OnlyShady

Encore is a 2004 album by American rap artist Eminem. It was set for release on November 16, 2004, but was moved up to November 12, due to the leakage of the album on the Internet. Encore sold 711,000 copies in its shortened three day opening week and still claimed the #1 spot on the Billboard Top 200 chart for that week. The following week, Encore sold an estimated 871,000 copies, claiming the #1 another week. Eventually, it was certified 4x Platinum in the U.S., but selling closer to 5 million, with the album being the third biggest selling album in 2004 with 3,517,097 units sold, and the 27th biggest seller in 2005 with sales of 1,385,256 totaling 5 million before the end of 2006. It has also sold an estimated over 11 million copies worldwide to date.

The song "Encore" featuring Dr. Dre and 50 Cent was nominated for a Grammy in 2006. The song "Mockingbird" was also nominated at the Grammy's in 2006 for Best Rap Solo Performance, but lost to Kanye West's "Gold Digger". Encore was also nominated at the Grammy Awards of 2006 for Best Rap Album, but lost to Kanye West's Late Registration. It was Eminem's first major album not to win this award, since The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP, and The Eminem Show all won it in the year they were released.

Despite the commercial success of the album it has been subject to mass criticism amongst critics and fans alike for its "comically lurid" tone and greatly dumbed down lyricism compared to Eminem's past albums. Conversely, in terms of controversy, this album attracted less notoriety than previous Eminem albums due to the fact that shock-oriented lyrics were toned down somewhat in favor of a lighter approach than Eminem's previous three albums. Eminem was already beginning to show a lighter approach on The Eminem Show. On this album, he continued at that approach even more and thus attracted even less controversy. However, the album did provoke some controversy over anti-Bush lyrics and lyrics that made fun of Michael Jackson, who complained about Eminem's depiction of him in the video for Just Lose It.

The album features substantially more production from Dr. Dre than The Eminem Show, which was mostly produced by Eminem and longtime collaborator Jeff Bass.

The cover for Encore, which shows Slim Shady taking a "final bow", is representative of the fact that Eminem would soon plan to retire his alter ego. The outro to the title track also hints to this, as Slim Shady can be heard shooting most of his audience and finally committing suicide by sticking a pistol in his mouth. These events are also represented in the album's artwork.