the friend zone, I, like many sane minded people, find "Mockingbird" to be overrated. 

"Mockingbird" is also a song with a huge fan base that I feel doesn't deserve all the love it receives. Don't get me, the beat is awesome. However, Eminem raps many lines without rhyming, and it gets a little annoying. Also, his singing on the verse is among the worse he's ever sung. And the allusion to the nursery rhyme "Mockingbird" is overall just corny, especially when Eminem tries to sound hard by saying "Break that birdie's neck." It's not my least favorite song on the album, but the song really isn't that good. The guy free-styling to the beat in the subway video is a much better version of the song.

"Crazy in Love" samples Heart's "Crazy on You," but only on the chorus. I feel Eminem should've sampled the whole song, as it worked well with other 1970's hard rock anthems like "Sing for the Moment." Overall, this song is decent. Not much to say. It's not bad, not good.

"One Shot 2 Shot" is the album's D12 song. The first verse contains Bizarre. As you may know, I dislike Bizarre a lot, but his verse is pretty good in all honesty. The song is actually one of D12's upper tier tracks, but it feels like it should've been released a few months earlier on D12 World, where this song could've replaced one of the many filler songs on that album. I don't mind a D12 track on an Eminem album, it seems to be a tradition up to this point. However, in this case, it should've been on an a D12 album. Even though it's a highlight on this album, it's sad that a high point on Em's solo album was a D12 song.

The album ends with "Encore/Curtains Down," which is the best song on the album. This song feels like an Eminem song, the style we were expecting after his progression from The Eminem Show. Sure, the beat isn't very memorable, and Eminem does sound a bit disinterested in the hook, but the song doesn't has a hard hitting attitude. Dr. Dre's verse is good, and he trades back and for with Eminem likes he did on "Say What You Say." 50 Cent adds in a couple lines, but they're mainly there for interludes. Still, as one of Encore's best songs, it sitll isn't that amazing of a song.

One of the best tracks on Encore isn't even that jaw dropping, but gets the job done. This is the sound Eminem should've stuck with when he recorded this album. 

So, as you can see, Encore is littered with problems. Despite having a few of Eminem best songs, the middle part of the album is filled with some Eminem's worst songs to date. The writing is lazy on many songs, his self-aware potty humor has begun to wore thin, his singing is cringe worthy, and many of the beats aren't good or just aren't memorable. "We As Americans" and "Love You More" are good bonus tracks from the previous EP, and should've been used to replace some of the terrible tracks on the album like "Big Weenie" and "Puke," among others. Overall, I'd say this is Eminem's worst album. While I do dislike Recovery a lot, this is terrible in it's own way. Anyone who tells you that this album is good is lying. 

Rating: D + (Only because some of the good songs were REALLY good songs)