*sigh*
I don’t think I need to make an introduction for Eminem: most people know who he is by now. Eminem aka Marshall Mathers aka Slim Shady, has been going at it since 1999 and has become a top favorite rapper for some (and often on people’s top 5 favorites). You have such hits as “The Real Slim Shady”, “My Name Is….,” “The Way I Am,” “Lose Yourself,” and of course, one favorite joint I like from him, “Stan.”
However, that was mostly around 1999-2003, because when we got to 2004, the quality just went down. You hear stuff like “Lose It” and the whole Encore album, and… let’s be honest: around the 2010s, I thought he was getting slightly better but the more I thought about it, he got worse. Okay, maybe Relapse and The Marshall Mathers LP 2 were slightly average and passable, but then there’s stuff like Revival, followed by Kamikaze, and then Music To Be Murdered By.
All 3 of those albums were by far his worst ones, particularly the latter two because Kamikaze is just him ranting about what people thought about Revival (and how he tried to go pop and failed), and MTBMB was another corny record with try-hard rhymes and verses while thinking that rapping fast means rapping good (Sidenote: It doesn’t).
But we know what we’re here for. Eminem has a new album out, and there’s a concept to it: it’s the Slim Shady alter ego but if he came from 2004 and suddenly jumped in our current year, alongside the fact that it might be the final record with the Slim Shady persona, thus The Death of Slim Shady. However, I don’t have any expectations of liking it. The first single “Houdini” was not an indicator of quality, and now we get to the question?
Did I like this a– No.
I didn’t like this album. In fact, I felt absolutely nothing when I was playing the whole thing… and yes, I listened to it in order or whatever he tweeted.
However, this might be one of his better albums in recent years as the album does go into how Slim Shady as a persona is really just a loser trying to be so edgy, offensive and hardcore in 2024. I get the attempts of satire with Eminem wanting to bury his old persona away in this day and age, and it’s something Eminem has been trying to tell his audience for so many years.
Basically, for the first half of the album, the Slim Shady alter ego is just saying whatever offensive thing is on his mind, and they get very repetitive: going on about Gen Z, trans people, pronouns, and more critic bashing aka the annoying content I got from his last couple of albums. “Renaissance” starts up the album with basically the rebirth of Slim Shady and the first instance of complaining about Gen Z when it comes to music:
Now let’s travel inside the mind of a hater
‘Cause I don’t see no fans, all I see’s a bunch of complainers
“Kendrick’s album was cool, but it didn’t have any bangers
Wayne’s album or Ye’s, couldn’t tell you which one was lamer
Joyner’s album was corny, Shady’s new shit is way worse
Everything is either too tame or there’s too much anger
I didn’t like the beat, so I hated Might Delete Later“
You nerdy pricks would find somethin’ wrong with 36 Chambers
Okay, there might be some points he was making there but really, I don’t blame anyone calling Joyner Lucas corny or saying they hated Might Delete Later. “Habits” has White Gold on the hook, being overly melodramatic with the beat, and the lyrics are mainly “old man complaining about the world” and how he can’t say this word anymore and how no one is going to always be nice to you and… at this point, I’m just out of it.
“Trouble” and “Brand New Dance” continue him thinking that Gen Z is trying to cancel him… and the other topic is Christopher Reeve… yeah, Superman’s actor being paralyzed and making a dance out of it. Look, I can say that this was offensive and all that jazz, but the man’s been dead for years. Oh, and another Caitlyn Jenner reference. Look, I’m not fond of that woman myself but he loves to mention her on this album. Well, he also namedrops Candace Owens on “Lucifer” but not as much (although I’m definitely not fond of her).
The rest of the first half is the same thing: look how edgy, cool and offensive he is… and of course, there’s Slim Shady and Em fighting, which might be the only slightly interesting thing going on.
There’s more tired bars on “Lucifer”, such as “We squashed the beef like a hamburger patty, or should I say gigantic turd? / ‘Cause I put that shit to bed like Amber Heard at a Mattress Firm (Slut)”… Then there’s “Antichrist,” which takes on the “woke” culture and references of other controversial celebrities like Kanye West, Diddy & Jeffrey Epstein.
Oh and another bad bar in the form of: ““Why is Marsh considered the harshest spitter?” (Why?) /
‘Cause I can spit a bar like it’s a cross between Nas and GZA, Biggie Smalls, and RZA
So hard, Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj’ll scissor (Cut it out)”
“Fuel” might be the only track I somewhat like but that’s mainly because of the guest feature from J.I.D., and he easily blows Em out of the water. His rapping is on point, his bars and his performance actually got my head nodding, and I just realized this is the 2nd time J.I.D had to make a nothing song tolerable because…. well, we have another bad Eminem bar:
A very obvious bar…
“Guilty Conscience 2” is the breaking point of the Slim/Eminem thing as Em raps both as himself and Slim Shady having a conversation, and in the end, he decided that Slim Shady will be no more… and then he woke up…
…Yep, it was all a dream.
Then, the rest of the album is just Eminem doing his thing and well… it’s an Eminem album after that, and I’m still not as enthused or interested. “Head Honcho” is all about how Eminem is still the #1 rapper, what he experienced, and that classic paranoia, and joining in is new Shady signee EZ MIl, and he was fine. Maybe slightly not that memorable as if you remember that track “Realest” where Eminem laid disses to Melly Mel and The Game… remember, that was EZ Mil’s song and Em was the feature!! See what I mean?
“Temporary” has him talking about his daughter Hallie, making a song for her when he passes, and look: as much as I’m not liking this album, I’m not going to talk shit about his daughter. I can see that the man really cares for her, and that’s fine if he wants to talk about that. Oh and Skylar Grey’s on there, too. She was… there, and I still don’t get the appeal of her.
“Tobey” was another single Eminem released for the album, and this was another Spider-Man related track he’s done (I wonder if he’s doing a song for Venom 3). He also has Big Sean and BabyTron as features. and this is another one where I’m more into the guest features than the main rapper. The album ends (No, I’m not checking out the bonus tracks) with “Somebody Save Me,” and it’s another one about his addiction and paints an alternate timeline where he didn’t get clean and messed up things with his family.
Okay look, the latter part of the album might be less annoying and cringeworthy than the first, but this really isn’t anything new out of Em. It’s good that we get songs like “Temporary” and “Somebody Save Me,” but that really isn’t enough for me to like this album. It has the right idea of satirizing Eminem’s alter ego and how problematic he can be if he was in 2024, but all it shows is that it tries way too hard to be edgy and offensive while it ends up being corny, played out and annoying. And no, don’t give me the excuse of “it’s meant to be that way!” The thing is, it also has to be funny, have interesting beats, and maybe some replay value. It has neither of those things, and while this isn’t the worst I heard from Eminem in the last few years (that honor belongs to Kamikaze), this is far from being the best of the year. By the time I finished this review, I’m moving on from this album and never listening to it again.
FINAL VERDICT: SKIP IT. Yeah, my willingness to listen to this album again was DOA the moment I finished it.
THE DEATH OF SLIM SHADY (COUP DE GRACE) is on Shady/Aftermath/Interscope Records. It’s available on CD, vinyl, cassette, digital download and on streaming services. Option to buy is here.
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