Credit: TRAVIS SHINN*
The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) was preceded by the lead singles “Houdini” and “Tobey,” which featured fellow Detroit rappers Big Sean and BabyTron. The record spans 19 tracks including early-career callbacks in a skit titled “Guess Who’s Back” — one of three interlude-like tracks — and “Guilty Conscience 2,” the follow-up to his Dr. Dre-assisted single “Guilty Conscious” from 1999’s The Slim Shady LP.
Eminem has been brutalizing and dismantling Slim Shady for weeks in the lead up to the album’s release. In the “Tobey” music video, he quite literally dismembered his infamous alter ego with a chainsaw. His other shots at Slim were less gruesome. In May, he published a faux obituary in the Detroit Free Press mourning the character’s so-called “tortured existence.”
“His complex and tortured existence has come to a close, and the legacy he leaves behind is no closer to resolution than the manner in which this character departed this world,” the obituary read.
“A product of Detroit who began his career there as a rogue splinter in the flourishing underground rap scene of the mid to late 1990s, 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,” it continued. “Ultimately, the very things that seemed to be the tools he used became calling cards that defined an existence that could only come to a sudden and horrific end.”
The memoriam concluded: “May he truly find the peace in an afterlife that he could not find on Earth.”
The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) marks Eminem’s first full-length release since 2020’s Music to Be Murdered By.
