Eminem’s new album The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) is finally here, and it’s every bit as divisive and vibrant as we all came to expect. Not only does he keep up with a lot of his creative flows and lyrical flips, but he also plays with some different production styles and fully dives into a more conceptual project. Some fans are very impressed with how the more emotional moments on the album played out, whereas others aren’t as big of a fan. Either way, the Detroit MC definitely gave fans a lot to digest and discuss with this new project, and it’s his most artistically compelling work in a while.
However, Eminem’s definitely not here for your criticism, as the opening track “Renaissance” reveals. “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 s**t 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 something wrong with ’36 Chambers,’” he raps on the cut.
Elsewhere, on tracks like “Fuel” with JID, Eminem takes aim at Diddy and other foes. “I’m like a R-A-P-E-R / Got so many essays, S-As / Wait, he didn’t just spell the word ‘rapper’ and leave out a P, did he? / R.I.P., rest in peace Biggie / And ‘Pac, both of y’all should be living / But I ain’t tryna beef with him / ‘Cause he might put a hit on me like Keefe D did him,” he spits. Check out some reactions to The Death Of Slim Shady down below.
Stans React To The Death Of Slim Shady
Eminem rapping to Hailie when he’s dead with Skylar Grey on the hook and old VHS recordings playing in the background? pic.twitter.com/KfHUG5UBXk
If you didn’t grow up with old Eminem, being a kid/teenager when Slim Shady LP and Marshall Mathers LP dropped, you just won’t understand why we all love this album. This hits nostalgia in all the right places for us. #Eminem#TheDeathOfSlimShady
Meanwhile, other tracks on the album include attacks against Kanye West and Ja Rule, tributes to Hailey, reflections on his provocative obsessions, and a whole lot more. Eminem definitely expanded his point of view with The Death Of Slim Shady. There’s something a bit different about his very overt but very satirical controversy here, even if it isn’t by much. Even if you don’t love it, you’d be a fool not to engage in its discussion.
Eminem’s new album The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) is a fitting title: while the Detroit rapper tries to shed his old ways, much of the project is still fully in tune with his alter ego. And what’s a Shady comeback if he’s not dissing a whole bunch of controversial celebrities and previous rap rivals in his music? Moreover, fans noticed more than a few famous names that he dragged on this new record, with some of the hip-hop figures making the most noise. Specifically, a lot of folks noticed Em’s bars against Kanye West, Diddy, and Ja Rule, as well as reflections on his MGK and Melle Mel beefs, among many more.
“Next idiot ask me is getting his a** beat worse than Diddy did [muted] / But on the real, though / She prolly ran out the room with his f***ing dildo / He try to field goal punt her, she said to chill / Now put it back in my a** and get the steel toe,” Eminem raps on “Antichrist,” referencing the footage of the Bad Boy mogul assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie.
“I’m like a R-A-P-E-R / Got so many essays, S-As / Wait, he didn’t just spell the word ‘rapper’ and leave out a P, did he? / R.I.P., rest in peace Biggie / And ‘Pac, both of y’all should be living / But I ain’t tryna beef with him / ‘Cause he might put a hit on me like Keefe D did him,” Eminem adds on “Fuel” featuring JID. There are other Sean Combs jabs here and there, but let’s look at what he said about Ye. “Say they wish that I wasn’t so angry / They wanna see me going off the deep end like Ye, aye / Rather see me do like Kim Kardashian they say, yeah / And find a way to get rid of all of this rage, aye [Ray J],” Marshall raps on “Antichrist.”
Finally, here’s the stray that Ja Rule caught from Eminem on “Guilty Conscience 2.” “When I say, ‘F**k midgets,’ I mean Ja Rule.” While this controversy isn’t surprising (or, frankly, interesting), The Death Of Slim Shady does see its artist make some more fleshed-out remarks on cancel culture and his obsession with it. The opening track, “Renaissance,” sees him talk about the criticism of other rap legends, and how it can’t take any of them down. Whether you agree or not, it’s exactly the sort of thing that Em would comment on these days.
Eminem’s new album The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) is right around the corner, yet the promo material for it hasn’t slowed down one bit. Moreover, he shared yet another trailer for the new project after already revealing its conceptual tracklist flow and imploring fans to listen to it in order. In it, Slim Shady (presumably) sits with his hands tied to a chair in the basement, watching a news report on how the Detroit rapper is trying to “cancel himself” with this new LP. In the video’s description, it makes reference to the “Real Slim Shady” bar about locking people up in basements, although in that classic track, the victim was Dr. Dre.
Furthermore, this rollout for The Death Of Slim Shady has roped in other pop culture happenings today, such as Eminem embracing the “Hawk Tuah!” meme while visiting his alter ego’s gravesite. It’s all a pretty campy and overt display of showmanship, but this is Marshall Mathers we’re talking about: is the cartoonish vibe really surprising you? Regardless, he’s certainly not slouching on the lyrical end, at least with his latest single “Tobey” featuring Big Sean and BabyTron. Whatever this new album has in store, there’s a good chance that its story will make all these extracurricular promotions make much more sense.
As for previous trailers for this album, one of them showed Slim Shady rising from the dead, so maybe the persona’s “death” will be a little more complicated. After all, Eminem has “retired” and “come back” so many times now that it’s hard to tell when he really means to emulate his other half. Perhaps this record will instead reflect on whether or not this “death” is even possible, since an aspect of his contemporary output is that he doesn’t make that distinction as obvious as before. Still, there are a lot of possibilities and angles for Em to explore here.
While Eminem’s chart performance with the new singles wasn’t anything out of this world, we can expect the album to be an absolute smash. Some fans want that conceptual greatness that’s been teased, others want straight-up bars, and many just want something new from him. No matter what road the “Houdini” spitter chooses, it’ll be a fun one to travel alongside him. So join us in eagerly anticipating The Death Of Slim Shady, which will be out in just a couple of hours as of writing this article.
Eminem has fans feeling very happy these days with his new single “Tobey” featuring Big Sean and BabyTron, building up hype for the release of his new album The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) next week (Friday, July 12). However, they are not quite as happy as they could be, as it looks like the Lyrical Lemonade-partnered music video for the track, directed by Cole Bennett, is not quite ready for release yet. But don’t fret, Marshall Mathers fans. He recently took to social media to apologize for the delay in the visuals’ release, but did include a short clip from the upcoming video to hold fans over.
“The Tobey video is not completed- new date Monday 7/8,” Eminem captioned the clip on Twitter. “Here’s a peek in the meantime!!! Sorry 4 the delay.” In the snippet, you can see BabyTron walk past Eminem, who’s sitting on the steps of his iconic house featured in the cover art for The Marshall Mathers LP and its 2013 direct sequel. It’s a bit of a full-circle moment for the Detroit legend, as well as for the city’s own Big Sean. “Not gon hold you, Slim Shady LP was the first CD i bought wit my own money at Costco,” he recently tweeted. “Me n Em bout 4 songs in now (DVE, No Favors, Detroit 2 cypher) but being on The Death Of Slim Shady is full circle. I aint know when i bought that, that id be one of the next 1’s out da city…”
Meanwhile, “Tobey” drew some interesting reactions online for wholly different reasons relating to a lot of prominent rap beef in 2024. With Kendrick Lamar and Drake going at it, maybe folks became too battle-pilled to treat Eminem’s competitive bars on the song as anything other than direct shots. Specifically, they thought that he dissed Jay-Z. But Royce Da 5’9″ quickly hopped online to debunk this rumor.
Despite all the hype behind Eminem, “Tobey,” and The Death Of Slim Shady right now, not everyone is all the way on board. “Numbers wise, Eminem is the best Detroit rapper but the gag is nobody would say that in Detroit,” the 313’s Skilla Baby recently posited. “Numbers wise, it’s Eminem but nobody in Detroit is playing Eminem right now and I was an Eminem fan as a kid. I’m a fan of Eminem but do we consider him our best rapper? I don’t think Detroit does.”
Eminem’s rollout for The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) is fully underway, and fans are even more excited for the album thanks to the new single “Tobey” featuring Big Sean and BabyTron. Moreover, the Detroit affair is an absolute lyrical onslaughts, with rapid bars landing over an eerie, dramatic, and percussively minimal instrumental. Fans seem pretty impressed from what early online reactions suggest, pointing out some of their favorite bars and remarking on all MCs’ lyrical capabilities. It seems like we’ll be saying goodbye to the iconic alter-ego, but die-hards are confident that this will be a fitting, fulfilling, and bombastic conclusion to his story.
Furthermore, we already have a release date for The Death Of Slim Shady this summer, so fans are officially counting down the clock for it. It’s going to be a very interesting project to dive into, as there could be some conceptual connections and probably a lot of self-reflection. While this new song isn’t as Slim Shady-esque as some might expect, it does see Eminem performing at a high capacity, building off of Big Sean and BabyTron’s confident and speedy verses. Also, one of the most exciting things about these singles is seeing how their context changes on the LP itself.
However, we’d be remiss not to mention that Eminem claims the hip-hop throne on “Tobey,” standing by his “ripping” of other rappers that folks often place higher than him on all-time lists. We do have a recent example to look at on this point, as Marshall Mathers recently made Lil Wayne’s list of his top five MCs of all time. Also included were Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, Biggie Smalls, and Drake, and if you’re counting a posthumous collab with The Notorious B.I.G., Em’s collaborated (and arguably murked) all of these spitters on some songs, including Weezy. Check out some of fans’ reactions to “Tobey” that lend credence to this idea.
if you were one of the people who thought Eminem should let it slide when Melle Mel dissed him. Yo, get up, get off the floor wake up Tobey pic.twitter.com/7kNbEX6I08
Meanwhile, 50 Cent recently championed Eminem as an example of true friendship in his life. “My friends are important to me, I have came across so many suckers I value them,” Fif captioned a picture of them together. “I learned a lot about my self over the years. I don’t need a lot of friends, just a few good ones.”
Detroit is coming back with full force, as three generations of the city’s rappers are coming together on one of the most anticipated releases of the year. Eminem will drop his new album The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) later this year, and on Friday (June 28), he announced the next phase of his rollout. Moreover, he unveiled a short but chainsaw-bloodied visual clip teasing the release of the new single “Tobey,” which will feature Big Sean and BabyTron. “Tobey Maguiregot bit by a spider, but see, me? It was a goat,” you can hear ‘Tron rap towards the end of the eerie snippet.
Tobey Maguire, of course, played the beloved titular role in 2002’s Spider-Man, but Eminem, Big Sean, and BabyTron represent Detroit GOATs. A lot of fans are very excited about this upcoming track, as folks might not have expected Marshall Mathers to link up with ‘Tron (he has other collabs with the Sean Don). The fact that it’s all three of them together just makes it all the merrier, and a Detroit-style instrumental after a beat switch would go absolutely hard. But we’ll be happy with whatever comes of this, and we’ll probably be surprised. After all, the “Houdini” lyricist has more than a few tricks up his sleeve.
Furthermore, Eminem recently achieved a tall but not at all shocking honor: landing on Lil Wayne’s top five MCs of all time list. No one really batted an eye at his placement on here, instead focusing on the obvious but currently charged choice from Weezy to put his Young Money partner Drake on there and not his 2024 beef rival Kendrick Lamar. What most fans really hope from The Death Of Slim Shady is that Em proves consistently and in at least corny of a way as possible why he deserves to be on there. But it seems like this project might lean into a tongue-in-cheek approach to his career, which is also very welcome.
Still, are you excited for this upcoming collaboration between Eminem, Big Sean, and BabyTron? Beyond “Tobey,” what are your predictions for The Death Of Slim Shady and what kind of bars we’ll get from him? Whatever the case, drop your thoughts down in the comments section below. Also, come back to HNHH for the latest updates on the rap world around the clock.
Later this summer, the world will mourn the death of one of music’s most influential and successful provocateurs: that one guy working at Burger King, spitting on your onion rings. As magnanimous and lauded as Eminem’s work is, and as much as people have started to hate on it over time, nothing represents the highs and lows of the Detroit rapper’s career quite like his Slim Shady persona. Moreover, the announcement of his new album, The Death Of Slim Shady, calls into question what the future really holds for Marshall Mathers. Will his art continue without Shady, is this his final album as an artist, or will another persona rise like a phoenix to bring his career out of the ashes for a (third? fourth?) revamp?
Regardless of what goes down with this new LP this summer, we’re taking a look at just a handful of Slim Shady bars that would still turn many caring souls into Karens on impact. Eminem’s alter ego has used every taboo, trigger word, or buzz term under the sun as a punching bag or punchline: murder, homophobia, racism, sexism, sodomy, sex, drugs, the youth, war, the military, politics, mental health, the rap game, celebrities, pop culture, divorce, religion… even gerbils, to most sane people’s disgust. Whether to subvert, challenge, offend, or simply reflect poor taste, he’s got one heck of a lyrical legacy that paved the way for so much good (and bad) in not just hip-hop, but pop culture at large. So before Slim’s “death” this summer, and in chronological order, let’s debate over which of his many quotables across his discography should be on his tombstone.
What better place to start than our introduction to Slim Shady? While there are plenty of wild bars here, we picked one that is already quite disturbing as is, but was reportedly originally meant to be much more harrowing. “Extraterrestrial, running over pedestrians / In a spaceship, while they’re screaming at me, ‘Let’s just be friends!’” Eminem raps on the cut. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, according to Em’s autobiography The Way I Am from 2009 (plus various other reports), the original version was this: “Extraterrestrial, killing pedestrians / R**ing lesbians while they’re screaming, ‘Let’s just be friends!‘” He changed it because Labi Siffre, a gay rights activist, found this and other lines on this song to be homophobic, and would not clear the sample of his song “I Got The…” for “My Name Is.” As provocative as Shady could be, he could’ve been way worse…
“The Real Slim Shady” (2000, The Marshall Mathers LP)
Of course, this classic couldn’t go without a mention either, and one particular line kept its controversial luster over the years for interestingly different reasons. “But if we can hump dead animals and antelopes / Then there’s no reason that a man and another man can’t elope,” Eminem spits towards the end of this first verse. Its first part refers to MTV star Tom Green’s moose-humping antics, and it overall argues that folks shouldn’t treat homosexuality as disgusting if they find Green’s comedy funny. Yes, it points out double standards in what is permitted and what is “taboo” in media and culture, but it’s also a backhanded way to denounce homophobia, which was much more common back then. Especially today, we can’t help but wonder if there was a less derogatory way to stand for gay rights. Then again, Slim Shady doesn’t discriminate: he hates and mocks everyone equally.
“I’m Back” (2000, The Marshall Mathers LP)
And when he returned, the world was never really the same. The reason why? Particularly abhorrent but still intricate lines like “If this chick was my own mother, I’d still f**k her with no rubber / And cum inside her and have a son and a new brother / At the same time and just say that it ain’t mine,” directed towards Jennifer Lopez and, by association, to taunt Diddy. To say that this is probably the most sickening line on this Slim Shady cult gem, which also includes a censored reference to the Columbine shootings, should really illustrate just how sick Eminem was back then, and not in a good way. Alas, even incest is something that these alter egos rarely tackle, and to tack this on before the last chorus of “I’m Back” is one heck of a mic drop.
“Without Me” (2002, The Eminem Show)
We promise this is the last classic on the list, but sometimes democracy is right. Speaking of democracy, one of the most cutting lines on here isn’t explicitly profane; just a cold jab at a politician’s health and a quick but merciless dismissal of criticism. “I know that you got a job, Ms. Cheney / But your husband’s heart problem’s complicating,” Eminem raps, responding to her denouncement of his lyrical content.
So, what does he do to Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife? Does Shady critique their politics and war-mongering, cut them up in a billion little pieces, put his bum on their lips, or spike their drinks at a cocktail party? In other words, does he prove them right? No. He just remembers the VP’s four heart attacks before this song’s release (which rose to five afterward), recalls his three heart procedures at the time, and tells Lynne: “Your husband’s going to die soon.” Yikes…
“A** Like That” (2004, Encore)
Now we get to the slightly deeper cuts from Slim Shady that don’t have the benefit of the doubt or the undisputed quality of his best work. Over an Indian-inspired beat, and with a pretty offensive Asian and Southeast Asian accent, Eminem’s lust takes aim at Hilary Duff… who was 17 years old when this song came out. “Hilary Duff is not quite old enough, so I ain’t never seen a butt like that / Maybe next year, I’ll say ‘a**’ and she’ll make my pee-pee go d-doing, doing, doing.” From 2004’s Encore onwards, and especially on 2009’s Relapse, Slim Shady starts to use more accents to find way more ethnicities and cultures to make fun of. Add to that his obsession with celebrities and crossing any sort of line, you have one of the most cringe-worthy moments in his entire catalog.
“Same Song & Dance” (2009, Relapse)
Speaking of the 2009 album Relapse, this song doesn’t lean into the accents as much, or into cultural appropriation, but it’s among the most explicit, descriptive, and disturbing accounts of targeting various celebrity women and engaging in murder, sexual assault, and the like. “I’m ’bout to make a new outfit out of you / New outfit? S**t, I’ll make a suit out of you, shoot / Now, show me how you move, baby, do how a-you do,” Slim Shady threatens towards the end of the song. It’s one of many horrible moments of describing torture, with this one specifically referencing the skin-wearing villain from the film The Silence Of The Lambs, Buffalo Bill. Eminem doesn’t usually break out the skin-carving in his murderous or sexually depraved narratives, so we at least need to give him points for creativity… or is it the other way around?
“Fall” (2017, Kamikaze)
This is easily the least shocking or controversial bar on this list, but we included it because we think it’s not only one of, if not the most controversial, Eminem lyric to appear in his late-career arc. It’s also possibly indicative of what his creativity looks like today and what The Death Of Slim Shady could really mean. On this song, Marshall Mathers targets Tyler, The Creator, his then-recently revealed sexual orientation, and his criticism of Em’s later work despite being a lifelong fan. “Tyler create nothin’, I see why you called yourself a f***ot, b***h,” he raps, and it’s important to note that in no version of the song does he actually or fully pronounce or spell out the homophobic slur. An improvement from his early stuff, at least, but with even more backlash than in the past.
For one, this isn’t really Slim Shady anymore: this is Em, Slim, and Marshall all rolled into one throughout this LP. It doesn’t have the same shock value or relevance as back in the 2000s. This song came out during a more progressive time in hip-hop (although some fanbases sadly haven’t caught up), and represents the then-45-year-old MC’s anger at the negative reception to his post-2000s work. Furthermore, the personalities became harder to distinguish, and any attempt to shock or subvert in the same way he did for decades was more corny than controversial. Nevertheless, it does pose an interesting question as to how Eminem will deal with Shady’s loss after this summer, whether that rebellious and brash part of him can ever really die in his music, and what are the sides of him that this persona has, for better or worse, obscured from our view.
(@ShawnIsShady) July 12, 2024
#TheDeathOfSlimShady pic.twitter.com/qaZToCwFa3
wake up 
(@ByDobson)