D12 World
D12 World is the second and final studio album by Detroit hip hop group D12, released on April 27, 2004. The album sold 544,000 copies in its first week on the U.S. Billboard 200. The album is also the last D12 release to feature Proof before his death in 2006, and the second D12 album to feature Bugz on a track. Background. In memory of Bugz, who was killed prior to a concert on May 21, 1999, the group recorded the track "Good Die Young" in memory of him. The album also includes a skit entitled "Bugz '97 , which is a 1997 recording of Bugz, originally taken from the song Desperados". The group was often overshadowed by Eminem's massive success, and as such, the group toured without him for promotion of the album (but the album still reached the top of the US Billboard chart). At the time, Eminem was busy recording "Encore". Although shadowed by Eminem's success, members Bizarre and Proof managed to prevail with mildly successful solo careers following "D12 World", with the releases of "Hannicap Circus" and "Searching for Jerry Garcia", respectively, in 2005. Before the album's release, "6 in the Morning  was featured on Eminem's 2003 mixtape Straight from the Lab" and was entitled "Come On In". Singles. The album produced two singles, My Band and How Come, which were released on March 14, 2004 and June 8, 2004, respectively. Production. The album was executively produced by Eminem, who also handled most of the audio production for the album along with Denaun Porter, Dr. Dre, Essman, Hi-Tek, Kanye West, Luis Resto, Mike Elizondo, Night & Day, Red Spyda, Trackboyz and Witt & Pep. Guest appearances on the album included Obie Trice, Dina Rae, Young Zee and B-Real. Commercial performance. "D12  World" debuted at the top of the US, UK, Irish, Canadian, Australian and NZ albums charts. It debuted at number 2 in Germany and also in the top 5 in Switzerland and Norway. It debuted in the top 10 in Sweden, Denmark, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. It sold about 544,000 records in its first week of release in the United States alone. Debuting at number one on the "Billboard" 200, the album ended the first five-week run of singer Usher's best-selling album, "Confessions". On the week of May 22, 2004, Usher's "Confessions" regained the "Billboard  200's number-one spot, sending D12 World" to number two. The album went on to have the best performing first-week sales for a hip hop release of that year until the release of Eminem's "Encore" that November. Ultimately the album was certified double platinum, having a twenty-eight week stay on the chart overall. The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with approximately 76,666 copies sold during the first week of release. Ultimately the album was certified platinum; total sales of the album stand at 323,649 as of December 2017. "My Band", the  first single, was also successful, reaching number one in Australia and on the US Rhythmic Top 40, the Top 5 in the UK and Germany, and Top 10 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Critical reception. Upon release, "D12 World" received mixed reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 58, based on 13 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Track listing. Notes Sample credits