On this day in Hip Hop history, Eminem released his third, and most successful, studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP.
Executive produced by Dr. Dre and released under Aftermath/Interscope Records, this album sold 1.76 million copies in the first week alone, making it the fast selling album in music history (until 2015 when Adele‘s 25 smashed the record, selling 2.43 million). This success was set up well by Eminem’s previous release The Slim Shady LP, which shocked the world.
If you’ve ever listened to Eminem, you know how he rolls. If you’ve never listened to Eminem, this album may be the perfect amount of overwhelmingly violent and grotesque lyricism to either make you a life-long fan or turn to away forever (Slim Shady himself wouldn’t have it any other way). Eminem even kicks things off with a disclaimer warning any listener of what they’ve gotten themselves into listening to the album. Eminem touches subjects that a sensitive to the American public such as: depression, murder, rape, violence, suicide, mental disorder, drug abuse, homosexuality, and more. As beautifully painful as this album is, it is not for the faint of heart.
No album that speaks on what Eminem did on this project can be put out without ruffling feathers. The controversy that was met by this diamond certified album was monumental and set a precedent in Hip Hop for what you can and cannot say. Due to the ridiculous success of this project the backlash was international. Government officials across the globe had taken public stances against Eminem, his music, his supporters, and all that he stood for. US Senator Lynne Cheney was so up-in-arms against Eminem and his sponsors that she made an official statement against him saying,
“[Eminem is] promoting violence of the most degrading kind against women …[he is] a rap singer who advocates murder and rape.”
Ontario Attorney General Jim Flaherty attempted to keep Eminem from entering the country to perform at his October 26th, 2000 Toronto Skydome show saying,
“I personally don’t want anyone coming to Canada who will come here and advocate violence against women”.
Commercially, this is the most successful rap album of all time. The album is certified diamond in the selling 12.5 million copies in the United States alone. Overseas, the album went multiplatinum in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. It goes without saying that this album was also #1 on charts across the world. The album claimed top spot on music charts in three continents, appearing on charts in four. The album was nominated for two Grammy including Album of Year and Best Rap Album which it won.
The critical response to the album was just as outstanding as its sales. Eminem has been hailed as one of the holy trinity of biggest-selling rappers, the other two being 2Pac and Biggie of course. This album can be said to be the project that earned him his spot in that conversation. Regardless of how dark and twisted the lyrics may have been, the way they were put together was nearly flawless. Each bar spat was masterfully crafted. Slim Shady’s diction and syntax were unparalleled to anything out at the time. He balances both punch line concentrated rap and storytelling so well that this album is less of a compilation of songs and more of an autobiographical narrative describing what was going on in Em’s life at the time this album was written.
Following this project, Eminem went on to release two albums that were only marginally less successful that their predecessor before taking a five year hiatus from releasing music. In 2009 Eminem came back on the scene with three new albums over the next four years, none which were as successful as the first four. Nonetheless, Eminem is one of the greatest and the top selling rapper in the history of the genre. He deserves all accolades that he has been awarded. Take some time out today to listen to his greatest work.
Eminem is continuing to tease his forthcoming album. This week, Eminem took out a space in the obituary section of The Detroit Free Press newspaper to mourn the Slim Shady character.
A section headlined “Slim Shady Made Lasting Impressions” and showing Eminem in a Jason hockey mask reads: “A product of Detroit who began his career there was a rogue splinter the flourishing underground rap scene of the mid to late 1990’s, Shady first became a household name in 1999 with the debut of his playfully deranged single “My Name Is,” which – along with its uniquely eye catching video – exposed the young artist and his lyrics to a wider audience. That audience was soon exposed to the extreme darkness of the muse/rapper, as he led millions of music fans down a road that glorified a demonstrably nihilistic worldview.”
Eminem is ready to deliver a new album. Aiming for the summer, Eminem announced The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce).
The announcement comes via a true crime mock series that casts 50 Cent for a brief cameo. Also included is a detective setting the scene.
“Through his complex, tongue twisting and oft criticized rhymes, the blonde anti-hero known as Slim Shady has had no shortage of enemies,” the detective says. “The same rude lyrics and controversial antics might have ultimately led to his demise.”
Slim Shady will return. Well, technically. Eminem is gearing up for the release of his album The Death of Slim Shady, which will be the final chapter in his alter ego’s storyline. The catch is, like the title suggests, Slim is dead. The teaser that announced the album was structured like an old procedural show, in which witnesses reflect on what went wrong. It’s too early to tell how meta the lyrical content of the album will be, but the promo has definitely been consistent. Em has even posted an obituary in the newspaper.
“Slim Shady made lasting impression” read the Detroit Free press headline. The piece treats Slim like a real person, despite the comically exaggerated photo of him wearing a hockey mask above the headline. It does, however, address some of the satirical elements that Eminem has played with whenever he used the Shady moniker. “[His] audience was soon exposed to the extreme darkness of the muse/rapper,” the write posited. “As he led millions of music fans down a road glorified a demonstrably nihilistic worldview.” Slim’s background is common knowledge. It’s the revelatory details about his death, however, that make the piece fun to parse through.
The obituary notes that Slim Shady’s path was always going to come to a tragic end. “His complex and tortured existence has come to a close,” the writer posited. “And the legacy he leaves behind is no closer to resolution than the manner in which the character departed this world. May he truly find the peace in an afterlife that he could not find on Earth.” This is all consistent with the way that Eminem has talked about the Slim Shady persona over the years.
During a 1999 interview with Video Music Box, the rapper revealed that Slim Shady allowed him to free up his creative impulses without having to worry about whether they went too far. “Everybody’s got two sides to them,” he posited. “Slim Shady’s just an angry side for me to vent. Eminem is just me. When I sit down with a pen, sometimes I write Eminem rhymes, sometimes I write Slim Shady rhymes. It depends on what type of mood I’m in that day.” Two and a half decades later, it seems like the rapper is finally ready to let go of the Slim Shady safety net.
Aiming for the summer, Eminem announced The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) this past Friday.
The announcement comes via a true crime mock series that casts 50 Cent for a brief cameo. Also included is a detective setting the scene.
“Through his complex, tongue twisting and oft criticized rhymes, the blonde anti-hero known as Slim Shady has had no shortage of enemies,” the detective says. “The same rude lyrics and controversial antics might have ultimately led to his demise.”
The Eminem hype cycle has begun. The rapper has been quiet for nearly four years, but fans are feening for what he has to say on his upcoming album. Not just because he’s been gone for so long, but because the title of the album is, provocatively, The Death of Slim Shady. Em will be closing the book on his iconic alter ego, which means he will be bringing it back to the beginning of his career. 50 Cent popped up in the teaser video for the album to call Slim a “psychopath.” The bigger revelation came on Instagram, though, when the rapper hinted at the album’s production.
50 Cent hopped in the comment section of The Death of Slim Shady teaser to hype up fans even more. He announced that Dr Dre, the man who put both him and Em on, will be producing the album. “This sh*t got some heat on it,” he wrote. “Dre back at it!.” This is music to the ears of Eminem fans, since Dre was crucial in developing the Slim Shady persona. He produced the rapper’s breakout single, “My Name Is,” and served as an executive producer on The Slim Shady LP. He also provided beats and creative input for Em’s subsequent four releases.
Dr. Dre has continued to work with Eminem over the years, but his involvement has lessened. He only worked on the interludes for the rapper’s most recent album, Music to Be Murdered By. He was nowhere to be found on Kamikaze, and received only an executive producer credit on Revival. 50 makes it sound like Eminem and Dre are linking back up in a more significant way than they have in decades. The two men haven’t lost any respect for each other in this time. If anything, their appreciation for each other’s abilities has grown.
Dr. Dre praised Eminem’s lyricism during a recent appearance on This Life of Mine with James Corden. He went as far as to call Em the greatest rapper of all time. “His imagination is off the charts, and I don’t think anyone would disagree with that,” he noted. “I think he’s the best MC ever. Point blank, period. I don’t think anyone that’s rapping can touch Eminem on that microphone.” It’ll be exciting to see what these two cook up for Slim Shady’s final chapter.
Eminem has not released a solo album since 2020’s Music To Be Murdered By: Side B. However, Dr. Dre shocked the hip hop world weeks ago when he announced that his musical protege would be releasing an album later this year, remarking, “I’ve got songs on it, and it’s fire.” Now that fans have seen the first promotional materials for the new project, revealed to be titled The Death Of Slim Shady, a wave of excitement has already begun. This is also the first time Eminem has announced a project with advanced notice since his critically panned 2017 effort Revival. Subsequent Eminem drops have all been surprise releases.
Eminem’s recent efforts, such as his inclusion in the Lyrical Lemonade album All Is Yellow, have been praised as a return to form by many fans, leading some to believe The Death Of Slim Shady will be his strongest body of work in a long time. While we don’t have a tracklist or album art just yet, now is as good a time as any to speculate what hip-hop legends will appear on the project, or at least, which ones the fans would be most happy to see.
Eminem and Jay-Z haven’t traded bars since 2001’s “Renegade,” though they have always shown each other love. The pair also co-headlined the Home & Home tour together in 2010, sharing the stage for some of their greatest solo hits. While Jay-Z hasn’t been rapping much lately, it would surely be a monumental moment to get these two hip-hop icons back on a track together on The Death Of Slim Shady. Jay-Z was instrumental in bringing Eminem to the Super Bowl halftime show in 2022, so the pair definitely know how to get in touch with each other.
Despite having been once signed to a distribution deal with Shady Records, Westside Gunn has never properly shared a track with the Death Of Slim Shady rapper. Gunn and Benny The Butcher hopped on a remix of the Conway The Machine track “Bang” which featured Eminem back in 2019, though that is the closest we’ve ever been to getting an Eminem track with the core Griselda trio.
These days, it’s likely kind of a long shot to get Westside Gunn on any Shady Records release, as the rapper has alluded to the imprint offering a general lack of support since concluding his deal. Still, the very notion of Eminem spitting dense, wordplay-heavy lyrics over an Alchemist beat, ad-libbed by Westside Gunn shouting gun onomatopoeias is enough to give any hip-hop head the stank face.
Nas has offered Eminem something of a career blueprint in recent years, with his illustrious six-album run from 2020 through 2023 serving as some of the best music to be produced by a hip-hop elder in the history of the genre. Eminem popped up for a feature on the King’s Disease 2 track “EPMD 2,” prompting a flurry of questions from fans as to why these two legends don’t collaborate more often. Nas is currently gearing up for a full studio album with DJ Premiere, so there’s still plenty of time for Marshall to meet him in the studio if he hasn’t already.
Whether you love Eminem, hate him, or feel largely indifferent to his musical legacy, we can likely all agree that his work with 50 Cent is some of his best. 50 already appeared in the first promotional video for The Death Of Slim Shady, humorously confessing, “I thought we were friends. He’s not a friend, he’s a psychopath.” Like Jay-Z, 50 doesn’t come outside to rap quite as often as he used to, but if there’s one MC who could make him dust off his pen and spit a career-defining verse, it’s Eminem.
Em and 50 also recently appeared in a comedy skit for Jimmy Kimmel Live, which saw them operating on Kimmel alongside hip-hop legends Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. Given the evidence, it’s clear that Eminem and 50 Cent have been hanging out lately, so it would come as no surprise if it turns out that they’ve been in the booth together.
In the latter half of Eminem’s career, many albums have featured unnecessary collaborations with pop singers instead of respected hip-hop legends. This has been a key critique from Eminem fans and haters alike. Of all the hardcore rhymers Em has ever stood beside, Royce da 5’9″ has pushed him the hardest, getting incredible performances out of the Detroit MC on tracks such as “You Gon’ Learn,” “Fast Lane,” “Vegas,” and even the original version of “Renegade,” before Jay-Z jumped on it. Eminem launched his official studio career with the album The Slim Shady LP in 1999, prominently featuring Royce on the track “Bad Meets Evil.” If The Death Of Slim Shady truly is the closing of a chapter, there’s no other way for Eminem to do it than with at least one or two verses from his long-time Detroit cohort.
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.
Eminem is ready to deliver a new album. Aiming for the summer, Eminem announced The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce).
The announcement comes via a true crime mock series that casts 50 Cent for a brief cameo. Also included is a detective setting the scene.
“Through his complex, tongue twisting and oft criticized rhymes, the blonde anti-hero known as Slim Shady has had no shortage of enemies,” the detective says. “The same rude lyrics and controversial antics might have ultimately led to his demise.”
Eminem has been awfully quiet in the 2020s. The rapper who dominated pop culture in the 2000s and the pop charts in the 2010s hasn’t dropped an album in four years. The wait for new music is finally over, though. Eminem made a seemingly random appearance at the start of the NFL Draft on April 25, but the pieces fell into play when Em uploaded a video teaser to YouTube. It seems like the appearance was a way to drum up excitement for the rapper’s upcoming album, The Death of Slim Shady.
Eminem modeled the teaser after crime shows like Unsolved Mysteries. A man in a trenchcoat details the enemies that “Slim Shady” has made over the years due to his “tongue-twisting rhymes.” 50 Cent, Em’s longtime collaborator, then appears to voice his concern for the rapper’s alter ego. “He’s not a friend,” 50 says fearfully. “He’s a psychopath.” The teaser incorporates clips from classic Eminem videos like “Without Me” and “The Real Slim Shady.” The premise of the new album really comes focus, however, when the narrator reveals that Shady was killed. “The same rude and controversial lyrics may have ultimately led to [Shady’s] demise,” he theorizes.
The teaser confirms that Eminem’s new album, The Death of Slim Shady, will be released in summer 2024. The best part of the announcement comes at the very end, though when a pixelated Eminem moves to the side and accidentally reveals his true identity. The album boasts the subtitle “Coup de Grace,” which means “a final blow or shot given to kill a wounded person or animal.” Eminem created Slim Shady as a means of voicing his discontent when he was starting out. “When I started rapping as that character,” he told Fact Magazine. “It was a way for me to vent all my frustrations and just blame it on him. If anybody got mad about it, it was him that said it.”
The rapper has periodically returned to his alter ego over the years. He distanced himself from Slim Shady on Recovery (2010) and Revival (2017), but dove into the character’s zany antics on The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2014). Eminem’s recent albums have also tried to reckon with the skeletons of his past, whether it be addiction or family drama, so it makes sense he would close the book on his Slim in dramatic fashion.
Sometimes, rappers pull inspiration from the most unlikely places, especially long before their careers establish. For example, Slim Jxmmi recently revealed on The Bootleg Kev Podcast, on which he spoke alongside his brother and Rae Sremmurd partner Swae Lee, that he used to try to rap like Eminem. Not only that, but they both expressed being fans of the Detroit legend, despite hailing from Mississippi. During their conversation, they spoke on their recently released album Sremm 4Life, Internet virality, and many other topics. “That was definitely my favorite rapper [growing up],” Jxmmi remarked. “Man what, I used to do all that ‘Hi, my name is’ [stuff]. I used to like the way he rapped. I [even] used to try and rap like him at one point in time in my life.”
Furthermore, his use of the phrase “used to like” is quite interesting. Is he one of many Stans who think that his music fell off deeper into his career? Regardless, the Marshall Mathers connections to Rae Sremmurd run surprisingly deep. Slim Jxmmi’s rap name is quite similar to that of Em’s alter ego Slim Shady. Also, on Sremm 4 Life, they include an homage to the classic track “Stan” and the Dido song that it samples on the cut “Not So Bad (Leans Gone Cold).” While that track caused a dispute between the rap duo and fellow MC Millyz, it still made for a wild crossover moment.
However, it’s not the only hip-hop legends that the rap duo is connected to. Moreover, they addressed comparisons to Outkast, specifically a viral 2022 tweet that claimed that Rae Sremmurd was better than the Atlanta icons. “Y’all gotta chill,” they posted on Twitter, and each member actually elaborated on the comparison previously in a 2018 interview with NME. “Shout-out to OutKast man, they’re some originals in the game, so you can never compare us,” Slim Jxmmi stated. “But I think that Rae Sremmurd are doing our own thing, in our own way, in our era of time and music. But OutKast is a great group, and we really like them, you know what I’m saying?”
“I think the game is trying to turn us to some OutKast [comparisons],” Swae Lee added. “And there’s a lot of hate and hating on us going on because we’re doing our own thing and we’re in our own lane. They tried to turn Rae Sremmurd into OutKast and count us out, so we had to come out and remind them that, ‘Look, we’re here to stay.’” Regardless of your take on that, return to HNHH for more on Eminem, and the latest on Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi of Rae Sremmurd.
(@nojumper)