Devil's Night (album)

Background

The album was executively produced by Eminem, who had recently released his hugely successful second studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP, a year earlier. The album's title comes from the Devil's Night tradition, recognized in and around Detroit in which abandoned homes are set ablaze. This practice was so popular in Detroit that it was depicted in the film 8 Mile. The album produced three singles: "Purple Pills", "Ain't Nuttin' But Music", and "Fight Music". The album featured a hidden track by Eminem called "Girls", which is a diss track aimed at Limp Bizkit, DJ Lethal, Dilated Peoples, and Everlast. Devil's Night was also the first album to be released on Eminem's Shady Records label, although the label has been active since 1999. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 with approximately 372,000 copies sold on the week of release.

The group recorded Devil's Night in memory of Bugz, who was killed in May 1999 just hours prior to a concert.

Production

In August 2001, while on promotion for the album, D12 and Esham were kicked off the Warped Tour after members of the group allegedly physically attacked Esham over the lyrics of his song "Chemical Imbalance," which contained a reference to Eminem's daughter. Eminem was not present during the tour.

Guest appearances on the album included Dr. Dre, Obie Trice, Truth Hurts, and Dina Rae.

The song "Revelation" parodies "Another Brick In The Wall Pt II", where there are kids screaming and Eminem shouting "Wrong! Do it again!" and "If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding! You can't have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat!". During the chorus, Eminem also parodies the original "Another Brick In The Wall", by rapping: "I don't wanna go to school, I don't need no education".

Censored material

On the censored version of the album, alternate versions of "Purple Pills" and "Fight Music" were included, entitled "Purple Hills" and "Flight Music". "Shit Can Happen", "Pistol Pistol", and "Pimp Like Me", were also edited, removing the offensive content from their titles. The "Dirty Edition" was available in both Europe and the United Kingdom. However, some versions swap the running order, making "Shit on You" track three and "These Drugs" track one. The rare censored version of the album did not remove all expletives, as words like "ass", "asshole", "faggot", "nigga", "pussy", "hoe", "whore", "slut", "tits" and "goddamn" were permissible on the album, as well as most sex references. Mostly violence and heavy drug use are removed on the edited version.

There were several songs that contained censored parts, even in the explicit version of the album: In the song "Pistol Pistol", Kon Artis' line "some semi-automatic for static's the motto, spitting like Columbine kids from Colorado" was censored, with the phrase "Columbine kids" removed and replaced with the sound of kids screaming. Eminem also had a censored line at the end of the song, where he said "Sorry cops, fucking pigs" with the words "cops" and "pigs" removed. In the song "Shit Can Happen", the word "cops" is censored again in Eminem's verse when he says "when the cops come knocking". In the song "Purple Pills" the word "infant" is removed from Proof's verse when he says "now I gotta strangle an infant". In the song "Instigator", when Proof says "convinced a tenth grader to run up inside his classroom and leave the kids sprayed up" the phrase "sprayed up" is removed. In the song "Devil's Night", Kuniva's line is censored when he says "and when it blast, it'll take off every piece of your niece, from her barrettes to her cheeks to her cute little feet" with the word "niece" removed and replaced with the sound of a girl's scream.

Critical reception

Upon its release, Devil's Night received a score of 58 out of 100 from Metacritic due to mixed or average reviews from music critics. Nathan Brackett of Rolling Stone gave the album 3 stars out of 5, saying that "If the Slim Shady and Marshall Mathers albums were slapstick trips into one man's psychosis - like the Marx Brothers starring in 'Taxi Driver' - then Devil's Night is 'Friday the 13th' by the Farrelly brothers....with results varying from silly to just dumb....yet its high points are some of the most accomplished hip-hop we'll hear this year." AllMusic wrote "Besides the remarkable production, Eminem also showcases his songwriting genius on several of the song's hooks, bringing a catchy pop-rap approach to hardcore lyrics."

Q Magazine also awarded it 3 stars out of 5, commenting, "A slightly tweaked re-run of The Marshall Mathers LP, with a couple of stonking singles."

NME gave Devil's Night a 7 out of 10, stating that it is "Eminem's most misogynistic, homophobic, violent and anally fixated trip to date." The Source gave the record 3 and half out of 5 mics. As many of the magazines editors were feuding with D12 at the time of the review, namely Benzino, the rating is usually considered biased.

Track listing

Personnel

Certifications