Devil's Night (album)

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Devil's Night
Studio album by D12
Released	June 19, 2001
Recorded	1999–2001
Genre	Hardcore hip hop horrorcore[1]
Length	75:09
Label	Shady Interscope
Producer	Eminem (also exec.) Denaun Porter DJ Head Dr. Dre Jeff Bass
D12 chronology
The Underground EP (1996) Devil's Night (2001) D12 World (2004)
Singles from Devil's Night
"Shit on You" Released: December 5, 2000 "Purple Pills" Released: June 5, 2001 "Ain't Nuttin' but Music" Released: October 2, 2001 "Fight Music" Released: November 27, 2001

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(58/100)[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
The A.V. Club	(mixed)[4]
Entertainment Weekly	C[5]
HipHopDX	[6]
NME	7/10[11]
Q	[2]
RapReviews	7.5/10[7]
Robert Christgau	C[8]
Rolling Stone	[10]
The Source	[9]

Devil's Night is the debut studio album by Detroit hip hop group D12. It was released on June 19, 2001 under Shady Records and Interscope Records. It was also the first album to be released on Shady Records, although the label had been active since 1999.

Background[]

The album was executive produced by Eminem, who had recently released his hugely successful third 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 group recorded Devil's Night in memory of Bugz, who was killed in May 1999 just hours prior to a concert.

Singles[]

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.

Production[]

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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 raps: "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", "nuts" 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. The physical copies of the clean version mistakenly list "Girls" as the 18th track after "Revelation", even though "Girls" isn't supposed to be listed on the back cover at all.

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.

Commercial performance[]

The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with approximately 371,881 copies sold during the first week of release.^[12] It re-entered the number one spot in its third week of release with approximately 173,956 copies sold overtaking Alicia Keys' Songs in A Minor by just 306 copies.^[13] Ultimately the album was certified platinum by a two-week stay at number one and twenty-two weeks on the chart overall.^[14]

The album debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart with approximately 57,967 copies sold during the first week of release. Ultimately the album was certified platinum; total sales of the album stand at 436,977 as of December 2017.^[15]

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.^[2] 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."^[10] 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." ^[16]

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."^[17]

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."^[11] The Source gave the record 3 and half out of 5 mics. As many of the magazine's editors were feuding with D12 at the time of the review, namely Benzino, the rating is usually considered biased.^[9]

Despite mixed reviews, the album gained a strong following after its release. Denaun Porter (a.k.a. Kon Artis) is really pleased with the project: "That album, man, when I think about it, there wasn’t a lot of skippers on that album. It was really well put together."^[18]

Awards and nominations[]

Track listing[]

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies an additional producer.
• ^{^[b]} signifies a co-producer.
• "Shit On You" contains an interpolation of "Make 'Em Say Uhh" by Master P
• "Shit On You" was the commercial debut single of the group, being released in December 2000^[19]
• "Words Are Weapons" originally appeared on DJ Funkmaster Flex's mixtape The Mix Tape, Vol. IV
• "These Drugs" originally appeared on the soundtrack of the 2001 horror film Bones

Sample credits

• "Shit Can Happen" contains a sample of "Just Another Case" as performed by Cru
• "Pistol Pistol" contains a sample of "Kick in the Door" as performed by The Notorious B.I.G.
• "Nasty Mind" contains a sample of "Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can't Have None)" as performed by Snoop Dogg featuring Nate Dogg, Kurupt and Warren G
• "Ain't Nuttin' but Music" contains a sample of "Turn Off the Radio" as performed by Ice Cube
• "That's How..." contains a sample of "(Don't Worry) if There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go" as performed by Curtis Mayfield
• "Fight Music" contains a sample of "Kashmir" as performed by Led Zeppelin
• "Instigator" contains a sample of "Under the Influence" as performed by D12
• "Steve Berman" contains a sample of "The Way I Am" as performed by Eminem
• "Revelation" contains a sample of "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" and "In the Flesh" as performed by Pink Floyd
• "Girls" contains a sample of "Rollin'" as performed by Limp Bizkit
• "Shit On You" contains samples of "In the Beginning" as performed by Lonnie Smith and "Vivrant Thing" as performed by Q-Tip

Personnel[]

• Jeff Bass – bass and keyboards on tracks 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 22; bass on track 19; guitars on tracks 3, 7, 9, 13, 14, 16 and 22
• DJ Head – drum programming on tracks 3, 7, 10, 13, 16 and 19
• Mike Elizondo – guitars on tracks 5, 6, 11 and 18; bass on tracks 5, 6 and 11; keyboards on tracks 5 and 11
• Scott Storch – keyboards on tracks 6, 11 and 18
• Camara Kambon – keyboards on track 5
• Ray Gale – harmonica on track 10
• Traci Nelson – backing vocals on track 11
• Dina Rae – vocals on track 13
• Luis Resto – keyboards on track 19

Chart positions[]

Certifications[]

References[]

External links[]

• Devil's Night at Metacritic