Today, streaming services allow artists to swap out songs, issue "digital deluxes," and even delete tracks post-release. But in 2004, once the plastic was pressed, the art was frozen.
As producer and confidant Luis Resto later recalled, "He just started making weird, funny records... almost like he was trying to sabotage the album because he was so upset about the leak."
| # | Song Title | Source | |---|---|---| | 1 | We As Americans | Encore (Deluxe) | | 2 | Love You More | Encore (Deluxe) | | 3 | Yellow Brick Road | Encore (Standard) | | 4 | Like Toy Soldiers | Encore (Standard) | | 5 | Mosh | Encore (Standard) | | 6 | Mockingbird | Encore (Standard) | | 7 | Spend Some Time | Encore (Standard) | | 8 | Never Enough | Encore (Standard) | | 9 | Bully | Encore (Deluxe) | | 10 | One Shot 2 Shot | Encore (Standard) | | 11 | Encore / Curtains Down | Encore (Standard) | eminem encore original tracklist
His label, Interscope, faced a brutal choice: release the compromised album or pivot. Eminem chose to pivot. He famously said he went "back to the drawing board"—but the drawing board was a haze of pills. In a matter of weeks, he recorded a batch of new, sillier songs to replace the leaked ones.
But for nearly two decades, a legend has persisted in hip-hop circles: The version we heard was not the version Eminem intended to make. Today, streaming services allow artists to swap out
By early 2004, he had completed what he believed was his masterpiece. The original tracklist was locked, mastered, and even pressed onto promotional CDs. Then, disaster struck. In the spring of 2004, several songs intended for the original Encore leaked onto peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa and LimeWire. In the pre-streaming era, a leak two months before release was a death sentence. Eminem was reportedly furious and heartbroken. He explained in later interviews (notably with XXL and Rolling Stone ) that he felt "violated."
Encore stands as Eminem’s most debated album—not because it is bad, but because we know what it could have been. Every time a fan hears "Yellow Brick Road" transition into "Like Toy Soldiers" and wonders why it is followed by "Puke," they are hearing the ghost of a different album. If you want to hear Eminem’s original vision, do not stream the standard Encore . Instead, assemble the following playlist (available on YouTube, Spotify via local files, or by buying the 2004 bootleg vinyl pressings): almost like he was trying to sabotage the
The story of the involves a sleeping pill addiction, a catastrophic leak on the internet, a last-minute scramble to the recording studio, and an entire album’s worth of songs that vanished into thin air. The Context: The Peak of the Empire (2002–2004) To understand the original Encore , you must understand the state of Eminem in 2002-2003. Following The Eminem Show (2002)—which sold over 27 million copies worldwide—Eminem was arguably the biggest musician on the planet. He starred in the semi-autobiographical film 8 Mile , won an Academy Award for "Lose Yourself," and was producing albums for 50 Cent, Obie Trice, and D12.