While you all are busy playing checkers on your phones, Eminem is playing multi-dimensional chess on his Apple Vision Pro headset. How do we know? Enterprising Stans went back to check the tape this week on an ad Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg released in February to promote their Gin & Juice cocktails in which the pair paid homage to Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction while seemingly prepping the runway for Em’s upcoming album, The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce).
In the two-minute spot the old friends and collaborators are dressed in black suits like the iconic film’s hitmen, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson), as they sit in a car at night and argue about doing what Snoop calls “this same dumb a– s–t again.” When Dre opens the trunk, an annoyed Snoop asks, “what the f–k am I supposed to do with this s–t?” as he stares at something in the car’s trunk that we never see.
They proceed to put on black leather gloves and grab what appears to be a body bag and shovel out of the trunk, burying the unseen corpse in a woodland grave and then enjoying a celebratory can of their new favorite beverage (and a blunt for Snoop, of course) before things go south. At the time, one commenter on Dre’s X post of the G&J teaser quipped, “I was waiting for Eminem to jump out of the trunk.”
On Wednesday (July 10), Eminem revealed the track list for the mortality-obsessed album due out on Friday (July 12) featuring 19 tracks that appear to touch on themes including death, rebirth, evil and resolution via tracks titled “Lucifer,” “Evil,” “Antichrist,” “Somebody Save Me” and “Temporary.” The cover art is in keeping with the death becomes Em theme, as it features Slim Shady’s head peeking out of a body bag with one eye wide open and a terrified look on his face. The album is also slated to feature “Guilty Conscience 2,” a sequel to the 1999 hit featuring Dre; for now it’s unclear if the good doctor will appear on the new track.
At press time a spokesperson for Eminem had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment about the fan speculation.
Watch the Gin & Juice ad below and see if you buy the theory.
