According to Eminem, had the 2004 album Encore not been leaked earlier, it would have gained the same recognition as The Eminem Show.
Slim Shady remembered how the leaks that surfaced before to the release of his fifth LP compelled him to rapidly rebuild some of the record from scratch in a recent op-ed for XXL.
Encore “had a whole fuckin’ different direction” since it was created while he was abusing drugs, he claimed. I’m starting to feel addicted to these fuckin’ medications, I realised. I had just finished recording the 8 Mile soundtrack and The Eminem Show when I started having around seven or eight songs that were very much in the style of what I do.
But because the tracks were leaked, we ultimately released them as a fuckin’ extra disc, he said. The album Encore would have been very different if those hadn’t leaked.
Eminem went on to say that the songs “We as Americans,” “Bully,” “Evil Deeds,” and “Love You More” were among those that sadly leaked ahead of the album’s release, adding that the project’s “quality” would have been on par with his critically acclaimed album “The Marshall Mathers LP.” The tracks from The Eminem Show weren’t leaked online.
“The issue was, I was in more of a goofy mindset during the recording process as I was growing more addicted to drugs,” Em remarked. As a result, I immediately start writing the goofy tunes “Ass Like That,” “Big Weenie,” and “Rain Man,” which I write in literally a matter of seconds. Because I had 20 Vicodin in me and it was nice to do, I was writing while high and felt good about what I was doing. Fuck it.
“[Encore] comes out and it was absolutely a wake-up call, a smack in the face, a sobering moment, because I was on a roll and then somehow I got off this roll,” the speaker added. I was unhappy about a lot of things, including the songs leaking because it altered the entire context of that album, and I didn’t know where to fuckin’ pick things back up. Even though I still had “Like Toy Soldiers” and a few other songs I was proud of, I knew deep down that this was not The Eminem Show.
As he increased his drug consumption, Eminem admitted to the publication that his addiction reached its zenith on April 11, 2006, the day that his D12 bandmate and close boyhood buddy Proof was shot and killed.
Eminem said, “When I boil it down, I realise that all the worst drug use and addiction lasted only approximately five years of my life. “For me to reflect on the past is ridiculous. Although it seemed like a long period at the time, in retrospect, the time it took for my situation to materialise as it did was not all that lengthy. After that, something with Proof happened, and my addiction skyrocketed.
He claimed that after learning of Proof’s passing, he went into a profound two-day period of grieving.
“I recall being in my home alone shortly after Proof passed away. I was simply lying in bed, unable to move, and I just kept gazing at the ceiling fan. And I simply continued to take additional drugs. When that happened, I was unable to move for two days and eventually my drug consumption fuckin’ escalated.
“I was getting my crap from fuckin’ ten drug dealers at once,” the speaker said. 75 to 80 Valium pills per night is a lot. I have no idea how I managed to stay alive. I was making myself numb. I can still clearly recall falling over a few months after Proof had died away as I was ready to use the restroom. The next thing I can recall is waking up with fucking tubes in me, being covered in shit, and being unable to speak. Nothing could be done by me. I had no idea where I was or what the fuck had just happened.
When Eminem was transported to the hospital after overdosing, the medical staff informed him that he had taken in the equivalent of four bags of heroin and had been unconscious for “approximately two hours from dying.”
Since the release of his most recent greatest hits compilation Curtain Call 2, which included iconic songs from Em’s Relapse days in 2009 all the way up to 2020’s Music To Be Murdered By, the Detroit superstar has given numerous open interviews.
The two discussed Em’s overdose in greater detail during a conversation with longtime manager Paul Rosenberg for his latest podcast, Paul Pod: Curtain Call 2.
Rosenberg responded, “I mean, you actually were coming off of an overdose and they had to sort of stabilise you with a few drugs. It took a long time for my brain to start working again. Let’s just leave it at that some of them took you a while to get used to.
