One of the best songs on Eminem‘s The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) is “Temporary,” a sweet ode to the rapper’s daughter, Hailie Jade. The music video for the track is equally touching, with home video footage of the two of them. It culminates with Hailie Jade giving her dad a Detroit Lions jersey with “Grandpa” on the back. That’s right, Eminem — who once rhymed “I smacked him in his face with an eraser, chased him with a stapler” with “and stapled his nuts to a stack of paper” — is about to be a grandfather. To quote Em himself: damn.
You can watch the music video for “Temporary” (which features vocals from Skylar Grey) above.
Hailie Jade discussed her reaction to “Temporary” and “Somebody Save Me,” which depicts an alternate reality where Eminem died when she was young, on a recent episode of her Just A Little Shady podcast.
“Speaking of things I watched this past week, which I guess I’ll say watched, but I refused to watch again — the ‘Somebody Save Me’ music video is out and I did watch the thing. I don’t think I can do it again. I definitely cry every time I hear it at all,” she said. “Between that and ‘Temporary,’ OK, well, that I listened to and it broke me. I audibly sobbed I think for both songs, but especially ‘Temporary.’”
In the words of Tsu Surf, rap is like basketball. Rick Ross and Meek Mill already claimed the “Shaq & Kobe” as the metaphoric comparison for their musical relationship.
Now, Eminem and 2 Chainz have staked ownership in another sports powerhouse pairing. Today (September 13), Eminem shared their latest collaboration “Kyrie & Luka,” which is featured on The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce): Expanded Mourner’s Edition.
Dallas Mavericks stars Kyrie Irving and Luka Dončić’s ability to bounce back from obstacles on the court serve as the track’s inspiration. 2 Chainz kicks the boastful track off rapping about just how far he’s come after being counted out earlier in his career. “School of hard knocks, I can f*ck around and teach you / License to kill, and I just got ‘еm renewed / Spokе to Def Jam and they talkin’ ’bout a renote / Spoke to Ghazi, and he can pay me in crypto,” rapper 2 Chainz.
“Hold up / Spit syllables on the mic in the booth / Like I’m at Drew’s, even if I win or lose / I’m in the news, even my interviews / Get like five million views, I get accused of misogyny because I will massage any bitch just like a masseuse,” he ended his verse.
Listen to Eminem’s latest song “Kyrie & Luka” featuring 2 Chainz above.
The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce): Expanded Mourner’s Edition is out now. Find more information here.
Eminem is tough as nail when it comes to any rap foe that takes aim at him. However, when it comes to the “Tobey” rapper’s relationship with his daughter Hailie Jade, he is a big ole softy.
On Eminem’s latest album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), he displayed his vulnerable side as a father on tracks like “Somebody Save Me” featuring Jelly Roll and “Temporary.” Yesterday (August 23), Hailie Jade confessed that each track brought her to tears.
On the latest episode of her podcast, Just A Little Shady, Hailie shared her emotional response after she listened to the records.
Although she admitted that she could only watch the official music video for “Somebody Save Me,” which features home footage, due to the overwhelming feeling it brought forth, the songs are another story.
“I definitely cry every time I hear it at all,” she said. “Between [Somebody Save Me] and ‘Temporary,’… I audibly sobbed I think for both songs but especially ‘Temporary.’”
While Eminem is proudly sober now, things weren’t always that way. One “Somebody Save Me,” Eminem things back on those times. However, Hailie Jade praised her parents for protecting her from truly seeing how difficult their battle with addiction was.
“I feel like my parents did such a good job growing up where I didn’t realize how bad things were,” she said. “But, now as like, an adult in hindsight, it’s so scary to think about. And I think that’s why I get emotional so much, like just thinking that could have happened.”
Watch the full episode of the Just A Little Shady podcast hosted by Hailie Jade with co-host Brittany Ednie above.
Eminem‘s most emotive Death Of Slim Shady track, “Somebody Save Me” with Jelly Roll, gets a gut-wrenching video. The rap concept album finds the battle-scarred Detroit vet in a contemplative mood, fighting with his vindictive alter ego and the impacts it’s had on his life, so naturally, the “Somebody Save Me” video makes that struggle literal but in a much less jokey way than his prior videos for “Tobey” and “Houdini.”
In the lyrics to “Somebody Save Me,” Em imagines a horrifying alternate timeline in which he succumbs to the effects of depression and drug dependency and how it would have affected his family. In the video, Em is trapped watching such scenes play out in a glass box, seeing himself lose — or throw away — all the good that has resulted from his decision to get sober. The video ends with a call to action, telling viewers there’s help and offering a link to free therapy services. You can check that out here. Jelly Roll, who appears in the video to sing the chorus, makes for a strong choice on the song, as he’s had similar struggles, and that lived experience shines through his performance.
You can watch Eminem’s “Somebody Save Me” video above.
The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) is out now via Shady Records/Aftermath/Interscope. You can find more info here.
Although hip-hop as a genre is no stranger to the concept album as a format, there would be little resistance to the assessment that there’s been a bit of a drought of such projects over the past few years. As the industry seeks to game algorithms, chase trends, and otherwise appeal to contracting attention spans and expanding options for occupying that attention, there have been fewer rap albums looking to pushing the envelope, tell a story, or explore a specific theme.
New releases from Blxst, Eminem, Lupe Fiasco, and more may have broken that trend, bringing the rap concept album back in a big way in 2024.
First, let’s define a concept album, to determine just what criteria these projects have met and why there have been so few concept albums in hip-hop over the past few years. While there’s no objective consensus or definition, critics generally accept that a concept album “is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually,” which is usually accomplished through a narrative tying the songs together. For our purposes here, let’s think of something like Kendrick Lamar’s debut album Good Kid, MAAD City, which tells the story of a day in its protagonist’s life in the city of Compton.
A more recent, albeit overlooked, example would be Skyzoo’s The Mind Of A Saint, which recounts the events of the gangster television series Snowfall from the perspective of its lead character, Franklin Saint. A concept album doesn’t always need to tell a complete story, but in general, this is one of the easiest ways to recognize one and a common trait of the albums we’re comparing here. Relatedly, Skyzoo’s last project also exemplifies why it feels like there’s been such a dearth of such projects recently. Indie and underground rappers like Sky (and peers such as Ka, Open Mike Eagle, and Armand Hammer) have generally been the main ones pushing this format, so concept albums usually go overlooked and underrepresented in the mainstream.
Even Googling something like “rap concept albums 2020s” only generates a list 13 albums long… in a four-year span that’s seen hundreds of new albums released (yes, Google kinda sucks now, but it’s saying something that there are so few albums that could easily be recognized as concept albums since the pandemic). Among the modern crop of rappers, there was at one point a wealth of artists crafting projects around the exploration of a singular theme or narrative — Kendrick Lamar, Mac Miller, and Shabazz Palaces, were all artists who released concept albums I’ve covered here at Uproxx, but lately, there have been fewer and fewer of such projects in favor of 20-plus-track single-paloozas that make great party records or cruising records or “cleaning the house” records.
Which brings us to 2024 and the sudden explosion of albums organized around central narratives, such as Blxst’s debut, I’ll Always Come Find You, Eminem’s The Death Of Slim Shady, and Lupe Fiasco’s Samurai, all released within the last month. With I’ll Always Come Find You, Blxst explores themes of legacy, loyalty, and self-sufficiency through the story of Birdie, a young man who inherits a chauffeur car service when his father dies suddenly, and through the experience finds the life lessons that his patriarch imparted to him reinforced as he encounters fake friends, fair weather flings, and tough choices as he comes of age and accepts his responsibilities. The story is told both through skits that literally depict Birdie’s conversations with various characters, and through the topics of songs like “Too Many Friday Nights,” “Bad Idea,” and “Better Off Friends.”
Likewise, The Death Of Slim Shady relates exactly the tale suggested by its title, as Eminem describes how he came to create the mischievous identity that drove his early success — and how getting lost in it nearly cost him everything. Over the course of the album (so much so that he told fans how important it is to listen in order), Eminem examines the effects his alter ego has had on his life, wrestling with Slim directly on “Guilty Conscience 2,” and reflecting on darker potential outcomes on album closer “Somebody Save Me.” Of course, some fans have determined that the album works just as well in reverse order, ending with the demise of Eminem himself as Shady triumphs, while others perceive a cyclical nature to the battle between the two, with the album’s outro leading into its intro on repeat listens.
Then there’s Lupe Fiasco’s Samurai, which might have the most bugged-out theme of all. Described by Lupe as a tribute to Amy Winehouse, the album expands on a vignette from the documentary chronicling the late soul singer’s life. In a phone call with producer Salaam Remi, Winehouse shares an ambition for battle rap, metaphorically comparing the skill to the martial arts practiced by samurai warriors. Lupe turns the metaphor literal (metaphorically speaking), imagining an alternate history for Winehouse as exactly that: A battle-rapping samurai who manages to face down her demons rather than being consumed by them.
What makes this mini-explosion of concept albums notable is not just their proximity to one another, all dropping in the span of a few weeks, but that they are also coming from some of the biggest names in rap. Blxst is an exciting newcomer with plenty of appeal for younger audiences, while Lupe Fiasco is a respected veteran still closely tied to contemporaries like Drake, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar. Eminem, of course, is the biggest name in rap (especially for certain audiences) and his album has topped the Billboard 200 in a year in which the biggest hit so far is an aggressive battle rap aimed at the most prolific hitmaker of the past decade. And all that’s before you add in under-the-radar contributions like Heems’ Lafandar, Kyle’s Smyle Again, and Vince Staples’ Dark Times.
That these albums are seeing such heights of success opens the way for more rappers to get deep on future projects, expanding the boundaries of what hip-hop can and should be. While there’s plenty of room for party music and battle rap, there should always be a space for hip-hop’s high-art aspirations, too. And in 2024, that space has not only grown, it’s proving to be very fertile.
Although, the “Tobey” rapper gave out a few flowers across the body of work, he couldn’t help but delivery a few jabs as well. On tracks “Lucifer” and “Bad One,” Eminem had a fresh round of disses for Owens.
Owens took to her official YouTube channel to clap back, calling Eminem a “lefty elitist” that “cosplays” as a race that he isn’t.
“You’re so irrelevant,” she said. “Your music isn’t good anymore, Granddad Shady. He is a lesson to a lot of people out there that you need to know when it’s time for you to retire.”
The nicknames (“Grand Wizard,” “Klandace,” and “Grand Dragon”) Eminem gifted to Owens weren’t as PG-13 not his sharp lines.
“And Candice O, I ain’t mad at her/ I ain’t gon’ throw the fact b*tch forgot she was Black back at her / Laugh at her, like them crackers she’s backin’ after,” rapper Em on “Lucifer.”
On “”Bad One,” Eminem rapped, “she turned her back on her own race,” in reference to her public supporter of Donald Trump and critics of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Listen Eminem’s songs “Lucifer” featuring Sly Pyper and “Bad One” featuring White Gold below.
The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) is out now via Shady/Aftermath/Interscope. Find more information here.
Eminem’s been at this rap thing for a very long time — and unfortunately, over the past few years, he’s started to show his age. While still as technically proficient as ever, the battle rap veteran has also seen his musical output over the last half-decade or so stultify, with only his most loyal fans appreciating his efforts at being “the best rapper” and not making “the best albums,” as he once put it.
And so, his latest, The Death Of Slim Shady, might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but there is something interesting here. On the album’s opening track, “Renaissance,” Em does something that’s become rare for him, depending on who you ask: He makes a great point. In a diverting excursion “inside the mind of a hater,” the 51-year-old notes, “I don’t see no fans, all I see’s a bunch of complainers.” Over the course of the song, he expands on this concept, illustrating his true worry: That fans caught up in nitpicking their favorite rappers won’t appreciate what they’ve got ’til it’s gone.
Lord knows, rap fans love complaining about a perceived dearth of care and craftsmanship when it comes to the art of rhyme. It seems every decade, there’s a new subgenre of rap to rail against: When I was coming up, it was “ringtone rap.” More recently, “mumble rap” has been the target of so many criticisms, while elders of the rap game, from Kool Moe Dee to Joe Budden, have always decried the rise of each successive wave of youngsters who rejected tradition, rewrote the rules of rhyme, or otherwise broke from established norms of hip-hop.
Yet, while doing so, they seemingly overlook so many of the contemporary rappers who seemingly deliver exactly what they want. When rap critics deplored the culture’s slide into criminality in the ’90s in efforts to feed the hunger for “thug” imagery, so-called “conscious rappers” like Common, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest were ridiculed — if not outright ignored — by the mainstream. When “jiggy rap” ruled the airwaves, B-boy traditionalists like Mos Def and Talib Kweli toiled away on the underground circuit — the same circuit that spawned Eminem himself.
Even Kendrick Lamar, who Em name-checks in his “Renaissance” verse (“‘Kendrick’s album was cool, but it didn’t have any bangers’,” says the mind of the hater), has pointed this out in his own discography. On “Hood Politics,” from his 2015 album To Pimp A Butterfly, Kendrick raps, “Everybody want to talk about who this and who that / Who the realest and who wack, or who white or who black / Critics want to mention that they miss when hip-hop was rappin’ / Motherf*cker, if you did, then Killer Mike’d be platinum,” acknowledging how the Atlanta rapper’s commercial reception rarely lived up to his critical acclaim.
On “Renaissance,” Em drives the point home, name-checking a slew of other alternative or underground ’90s rap acts, along with some of the better-known ones to illustrate how quickly time sweeps away artifacts that aren’t appreciated enough to be preserved. Wise Intelligent and Cella Dwellas are two acts with impeccable reputations for potent, well-crafted rhymes, but the height of either act’s commercial reception was Cella Dwellas’ 1996 debut Realms ‘n Reality, which only peaked at 160 on the Billboard 200. They haven’t put out anything since. Wise Intelligent’s last album was released in 2018, and truthfully, researching for this piece was my first time hearing about it.
Em also calls out Big Daddy Kane, who was once regarded one of the foremost lyricists in all of hip-hop, a pioneer who helped advance the technique used in rap by light years ahead of where it was when he first debuted in 1986. Yet, by 1994 — less than 10 years later — he was being treated as an also-ran, with the lukewarm reception of his sixth album Daddy’s Home prompting him to take a long break from releasing music. He still raps, making occasional guest appearances on projects from the long (long, long, long) list of rappers he’s inspired — including Little Brother, MF DOOM, Rapsody, The Roots, and more. But he hasn’t made a new album since 1998’s Veteranz’ Day, and he’s largely considered a relic of the Golden Era, not a titan of the culture like proteges Jay-Z, Eminem, and Black Thought.
Uproxx’s Elliott Wilson called 2024 the best year in hip-hop, hands down. Putting A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie at No. 5 on his best albums list and overlooking albums from LA County natives like Schoolboy Q and Vince Staples notwithstanding, I agree. So, apparently, does Eminem, who goes out of his way to give a nod to J. Cole’s Might Delete Later. But with all these great rappers making great albums, rap fans seem caught up in their disappointment about projects they don’t like or that fell short, or in the contextual circumstances of those albums, like dismissing J. Cole for bowing out of the Kendrick Lamar/Drake beef.
Eminem harps on the past on his latest album to warn us what could happen in the future. Rap fans who’ve wanted lyrics to return to the spotlight have had a smorgasbord in 2024, but if they keep overlooking the good, they’ll only be left with the bad. At that point, they’ll have no one to blame but themselves.
At one point in time, Eminem was the big bad wolf of hip-hop. To this day, the “Tobey” rapper doesn’t care who he offends or lyrically shoots at. But Eminem does have one soft spot, and it’s for his daughter, Hailie Jade.
Eminem seems to be excited to bury his alter ego, as seen in his latest album’s title, The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce). But there is another homecoming service atop his mind. On his song, “Temporary” featuring Skylar Grey, Eminem provides Hailie Jade with encouraging instruction on how to heal once he passes in real life.
“A lot of people ask me, am I afraid of death,” he says as the track opens. “The truth is, I think what scares me the most is not being able to say all the things I wanna say to you when I’m no longer here. So this song is for Hailie, for when that day comes.”
Throughout the track, Eminem sprinkled in throwback home audio clips of him and Hailie Jade. He playfully asks, “Where’s Hailie? Where’s she at?”
The eager then-toddler replied: “This ain’t Hailie, it’s a monster!”
Eminem fast forwards to present day to give his daughter of instructions for how to deal with his death: “Hailie Jade, I wrote you this song / To help you cope with life now that I’m gone. How should I start? Just wanna say look after Alaina, Stevie, and Uncle Nate / And sweetie, be strong.”
Listen to “Temporary” below.
The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) is out now via Shady/Aftermath/Interscope. Find more information here.
Eminem’s twelfth studio album, The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce), has arrived. However, anyone preparing to clutch their pearls at his latest round of raunchy, offensive humor might end up surprised. Rather than offending, Em opens the album defending fellow lyrical stalwarts like Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and his protege Joyner Lucas.
On album intro “Renaissance,” Eminem opts for more of a tongue-in-cheek jab at haters of his lyrical brothers-in-rhyme — a move some might call a bit of a departure from his usual provocation.
Now just 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 beef so I hated Might Delete Later”
You nerdy pricks would find somethin’ wrong with 36 Chambers
Eminem issued a directive to his fans on Thursday afternoon, July 11. “Public service announcement: The Death Of Slim Shady is a conceptual album, therefore, if you listen to songs out of order they might not make sense. Enjoy,” Em wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
When Will Eminem’s The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) Be On Apple Music?
The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) is due out on Friday, July 12, which logically means that the album can be expected to become available on Apple Music, Spotify, and all DSPs at 9 p.m. PT on Thursday, July 11, and midnight ET on Friday, July 12.
Eminem’s The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) Tracklist
1. “Renaissance”
2. “Habits”
3. “Trouble”
4. “Brand New Dance”
5. “Evil”
6. “All You Got (Skit)”
7. “Lucifer”
8. “Antichrist”
9. “Fuel”
10. “Road Rage”
11. “Houdini”
12. “Breaking News (Skit)”
13. “Guilty Conscience 2”
14. “Head Honcho”
15. “Temporary”
16. “Bad One”
17. “Tobey” Feat. Big Sean & BabyTron
18. “Guess Who’s Back (Skit)”
19. “Somebody Save Me”
Eminem’s The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) Album Cover Artwork
(@mosthiphop) 
Friday.