Thug Life Army

Hip-hop rap artist Eminem plans to make his last solo performance in Ireland in September, the Detroit Free Press, his hometown newspaper, said on Friday.

Citing sources close to the 33-year-old rapper, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, the daily also said his current album "Encore" would probably be his last as he moves to full-time work as a record producer.

The final solo appearance of Mathers, the best-selling hip-hop artist ever, would be at a concert in Dublin, Ireland, on Sept. 17, the Free Press said.

The newspaper quoted his manager, Paul Rosenberg, as saying no official decision had been made about the future of the Grammy and Oscar-winning artist who has recorded three top-10 albums.

But Rosenberg said Mathers'' current multi-platinum album was "certainly the cap on this part of his career."

Mathers'' spokesman at interscope Records in Los Angeles could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Free Press said the rapper, who has sold more than $1 billion worth of records, has grown weary of the media spotlight and may be musically spent.

"Marshall feels he's said everything he can say as Eminem," one insider was quoted as saying. "The idea that he intended this ("Encore") to be his last record is something that everyone on the inside circle has known for a while."

Another source said "Encore," which was released last year, had been an especially difficult record for the artist to make. "Marshall really struggles to write for himself now, to speak through the voice of Eminem," the source said.

"He knows as well as anybody that there comes a point where you risk beating this thing to death."

The cover shot on "Encore" shows Mathers taking a bow, and its closing song is entitled "Curtains Down."

In the album's liner notes, and in his current concert tour, Mathers has also played up the figurative death of Eminem.

"This is how you go out with a bang, baby," Mathers says in one video," after pulling the trigger of a pistol that misfires on himself.