Devil's Night

<<D12 (discography)

Studio album by D12
Released	June 19, 2001
Genre	Hardcore hip-hop Horrorcore
Length	1:15:09
Label	Shady, Interscope
Producer	Eminem, Denaun Porter, DJ Head, Dr. Dre, Jeff Bass
Stream	Apple Music Spotify SoundCloud
D12 chronology
(1996) (2001) (2004)
Devil's Night Expanded Edition cover
Cover art for singles from Devil's Night
1 2 3 4
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
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Devil's Night is the debut album from Detroit hip-hop group D12. It was recorded in remembrance of Bugz, who was shot just hours before a concert, and was released on June 19, 2001 under Shady and Interscope Records. Additionally, it was also the first album to be released by Shady Records even though the label had been active since 1999.

Background

Eminem was the executive producer for the album; he also released his very successful third studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP, a year earlier. The album's title comes from Detroit's Devil's Night tradition, in which abandoned homes are set ablaze. The practice was so popular that it was featured in 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

There were four singles on the album: "Shit On You", "Purple Pills", "Ain't Nuttin' But Music", and "Fight Music". The album also featured a hidden track by Eminem called "Girls", which was a diss track targeting Limp Bizkit, DJ Lethal, Dilated Peoples, and Everlast.

Production

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

Guest appearances on Devil's Night included Dr. Dre, Obie Trice, Truth Hurts, and Dina Rae.

The song "Revelation" parodies Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall Pt II", where kids and Eminem are 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 Devil's Night, alternate versions of "Purple Pills" and "Fight Music" were included, and were titled "Purple Hills" and "Flight Music". "Shit Can Happen", "Pistol Pistol", and "Pimp Like Me" were also edited, removing 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" the third track and "These Drugs" the first track. The rare censored version of the album did not remove all expletives, as words such as "ass", "asshole", "f*gg*t", "n*gga", "pussy", "hoe", "whore", "slut", "tits", "nuts" and "goddamn" were permissible on the album, as well as sex references. It was mostly violence and heavy drug usage that were removed from the edited version. The physical copies of the clean version mistakenly listed "Girls" as the 18th track after "Revelation", even though "Girls" wasn't supposed to be listed on the back cover at all.

There were a number of songs that contained censored parts, even in the explicit versions of the album: in the song "Pistol Pistol", Kon Artis' line "some semi-automatic for static's the motto, splitting like Columbine kids from Colorado" was censored, with the phrase "Columbine kids" removed and replaced with the sound of kids screaming. Eminem's line "Sorry cops, fucking pigs" was also censored and the words "cops" and "pigs" were removed. In "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. On the title track for 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 cute little feet" with the word "niece" being replaced by the sound of a girl screaming.

Commercial Performance

The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 with approximately 371,881 copies sold during the first week of its release. It re-entered the #1 spot in its third week of release with approximately 173,956 copies sold, overtaking Alicia Keys' Songs in A Minor by just 306 copies. Ultimately, the album was certified platinum by a two-week stay at #1 and twenty-two weeks on the chart overall.

The album debuted at #2 on the UK Albums Chart with approximately 57,967 copies sold during the first week of its release. The album received platinum in the UK, as the total sales stood at 436,977 as of December 2017.

Critical Reception

Devil's Night received a score of 58 out of 100 from Metacritic upon its release due to mixed or average reviews from critics. Nathan Brackett of Rolling Stone gave the album 3 out of 5 stars, stating 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 songs' hooks, bringing a catchy pop-rap approach to hardcore lyrics."

Q Magazine also awarded Devil's Night 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 with a 7 out of 10, stating that Devil's Night was "Eminem's most misogynistic, homophobic, violent and anally fixated trip to date." The Source gave the record 3 and a half out of five mics. As many of the magazine's editors were feuding with D12 at the time of the review, primarily Benzino, the rating is usually considered biased.

Despite mixed reviews, the album gained a strong following after its release. Denaun Porter (a.k.a. Kon Artis) was 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."

Awards and nominations

See also: List of awards and nominations received by Eminem

Year	Ceremony	Award	Result
2002	ECHO Awards	Best Hip-Hop/Urban Artist (International)	Won

Track List

Devil's Night
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	Another Public Service Announcement (Skit)		Dr. Dre, Denaun Porter	0:48
2.	Shit Can Happen	Marshall Mathers, Denaun Porter, Von Carlisle, Ondre Moore, Jeffrey Bass	Denaun Porter	4:51
3.	Pistol Pistol	Mathers, Porter, Carlisle, Moore, Rufus Johnson, DeShaun Holton	Eminem, Porter	5:22
4.	Bizarre (Skit)		Eminem, Scott Storch	1:11
5.	Nasty Mind (feat. Truth Hurts)	Mathers, Porter, Carlisle, Moore, Johnson, Andre Young, Mike Elizondo	Dr. Dre	4:43
6.	Ain't Nuttin' But Music (feat. Dr. Dre)	Mathers, Porter, Carlisle, Moore, Johnson, Holton, Young, Elizondo, Scott Storch	Dr. Dre	5:11
7.	American Psycho	Mathers, Porter, Johnson, Bass	Eminem, Jeff Bass	4:36
8.	That's How (Skit)		Eminem, Dr. Dre	0:37
9.	That's How...	Mathers, Porter, Carlisle, Moore, Johnson, Holton, Bass	Porter, Eminem	4:48
10.	Purple Pills	Mathers, Porter, Carlisle, Moore, Johnson, Holton, Bass	Eminem, Bass	5:04
11.	Fight Music	Mathers, Porter, Carlisle, Moore, Johnson, Holton, Young, Elizondo	Dr. Dre	4:21
12.	Instigator	Mathers, Porter, Carlisle, Moore, Holton, Bass	Eminem, Bass	4:56
13.	Pimp Like Me (feat. Dina Rae)	Mathers, Porter, Carlisle, Moore, Johnson, Holton, Bass		5:56
14.	Blow My Buzz	Mathers, Porter, Carlisle, Moore, Johnson, Holton, Bass	Eminem, Bass	5:09
15.	Obie Trice (Skit)		Eminem, DJ Head	1:06
16.	Devil's Night	Mathers, Porter, Carlisle, Moore, Johnson, Bass	Eminem, Bass	4:19
17.	Steve Berman (Skit)	Paul Rosenberg, Dean Geistlinger	Eminem, Resto	0:49
18.	Revelation	Mathers, Porter, Carlisle, Moore, Johnson, Holton, Young, Elizondo, Storch	Dr. Dre	5:48
19.	Girls	Mathers, Luis Resto	Eminem	5:34

Limited Edition Bonus Disc
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	Shit On You (album version)	Marshall Mathers, Denaun Porter, Von Carlisle, Ondre Moore, Rufus Johnson	DJ Head, Eminem	5:14
2.	Words Are Weapons	Mathers, Moore, Johnson, Kevin Bell	Eminem, DJ Head	4:38
3.	These Drugs (explicit)	Mathers, Moore, Johnson, DeShaun Holton, Jeffrey Bass, Bell	Eminem, Jeff Bass, DJ Head	4:40
4.	Shit On You (music video)[explicit]	Mathers, Moore, Johnson, Holton, Bass, Bell	Eminem, Bass, DJ Head	5:31
5.	Dirty TV International (video)
6.	D-12 Picture gallery
7.	www.D12online.com Weblink