Rapper courts controversy by name-checking ‘Rust’ cinematographer Halyna Hutchins

Eminem has courted further controversy on his new album The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) with a blunt reference to Alec Baldwin and the shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust.

The record arrives while Baldwin’s trial for involuntary manslaughter remains ongoing.

On a song titled “Fuel”, Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, raps: “F*** around and get popped like Halyna Hutchins / Like I’m Alec Baldwin, what I mean is buckin’ you down, coup de grâce then / Right between the f***in’ / I shoot ’em all in if you think you’re f***in’ with me.”

Baldwin has insisted that he didn’t pull the trigger on the firearm and didn’t know it contained a live round before the fatal shooting.

He has claimed the gun fired accidentally. He is charged with a single felony count of involuntary manslaughter and faces up to 18 months in prison if convicted.

Elsewhere on his new record, Eminem makes repeated reference to embattled music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, including an extended reference to footage of Combs’s shocking hotel corridor attack on his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura.

Marshall ‘Eminem’ Mathers and Alec Baldwin (Getty)

Combs has been the subject of 10 lawsuits alleging sexual assault and sex trafficking since last November. In March, homes belonging to Combs in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by officials from US Homeland Security in connection to a federal sex trafficking investigation.

Combs, who has repeatedly denied the allegations, has not been formally charged or accused by federal prosecutors of any crime.

On Eminem’s new track “Antichrist”, he makes reference to the video of Ventura’s assault by rapping:

“Next idiot ask me is gettin’ his ass beat worse than Diddy did / But on the real, though / She prolly ran out the room with his f***in’ dildo / He tried to field goal punt her, she said to chill / Now put it back in my ass and get the steel toe.”

In a two-star review of The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce), The Independent’s Stevie Chick wrote: “In the past decade or so, critics have suggested Eminem has been outpaced by new young rap talent. But the only emcee Marshall Mathers has really been competing against is his younger self.

“The Slim Shady alter-ego behind his 1999 breakthrough LP and the many hits that followed – most notably the brattish, bombastic ‘I’m Back’ – was Mathers’ id, minus the ego. A malevolent clown persona through which the Detroit rapper felt free to indulge every forbidden thought that crossed his transom, every misogynistic fantasy, homophobic zinger, and drug-addled boast. The sort of thing, we’re told, you couldn’t get away with today. Though not for lack of him trying.”