DETROIT — Eminem is in an album-length tussle with Gen Z, cancel culture and, chiefly, his alter ego Slim Shady on his new album “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce),” which was released to streaming services Friday.
The 19-song, 64-minute set finds Eminem/Slim Shady opining on topics such as transgender rights, pronoun usage, PC police and supposed taboo words, which he repeats with gleeful abandon, just like the devil-horned Slim Shady of old.
The world has of course changed over the last quarter-century since Eminem stormed onto the scene with “My Name Is,” but Em seems to long for a return to those carefree good ol’ days when he was pop culture’s merry villain prankster, the Joker with a microphone. Even his old nemesis Christopher Reeve — who died 20 years ago — gets multiple mentions across the album.
But that’s all Slim Shady talking, if you follow the album’s concept, which Eminem commented on in the lead-up to Friday’s release. “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,” Eminem wrote on X Thursday. “Enjoy.”
The Eminem/Slim Shady feud comes to a head on “Guilty Conscience 2,” a sequel to 1999’s “Guilty Conscience,” which featured Eminem and Dr. Dre as the angel and devil on the shoulders of a series of characters. “Guilty Conscience 2” is a showdown between Eminem and Slim, the two sides of Em’s brain, which ends with Em killing off his devil.
Or does it? The track, and the album to that point, is framed as a dream, with Eminem waking up, not sure what to make of what had transpired, and all the controversy-baiting lyrics — including references to overweight people, little people and people with mental disabilities — that pock the album.
The comedown after “Guilty Conscience 2,” which appears two-thirds of the way through the album, features less antagonistic subject matter, and a pair of tender songs for Eminem’s daughter.
Here are other headlines from the new album.
- Guests: Detroit rappers Big Sean and BabyTron are featured on the already released “Tobey,” and other guests on the set include Jelly Roll (he sings the chorus on album closer “Somebody Save Me,” which calls on Jelly’s own “Save Me”), JID (“Fuel”), Ez Mil (who raps in both English and Filipino on “Head Honcho”), D12’s Bizarre (“Antichrist”), Skylar Grey (“Temporary”) and Sly Pyper (“Lucifer” and “Road Rage”). Even WDIV-TV’s (Local 4) Devin Scillian and Kimberly Gill show up on a skit entitled “Breaking News.”
- Producers: The album features production by Eminem, Dr. Dre, Benny Blanco, Mr. Porter, White Gold, Fredwreck, Luis Resto, Dem Jointz, Don Cannon and more. Eminem is listed as a producer or co-producer of 18 of the album’s 19 songs, and Dre is featured as a producer on “Lucifer” and “Road Rage.”
- Hailie songs: Eminem’s daughter and frequent muse Hailie Jade gets a pair of songs dedicated to her. “Temporary” is a ballad with a chorus by Skylar Grey written from the perspective of Eminem saying goodbye to Hailie after he’s gone, and “Somebody Save Me” is an apology Hailie and Em’s other kids, from the alternate reality had Eminem not woken up from his 2007 overdose. Bizarre mentions Hailie’s podcast during his verse on “Antichrist.”
- Disses: There are too many celebrity namechecks to mention, as everybody from Alec Baldwin to Caitlyn Jenner to Nicki Minaj to, yes, Christopher Reeve are mentioned across the album, mostly in playful asides. A few others get it worse: Diddy receives several couplets, including one on “Fuel,” where Em implies Diddy was involved with the deaths of 2Pac and the Notorious B.I.G.; conservative commentator Candace Owens is called a “MAGA dirtbag in a skirt” on “Lucifer”; and Em revisits his long-running feud with MGK on “Bad One.”
- ‘Ha’: The track “Road Rage,” another back and forth between Eminem and Slim Shady, features an interpolation of Juvenile’s “Ha,” with Em rapping over a version of the 1998 song’s beat.
“The Death of Slim Shady” is Em’s first album since 2020’s “Music to Be Murdered By,” and his first album since 2017’s “Revival” to be backed by a full, advance promotional campaign. “Kamikaze” in 2018 and “Music to Be Murdered By” (as well as its companion, “Music to Be Murdered By — Side B”) were surprise releases.
“The Death of Slim Shady,” Eminem’s 12th studio album, was announced in April, the same night that Eminem appeared at the NFL draft.
The first single, “Houdini,” was released in May, and debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
Its follow-up, “Tobey,” was released last week.
