Encore
Eminem
The Verdict: Em’s latest has great sounds but is still missing some of his originality.
4 out of 5 stars
It seems that lately most pop stars are falling into musical ruts that are hard to get out of because mainly, the tactics they used to get so famous have worn off to an audience that knows what to expect from that artist.
Britney Spears seems to be jumping at every opportunity to salvage what career she has left by taking off as much clothes as possible. Janet Jackson exposed a breast at the Super Bowl to garner some immediate attention after a three-year hiatus, which consequently has tarnished her career.
And now, Eminem is back again to shock us once more with his beefs with wife Kim, homosexuals and rapper Benzino, who tried to organize a backlash against Marshall after a mix tape was found where the young Eminem refers to an ex-girlfriend via the N-word. This concept is nothing new. It was expected after Eminem himself admitted that, in order to sell records, he releases the bouncy club song and then, releases his best material afterward.
But it seems Em has gotten lazy with this formula by releasing two tracks that aren’t even close to the best tracks on Encore. The whole CD is split up into three distinct parts that portray a different personality of Eminem. But these multiple sides of Slim Shady have been on display before and he’s not saying anything really new or groundbreaking. Most of the bouncy, silly songs lack the genuine humor of past singles such as “Without You” and “The Real Slim Shady” and the dark, serious songs lack the visceral anger and unabashed honesty that flooded “Cleaning Out My Closet” and “The Way I Am.”
The opening number, “Evil Deeds,” finds Mr. Mathers rationalizing his humor to those who don’t quite get it. While “Never Enough” and the maudlin “Yellow Brick Road” deal, respectively, with Eminem staking his claim as one of the best rappers in the game: “As long as when I’m pushin’ up daisies and gone/ as long as you place me amongst one of them greats/ when I hit the heavenly gates/ I’ll be cool beside Jay-Z” and his apology for the aforementioned racist rap: “People say they heard the tape and it ain’t that bad/but it was, I singled out a whole race/and for that I apologize, I was wrong.”
Eminem’s next two songs are the most surprising because they are the most unexpected. The Martika-sampling “Like Toy Soldiers” uses a children’s choir to sing the oddly meaningful chorus lyrics to a stirring climax, then winds down to let Eminem apologize for his beefs with other rappers and how irresponsible they are in our times where guns come into play if a cross thing is said from one rapper to another. The next song, “Mosh,” sets the tone for Mr. Mathers to get political and fire insults at “W” along to a slow-paced, dark, brooding beat that gives Em the freedom to make one of the best songs of his career, but his raps get lazy: “We’re gathered together/to celebrate for the same cause no matter the weather./If it rains, let it rain, yeah the wetter the better,” and the song falls short of the greatness it could be.
This is where Encore switches from the serious Marshall Mathers to the silly Slim Shady. “Puke” has the playful, bouncy beat reminiscent of The Eminem Show’s “Square Dance” and Slim candidly tells the listener what he does when he thinks of Kim, with sound effects to boot. The echoing, percussive thumper “My 1st Single,” with its barrage of burping, farting and vomiting noises, pokes fun at the formula he uses when releasing his CDs: “This was supposed to be my first single/but I just (expletive) that off so/This was supposed to be my catchy little jingle/that you hear on your radio.” And even though the song is fun to listen to, it seems like Eminem loses his focus and raps about stuff that becomes pointless.
This is also the case on “Rain Man,” an excellently produced clap & stomp rhythm track that makes fun of homosexuals, Jessica Simpson and Christopher Reeves, who unfortunately died earlier this semester. Besides the simplistic yet addictive beat, the song otherwise wastes the listener’s time, with Em himself admitting it: “I don’t even gotta make no (expletive) sense/I just did a whole song and I didn’t say (expletive).”
The following tracks are even sillier and not as good they could be. “Big Weenie” uses grade-school humor to make fun Benzino, “Just Lose It” employs a bouncy, dance beat and annoying Pee Wee Herman yells to make fun of Michael Jackson and “Ass Like That” lets Eminem transform into Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and ogle the backsides of Jessica Simpson, Hilary Duff and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
Encore then shifts to the sentimental side of Eminem with “Spend Some Time,” a track about groupie love that gets stuck in his head: “And you turn and you start to leave/you hear them words echoing almost haunting that taunting ring/’Spend some time with me.'”
The next track, “Mockingbird,” is the best song on Encore and shows why the rest of the songs don’t quite have the same drive to them: It’s for his daughter Hailie. The simple meditative piano beat sets the mood for Em’s apologies to his daughter for not being around all the time. Because has an actual focus for this song, his lyrics fall into place and make the song soar above the rest of Encore: “I can see it deep inside you wanna cry/cause you’re scared. I ain’t there, Daddy’s with you in your prayers/no more cryin’ wipe them tears/ Daddy’s here no more nightmares.”
The sampling of Heart’s “Crazy On You” for the non-Beyonce sampling “Crazy In Love” is Em’s sequel to “Sing For The Moment” off The Eminem Show. It’s the old rock element that gives the song about Marshall’s stormy relationship with Kim a pulse.
D-12 stop by to give a worthless appearance about gunning down people at a party on “One Shot 2 Shot” and the closing song, “Encore,” which strives for greatness, falls short because of the back and forth raps between Em and Dre about being the best in the game, which ends up becoming just another boast track. They may be the best in rap music, but the song seems like a half-hearted attempt to tell everybody again.
For all its innovative beats and interesting personas, Encore comes across as another great rap record, but by Eminem’s standards, it seems he really didn’t try the best he could. Most of the album lacks the punch of songs from the past two albums because they lose focus or Em gets lazy with his raps. It’s this point that makes one wonder: If this is the best Eminem has left to offer, what’s there to look forward to?