Eminem — Encore

Eminem's fifth LP, announcing his retirement, as can be seen from the title and cover, this is destined to be his last album. The production is equally divided between Dr. Dre, often joined by Mike Elizondo, and a duo composed of Eminem and Luis Resto. Mark Batson is credited with two beats. The rhythms are combined with live production by Steve King (mainly on guitar, but also on bass, keyboards and mandolin), Mark Batson and Luis Resto on keyboards and Mike Elizondo, who takes care of keyboards, guitar and sitar. 50 Cent is the main guest of the product, together with Nate Dogg, Obie Trice, Stat Quo, D12 and Dr. Dre. In his fifth LP, after completing a painful trilogy, Eminem announces his retirement, as can be seen from the title and cover, the boy bids farewell to the public with what is destined to be his last album.

After the intro in which the author announces his last show on stage, there's "Evil Deeds", a personal track in which Eminem delivers almost in spoken on a hypnotizing and dark production by Dr. Dre, uptempo drums, solid bass, stabs of violins. In the following choice, the Detroit rapper takes down a battle together with 50 Cent, Nate Dogg performs the chorus on a West Coast rhythm by Dr. Dre, bouncy, with poor midtempo drums, robust bass, ascending strings, good keyboards. The fourth choice is "Yellow Brick Road", to explain this track we need to go back to 1990: in this period, the teenager Eminem records a racist track that remains on a cassette for over a decade until it's resurrected by Benzino's The Source magazine, with whom the Detroit emcee has a feud after raising controversy over the fact that his ultra-critically acclaimed album "The Eminem Show" didn't receive the magazine's perfect score. The magazine publishes that track in 2003, Eminem then records "Yellow Brick Road" to apologize for that 1990 song, reciting lines with a weak and subdued execution over a sad self-produced beat.

We arrive at one of the high points of the project, "Like Toy Soldiers". Boom bap heartbeat made by Eminem & Luis Resto, sad piano, solid thundering bass, dirty midtempo drum, sample from a song with almost the same name by Martika. The rhythm is left to breathe, then Eminem delivers better than in the previous quarter of an hour, with calm energy, flowing, velvety, supported only by a sparse drum loop and sad piano keys. The music video for the single shows his childhood friend Proof playing Bugz, a member of D12 who died in a shooting in 1999: a year after shooting the video, Proof himself will die in a shooting in Detroit. The album continues with the political cut "Mosh", released online before the 2004 American elections: excellent boom bap, rough bass, poor midtempo drum, dusty strings, rusty electric guitar riff, nice work by Dr. Dre. Slow and stripped down delivery from the author who drops verses of protest against Bush's political program.

After this track, the album begins to spiral downward with some of the worst tracks from an artist who is in crisis with drugs, stuffs himself with pills, goes into the studio and spits random things over minimal rhythms. The following are some of his worst tracks. Eminem and Luis Resto produce "Puke": over a simplistic, slow and heavy beat, with poor downtempo drums, raw bass and calm strings, Eminem develops a carefree delivery, his rap is slow and limp in this improvised freestyle inspired by Jay-Z's working method. Mathers seems to have taken drugs here, the result is a track without rhyme or reason. "My 1st Single" is one of the worst songs ever made by Eminem. The beat is credited to him and Luis Resto: crazy hi-hats, poor drums, elegant piano keys, the production is weak and the rhythm ends up getting confused with his delivery, becoming just noise. The boy doesn't feel like rapping anymore, here he almost invents mumble rap. Even for fans it's among his worst tracks ever.

Skit, then "Rain Man": poor drums, rough bass, dusty strings, mediocre rhythm from Dr. Dre, poor and scarce rapping from Shady, he doesn't even try here. "Big Weenie" is similar to this stuff: low-key production from Dre, while the Detroit rapper isn't in good shape, despite having created a diss against rival Benzino. Skit, then comes the first single of the album, "Just Lose It": on the surface, Dr. Dre's rhythm isn't better than the previous ones, but somehow that g-funk sound is still mesmerizing. I don't know how Eminem manages to carry this thing, but he does it with one of his funniest performances and one of his most memorable hooks. This track is a sort of exception to the whole album, which is terrible. The next choice is "Ass Like That". Dre again behind the keyboards, but it's hard to believe: the Legend comes out with an "Indian" rhythm, while the other Legend spits out what is considered one of his worst tracks ever, it's unfortunate to repeat this sentence in an album like this. It's even more unfortunate that Mathers chose this as the fifth single of the album, because it sucks. The whole effort seems to recover slightly, when they come to the aid of the main rapper 50 Cent, Obie Trice and Stat Quo for a ballad over a beat by Shady and Luis Resto.

Almost suddenly and casually, one of the best moments in Eminem's artistic history appears, "Mockingbird", a choice dedicated to his daughters. The emcee delivers at his best ever and never seems to stop, aided by a well-crafted, sentimental, immense hook, on a self-produced soundscape with Luis Resto that relies on a shaky drum and a sad piano loop. In the next joint, the author decides to sing an entire song about ideal love, leaving rapping aside. Beautiful entrance by Heart on the notes of their namesake "Crazy in Love", really wonderful. Shady calls D-12 for "One Shot 2 Shot", exchanging bars together with Bizarre, Kuniva, Kon Artis and Swifty McVay on a rhythmic boom bap. Skit, then the album is closed by track number twenty, Dre and 50 Cent drop bars with Eminem on an honest beat by Dre. At the end, there's a hidden skit in which the rapper returns backstage to kill everyone present at his last show before committing suicide. They are included among the bonus tracks in the deluxe edition, all produced by Luis Resto and Eminem. "We As Americans" features more criticism of Bush that brings him attention from various parts, "Love You More" focuses on his relationship with his ex-wife, while "Ricky Ticky Toc" is a casual freestyle.

Final Thoughts

"Encore" is considered to be the first misstep in the career of the Detroit emcee, even by himself. The boy justifies the poor songs recorded with the fact that a good part of his album had leaked on the internet and that he had to quickly create new tracks, when in reality the project was released in a period in which the author lives a serious addiction to drugs that has a strong impact on the recording of his music, which is why he sounds out of shape half the time: due to the setting of the album, the lethargic and skeletal lifeless rhythms, a dried and frail lyricism and the atypical performance style even for Eminem himself, some critics at the time believed that the wunderkind was actually on the verge of death.

Fortunately, the vultures were wrong. This time, however, critics are divided between those who choose to praise the Michigan MC again and those who instead see numerous cracks in the structure of his new album. The effort suffers numerous leaks that lead to an early release date: published by Shady, Aftermath and Interscope with Universal distribution, the album sells over 700 thousand copies in the first week and almost 900 thousand the following week, reaching four million certified after just one month. For the first time at the Grammys, an Eminem album nominated for the award for Best Rap Album loses: the previous three had all won, furthermore the rapper also wins with the following three nominated albums, making "Encore" his only album not to win the Grammy [at the time of writing]. Shady also loses the awards for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group with the title track and Best Rap Solo Performance with "Mockingbird".

A couple of tracks and some singles are worth rediscovering, the rest of these 77 minutes, which stretch to an hour and a half including the bonus tracks, is rather forgettable. 5/10.