Eminem Releases New Album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce): Listen

Eminem has released his new album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace). After previewing his first album since 2020 with “Houdini” and “Tobey,” the Detroit rapper has delivered a concept album exploring his career milestones and controversies. Listen below.

The concept record, Eminem said, marks the final bow of his alter ego, Slim Shady. To promote the LP, he used tombstone imagery and published an obituary in the Detroit Free Pressand implored fans to listen to the record in order. He continually reckons with the alter ego and his controversial past. A tongue-in-cheek couplet proclaims, “Kendrick’s album was cool, but it ain’t no bangers/Wayne’s album or Ye’s, I can’t tell you which was lamer/Joyner’s album was old, Shady’s new shit is way worse.”

Elsewhere, he more explicitly departs from the Slim Shady persona in verses that, in a nod to his glory days, take pains to be as offensive as possible. “Antichrist” makes a point of pronouns and (in Shady’s voice) “woke BS,” before promising to “spit a bar” that’s “so hard, Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj’ll scissor.” The second verse addresses the harrowing video, released on May 17, of Diddy attacking his then-girlfriend Casse in a hotel in 2016:

But who else is so ruthless, actually witty and crude, horrible
Gruesome and treacherous like me, or spitting like mean?
The next idiot who asks me is going to get his ass beat up worse than Diddy.
But in reality, although
She probably ran out of the room with his fucking dildo
He tried to throw her a field goal, she told her to calm down
Now stick it back in my ass and grab the steel toe

To further emphasize the theme, the album cover depicts Slim Shady in a body bag and the music video for “Tobey” features Eminem attacking Slim Shady with a chainsaw.

Though “Tobey” guests Big Sean and BabyTron are the only featured artists, there are production credits for Dr. Dre on “Lucifer” and “Road Rage,” and Bizarre raps a verse laden with transphobic imagery as a coda on “Antichrist.” On “Road Rage,” Eminem addresses the subject head-on — “So transgender rights, where do I stand? Oh, I’m all for ’em, I’m real pro/But intercourse with you, would I have? No” — and proceeds in a similar vein.