In late 2004, Eminem was at the peak of his powers. Fresh off the commercial and critical juggernaut of The Eminem Show (2002) and the success of 8 Mile , anticipation for his fifth studio album, Encore , was deafening. But just weeks before its scheduled release, disaster struck: the album leaked in its entirety on the internet.

Eminem was furious. In a 2004 interview with XXL magazine, he explained that the leak made him feel "violated." His solution was radical: remove the leaked tracks, record new ones in a matter of days, and change the album’s tone entirely. The "serious" album about war, fame, and his personal struggles was replaced by a slapstick comedy featuring a parody of Michael Jackson and an ode to flatulence. Thanks to interviews, leaked promo discs, and later releases (like Straight From The Lab ), we can reconstruct the intended running order. While slight variations exist, the consensus among Eminem historians is this:

What fans received on November 12, 2004, was a compromised Encore —a bizarre, goofy, and uneven album. But what was lost ? The original Encore tracklist tells a story of a darker, more focused, and arguably superior album. In the summer of 2004, promotional CD-Rs of unfinished Encore material were stolen from the studio. By early fall, tracks like "Bully," "Love You More," "We As Americans," and "Come On In" (later known as "6 in the Morning") were circulating on peer-to-peer networks like LimeWire and Kazaa.