Encore was Eminem’s fifth studio album
Eminem recently spoke with XXL on the magazine’s 25th anniversary where he explained how leaking affected the quality of his 2004 album Encore.
Em thinks that the 5× platinum album would’ve been at par with the critically-acclaimed 2002 album The Eminem Show if he didn’t have to rush into remaking parts of the project due to leaking online.
“Encore took a whole fuckin’ different trajectory because Encore was during my addiction,” he recalled. “I was realizing I’m getting addicted to these fuckin’ pills. I was just coming off The Eminem Show and the 8 Mile soundtrack and I started recording and had about seven or eight songs that were very much in the vein of what I do.”
He continued: “But we ended up putting them out as a fuckin’ bonus disc because the songs leaked. If those hadn’t leaked, Encore would’ve been a much different album.”
He added that it were songs like “We as Americans,” “Bully,” “Evil Deeds,” and “Love You More” that had seeped onto the internet before Encore was officially released.
