Eminem — Curtain Call: The Hits

In 2005, Eminem announced his retirement with a greatest hits compilation. The album was almost entirely self-produced, along with Dr. Dre, Luis Resto, The 45 King, Jeff Bass, Mike Elizondo, and The Recording Academy. Guests included Dr. Dre, Nate Dogg, Dido, and Elton John.

I don't have much to say about this compilation. I have nothing to write about at all. My notes from over a decade ago show continuous tracks with perfect scores and no notes, in an endless series from track number three to seventeen. And the first two? The intro is alienating, track number two was left out of "Encore" for obvious reasons and somehow it's included here: still under the influence of drugs, Eminem records, produces, raps, and releases one of the worst tracks of the decade and by a wide margin the most disgusting of his career. The rest you should pretty much know by now, the guy takes the best from his initial trilogy of "The Slim Shady LP" ("My Name Is", "Guilty Conscience"), "The Marshall Mathers LP" ("The Way I Am", "Stan", "The Real Slim Shady"), "The Eminem Show" ("Sing for the Moment", "Without Me", "Cleanin' Out My Closet") and "Encore" ("Like Toy Soldiers", "Mockingbird", "Just Lose It") and combines them with "Lose Yourself" from "8 Mile", Stan's live with Elton John at the Grammys, and a couple of unreleased cuts, "Shake That" and "When I'm Gone".

The first is self-produced, club-oriented boom bap with a proper drum machine and funky bass to accommodate Nate Dogg's rapping, who also wraps the song with two hooks, while Eminem provides a couple of light-hearted verses. The other is considered among the most profound and personal in the artist's catalog: on a lean drum seasoned with tight hi-hats, perhaps too much to be acceptable, softened by sweet strings and sharpened by a rough bass, the emcee faces the sense of guilt for having dedicated so much time to music taking it away from his family.

As bonus tracks, a couple of joints each from his first two albums with Interscope arrive, a song with D12 and two important collaborations, respectively with Biggie Smalls ("Dead Wrong") and Jay-Z ("Renegade"): in the first, Eminem appears in the remix created by the Hitmen, the second is a classic on a minimal production by Mathers himself.

It's one of the few cases in which the clean version sounds better than the original, because the first two tracks are totally eliminated, only classics remain one after the other. The critics don't even notice, they don't care. Released on four different labels with Universal distribution, the album confirmed Eminem at the top of the charts with his seventh consecutive project — three solo albums, two with D12, a soundtrack and this effort — and received acclaim across the globe from both a critical and sales perspective, appearing on the pop charts for decades to come. The numbers proved to be lower than in the past, after two months from its release it was certified double platinum, but remained constant over time and allowed it to reach diamond certification in 2022. The clean version is rightly considered one of the best greatest hits of all time in hip-hop.