Eminem Encore CD

2 CD;Bonus Disc Contains 3 Hard To Find Songs.

Personnel includes: Eminem (rap vocals); Nate Dogg, Dr. Dre, Obie Trice, Hailie Jade, D-12, Dina Rae.
THE EMINEM SHOW won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.
THE EMINEM SHOW was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Award for Album Of The
Year. "Without Me" was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Awards for Record Of The Year and Best Male Rap Solo Performance.
This deluxe limited edition includes a bonus DVD containing previously unreleased footage and interview with Eminem.
Personnel includes: Eminem (rap vocals); Nate Dogg, Dr. Dre, Obie Trice, Hailie Jade, D-12, Dina Rae.
THE EMINEM SHOW won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.
THE EMINEM SHOW was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Award for Album Of The
Year. "Without Me" was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Awards for Record Of The Year and Best Male Rap Solo Performance.
Personnel: Eminem (rap vocals); D12, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Nate Dogg, Obie Trice, Stat Quo (rap vocals); Steven King (guitar, mandolin, keyboards); Mike Elizondo (guitar, sitar, keyboards); Luis Resto, Mark Batson (keyboards); Che Vicious (programming).
Audio Mixers: Dr. Dre; Eminem; Tony Campana; Steven King.
Recording information: 54 Sound, Detroit, MI; Can-AM, Tarzana, CA; TransContinental Studios, Orlando, FL.
Photographer: Anthony Mandler.
Eminem took a hiatus after the release of his first motion picture, 8 Mile, in late 2002, but it never seemed like he went away. Part of that is the nature of celebrity culture, where every star cycles through gossip columns regardless of whether they have a project in the stores or theaters, and part of it is that Marshall Mathers kept busy, producing records by his protégés D12, Obie Trice, and 50 Cent -- all hit albums -- with the latter turning into the biggest new hip-hop star of 2003. All this activity tended to obscure the fact that Eminem hadn't released a full-length album of new material since The Eminem Show in early summer 2002, and that two and a half years separated that album and its highly anticipated sequel, Encore. As the title suggests, Encore is a companion piece to The Eminem Show the way that The Marshall Mathers LP mirrored The Slim Shady LP, offering a different spin on familiar subjects. Where his first two records dealt primarily with personas and characters, his second two records deal with what those personas have wrought, which tends to be intrinsically less interesting than the characters themselves, since it's dissecting the aftermath instead of causing the drama. On The Eminem Show that kind of self-analysis was perfectly acceptable, since Eminem was on the top of his game as both a lyricist and rapper; his insights were vibrant and his music was urgent. Unfortunately, Encore is not the flip side of The Eminem Show as much as it is its negative image, where everything that was a strength has been turned into a handicap this time around. Musically, Show didn't innovate, but it didn't need to: Eminem and his mentor, Dr. Dre, had achieved cruising altitude, and even if they weren't offering much that was new, the music sounded fresh and alive. Here, the music is staid and spartan, built on simple unadorned beats and keyboard loops. While some songs use this sound to its advantage and a few others break free -- "Yellow Brick Road" is a tense, cinematic production -- the overall effect of these stark, black-and-white productions it to make Encore seem hermetically sealed, to make Eminem sound isolated from the outside world. This impression is only enhanced by Em's choice of lyrical subjects throughout the album. Instead of documenting his life, or the shifts in his psyche, he's decided to chronicle what's happened to him over the past the two years and refute every charge that's made it into the papers. This is quite a bit different than his earlier albums, when he embellished and exaggerated his life, when his relationship with his estranged wife, Kim, turned intoRolling Stone (p.173) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[I]t showcases a phenomenally gifted musician and lyricist doing all the things he does best."
Rolling Stone (p.142) - Included in Rolling Stone's Top 50 Records Of 2004 - "Marshall Mathers brings the pain in ENCORE."
Spin (pp.95-6) - "Captivated by hip-hop, Marshall crosses tracks both literal and metaphorical..." - Grade: B
Spin (p.64) - Ranked #26 in Spin's "40 Best Albums of the Year" - "[H]e will remain America's finest reality show: crass, oddly tender, riveting."
Uncut (p.116) - 4 stars out of 5 - "ENCORE defeats expectations by both embracing...maturity, and being his most adolescently outrageous, gut-bustingly funny effort since THE SLIM SHADY LP."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.96) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[I]t's a lean, mean beast....There's precious little accompanying Mater's virtuoso, syllable-crammed raps."