Eminem has stated that if his 2004 album Encore had never been leaked prematurely, he believes that it would have reached the same level of popularity as The Eminem Show. Slim Shady recalls how leaks ahead of his fifth album caused him to hurriedly rewrite sections of the record from scratch in a new op-ed for XXL.
“Encore took a whole fuckin’ different trajectory because Encore was during my addiction,” he said. “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 added: “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.” Eminem went on to explain that the tracks "We as Americans," "Bully," "Evil Deeds," and "Love You More" had regretfully leaked previous to the album's release, and that the project's "caliber" was going to be comparable to his critically acclaimed debut. The Eminem Show songs were not leaked online.
“The problem was, in the recording process as I was getting more addicted to drugs, I was in more of a goofy mood,” Em said.” So now, I go make “Ass Like That,” “Big Weenie,” “Rain Man,” all those silly songs, which I’m writing in fuckin’ seconds at that point in time. I was just writing high and feeling good about what I’m doing because I got fuckin’ 20 Vicodin in me and this is fun to do, and I’m having fun, so fuck it.”
He continued: “[Encore] comes out and it was definitely a wake-up call, a slap in the face, a sobering moment because I was on a roll and then somehow, I got off this roll. I didn’t know where to fuckin’ pick things back up and I was angry at a lot of things, including the songs leaking because it changed the entire landscape of that album. I still had “Like Toy Soldiers” and a few that I did feel good about, but I knew in my heart of hearts, this is not the same quality as The Eminem Show.”
Since after the release of his recent hip hop album Curtain Call 2, which featured signature tracks from Em's Relapse days in 2009 all the way up to 2020's Music To Be Murdered By, he has sat down for various candid interviews. Em's overdose was discussed more in an interview with longtime manager Paul Rosenberg on his new podcast Paul Pod: Curtain Call 2.
"It took a long time for my brain to start working again," Em confessed, to which Rosenberg responded, "I mean, you were literally coming off of an overdose, and they had to sort of stabilize you with a few medications." And some of them took you a minute to adjust to - let's leave it at that."