Guess who’s back? Eminem (Marshall Mathers) recently released his twelfth studio album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), a swan song of sorts to the rappers controversial yet beloved alter ego Slim Shady. The album, executive produced by Em, features the talents of several well-respected producers including Cole Bennett, DJ Premier, and longtime collaborator and mentor Dr. Dre who (amongst others) come together to create an eerie yet cohesively atmospheric track list that compliments the themes present within. With guest features including the likes of Big Sean, BabyTron, Jelly Roll, and JID (to name a few), this album is what I believe to be Em’s best attempt at “modernizing” himself with today’s musical trends and standards.
Coming off of his last album Music to be Murdered By, which received overall positive acclaim from both fans and critics, Eminem showed that despite his age (now 51), he still has plenty of talent (and bars) to share with the world—even when he's lacking a true target for his trademark anger and volatile insults. Now, Em has surprisingly turned the barrel on himself in a thematic yet contrived execution at canceling his alter ego and himself.
With a concept that sounds like a return to form harkening back to the edgier days of The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP, Em ultimately fails to drum up any worthwhile controversy while at the same time destroying one of his most beloved personas from the days of classic Eminem. This sad and uninspired attempt at a sendoff feels moreso like the corpse of Slim is being propped up and used as a means to sell more albums.
Despite my quarrels with his approach, you may be surprised to read that I find this album to easily be Em’s best work since Kamikaze—and even a promising sign of what Em is still capable of moving forward. My issues start with the new pitfalls associated with “modern Eminem,” which is to say his new “Mad Lib” style of wordplay we’ve heard more and more of in recent years. In an album centered around such an titular character in Eminem’s lore, how does Em ultimately deliver on the hype? Let’s look at the tracks and see if we can identify what exactly was done well and what can be improved in the future.
Tracks
Jump to Specific Tracks
"Renaissance” is a fun intro track that features a hard bass-heavy instrumental and an experimental new flow from Shady. However, while he may string words together in a catchy and fun way, I can’t help but call attention to the lack of substance in his words, which I can only describe as lyrical vomit. There is a playful flipping between personas that I think intro’s the albums concept well enough, although it admittedly doesn't come off as the cleverest approach. I would be remised, however, if I discounted the role nostalgia plays in hearing Em don the “Slim Shady” voice properly for the first time in what feels like forever.
Next, we pivot into “Habits (ft. White Gold).” I love the flows and instrumental on display here, which I believe are a phenomenal example of a modern version of Eminem done well. With that being said, the chorus completely ruins any replay value of this song for me. My only note for this song was: “This is the best we could write for this beat??” Despite this, White Gold’s vocals sound good enough, given what he was working with. Thematically, the purpose of this track centers around Em’s realization about his addiction to Slim and his need for controversy to stay relevant in the eyes of his fans. While this is admittedly a fairly shallow and obvious insight, I understand the necessity of including this perspective in the grander story so it gets a pass.
“Trouble” is a short musical skit where Slim takes control over Em after he gives in to his urges and relapses by drinking what I assume is a bottle of alcohol. This skit further explores the conflict between the two personas: The grown and mature Em who is trying to change and leave the past behind him, being pitted against the young, angsty Slim who thrives off bucking the status quo and leaving a trail of hate and anger in his wake. Overall, this is a fine inclusion in the album that I don’t necessarily love or hate. This is our first real glimpse into the weird “middle of the road” approach Em takes on this album in his attempts at generating controversy. You’ll notice how he really doesn’t say anything overly controversial in what appears to me as a clear show of pulling punches, which is especially apparent in his almost pointless attacks on blind and “retarded” people, because they’re…different, I guess? We’ll explore more of this as we work through the tracks because this certainly isn’t the only example of half-baked controversial statements on this album.
“Brand New Dance” is a fun/stupid track featuring accordions and a whacky orchestra of awkward but cohesive instrumentation. The track plays like it’s an outcast off Encore, which is widely regarded as one of Em’s most controversial/worst albums after coming off the tails of his legendary run with The Slim Shady LP, Marshall Mathers LP, and The Eminem Show. While it’s a fun track, it’s been more of a skip for me during subsequent listens. Nonetheless, I appreciate the inclusion and the change in atmosphere and tempo. However, the Christopher Reeves angle is way too overplayed at this point, and we’re only at the fourth track. Honestly, do people even know who Chris Reeves is these days? I certainly don’t, and I don’t really care to learn honestly. It still feels like Em is only dipping a single toe in the pool of controversy.
When it came to “Evil”, I’ll admit I had some lofty expectations going in that shifted my perspective. I really wanted to see a classic Royce da 5’9” feature here given the duo’s history starting with “Bad Meets Evil” from The Slim Shady LP and their collab album of the same name. So ultimately, when I didn’t get that, I was left feeling disappointed—but I recognize that’s due to my (somewhat understandable and realistic, albeit still incorrect) expectations. This track features an instrumental centered around an eerie piano with resonating boom-bap percussion. Overall, this was a very fitting track for the theming and atmosphere of this album. Here we explore standard Eminem subjects: doing misdeeds, his turbulent relationship with paternal figures, and lyrical wordplay akin to more simile vomit. Sadly, this track isn’t exactly an example of the evolution I hoped to see from Em when we’re this late into his career.
“Lucifer (feat. Sly Pyper)” has a fairly interesting instrumental with wonky strings and thumping bass lines. Sly Pyper’s feature kind of suffers from the same issues as White Gold’s where it sounds awkward lyrically, but the vocals are honestly well executed. I’m just not sure if I like it or not though…There’s a fun switch up 1/3 of the way through, but that loses impact for me when we look at the rest of the content on display here. For starters, we’re talking about his mom (Debbie Mathers) …again; and aside from that I don’t think there’s a different theme for this song outside of being cancelled. I’m writing this as I listen and he’s just doing fun wordplay the whole time. While it’s catchy and definitely cleverer than anything I or most people can come up with, I’d still like to see more substance at this point, because these Mad Lib bars are getting stale quickly. Oh, and now we’re mentioning his wicked stepdad…again. Did I mention he’s 51?
“Antichrist” looks to challenge a relevant and actually controversial topic in woke culture and modern pronouns. While the content was somewhat there, the instrumental is what feels uninspired this time around. There’s what I perceive to be a xylophone (?) and, you guessed it, more deep bass lines—this time with some hi-hats sprinkled throughout. Ultimately this is just another track where Eminem is being “evil”. Watch out women and children, he’s coming for you! Give me a break.
I just don’t see what, conceptually, separates this track from the last. While I believe they serve as a pseudo pairing into a “Pt 1. & Pt. 2” designed to come together to make a complete package, this just feels like more of the same and could’ve probably been omitted. However, I’d be remised if I didn’t mention one important point: As a Subaru owner, this song gains a bonus point for the line “Why you cryin’ shorty, cause I boo’d you? // Well b*tch, I’m tryna get some head up in this Subaru.” It just bounces really well with the beat, and I found it pretty funny. Also there’s a nostalgic Bizarre verse that stood out to me as fine but unmemorable.
“Fuel (feat. JID)” is straight GAS—a 10/10 track. JID completely destroys his verse in a display that cements him as one of the very few artists who outrapped Em on his own track (a hill I will gladly die on). What stood out to me most is the bar JID spits during the first switch: “RIP be on the shirt, search, alert, murk, squirt, dirt, first (forty-eight) // My n*gga doing four plus eight without a court date // talked to ‘em the other day, he say he doing okay // He good, he gaining weight then got a sharp shank” is a master crafted bar that tells a succinctly vivid and tragic story of a soured gang hit using clever language that leads into the results of the trigger man’s action. Overall, what we have here is simply an impeccable flow and impressively clever word play from the young talent.
Em’s verse is also very impressive and continues with the high-level energy JID set off in the first half. I found the writing here to be very strong from Em, with the cleverest bar being “I’m like an R-A-P-E-R, got so many S-As (S-As)// Wait, he didn’t just spell the word ‘rapper’ and leave out a P, did he?” Em’s strong suit has always been his unique way to twist vocabulary to its absolute limits and craft wordplay that not many rappers can even fathom is possible—let alone replicable. When done right and consistently, Em is clearly still one of the best lyricists of all time.
I just want to add that the production on this track is a masterpiece. The bombastic bass booms through the snappy snares (see—Em’s not the only one with clever wordplay) while the delivery from JID and Em is timely and hard-hitting, elevating this track to #1 in the discography—and it’s not even close.
Oh god, “Road Rage” is such a skip. I barely want to waste time on this awkward version of “Supersize Me” (but as a rap song!). We are now making fun of obese people—completing the trifecta of the easiest people to pick on Em could think of: People with physical handicaps, people he already picked fights with (and won), and himself. Even when this point is intentionally expressed by Em, I can’t help but feel it all still comes across as safe, lazy, and contrived.
Now “Houdini” is interesting. Being the first single from the album we got to hear prior to the album’s release, I’ll admit I wasn’t a fan when I first heard it. But it started to grow on me when I had the entire album accompanying it. Sure, it’s stupid; but it’s also a fun and nostalgic track that pulls inspiration and themes from across his discography, specifically taking heavy inspiration from The Eminem Show’s “Without Me”. Much like that track, the variety in Em’s flow is a nice complement to the whacky Dre production and really captures the sound and feel of Eminem at that point in his career. This track also opens the door to a clever Ken Kaniff callback later in the album—"Guess Who's Back"—that I appreciated.
While I feel the Slim Shady persona has been heavily muted throughout this project, “Guilty Conscience 2” provides our best look at classic Slim as he dukes it out with Marshall for control, not just over himself but over the direction and narrative of his career moving forward. Em takes time to air out his grievances with Shady—how he went from being born as a product of bullying to becoming rap’s biggest bully. Shady, in response, goes on the attack and calls out how he was used as a scapegoat for all the controversial content Eminem was saying in his lyrics—mirroring similar concerns aired by the public at the peak of “Shadymania.”
The production, I found, mirrors that of an epic battle soundtrack. Choirs, deep percussive elements (more boom bap), and with an eerie synth laired in the mix. However, I feel it lacks the shock value that made the first Guilty Conscience so memorable and iconic. The issues with Eminem being his own enemy comes to a head here, but I feel that by being his own target, we have an album that strives to be as angsty as Kamikaze without pushing boundaries and societal norms in a more boring lens, closely mirroring sentiments made by fans following the release of his commercial flop Revival.
“Head Honcho (feat. Ez Mil)” is a fun, thematic track with a solid feature from Ez Mil—although I question the decision to have the first half of his verse in an entirely different language…I would have maybe flipped his verse with Em’s because I personally had a hard time sticking with a song that sounded like complete gibberish for the first half (coming from someone who doesn’t understand the language). It’s a shallow complaint but it affects my ability to really resonate or connect with the track, so I figured I’d mention it.
“Temporary (Feat. Skylar Grey)” is just so uninspired. Here we are with another obligatory Em sad song consisting of another obligatory Skylar Grey feature. And of course, this is also the obligatory Hailie-centric track for this album…As I’ve outlined it, this song feels like it’s here just for check boxes. My main gripe is how there’s nothing new presented here—we’ve already explored the concept of Em’s death by OD and its effect on his family (see “Castle” on Revival— yeah, I bet you didn’t think I listened to that garbage, but I did.) It’s a touching song and I appreciate the little sound bites, but it isn’t doing anything for me when we’ve already touched on this topic multiple times in the past.
Alright, it’s time to call out the lack of unique features. By the time we get to “Bad One (feat. White Gold)” we’ve already had both a White Gold and Sly Paper feature each, which feels limiting and repetitive as you go down the track list. Still, I like this record—mainly for the production and for having a well done chorus (finally!). I will say, it’s getting harder to not label these tracks as “bass heavy boom bap” because they all really kind of just blend together in that regard. Sonically they all sound unique but the theme carries through a majority of the tracks, which leaves me feeling like we could’ve tried a few different approaches. I noticed that Em kind of just finds his lane on this project and doesn’t really deviate from it much aside from a track like “Brand New Dance.”
The second half beat switch is very well-done despite suffering from more of the same Eminem lyrical vomit. It is somewhat interesting when he rehashes his old beefs, but I also need to call out how it feels contrived and is quite obviously the safest way for Em to drum up more controversy in what I’m labeling as, honestly, a pretty juvenile attempt at “being cancelled.”
“Tobey (feat. Big Sean & BabyTron)” has arguably the most unique production in this project, setting a vast eerie soundscape for listeners. The atmosphere feels like the intro to an epic movie trailer, complete with a slow, steady, tension-building climb as we cycle through the different verses. While everyone shows out lyrically and this track is certainly a stand-out, I have to question the inclusion of this track in what Em himself labeled as a “conceptual album.” This just feels like a shoutout to Detroit talent, which I can appreciate, but all the same—this could’ve been a standalone single not tied to the album. I know the fans would’ve eaten this up while the wait for the album was ongoing.
Lastly, “Somebody Save Me (feat. Jelly Roll)” presents me with mostly the same grievances as “Temporary”. However, Jelly Roll’s feature, while not quite what I was expecting, was surprisingly well executed and a welcome inclusion on the track. My main gripe is we’re at the end of the album now and it’s still just treading more of the same topics—to the point where I wonder if any of these apologies/notes he’s leaving to his family/friends have already been addressed privately and are now just being placed onstage to drum up emotions. And why is THIS the final track of the album? It just feels very disconnected from the “death of Shady” theme, but maybe I’m just missing something.
All in all, despite my pretty negative language throughout, I actually did enjoy The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) overall. While it’s clearly and by no means a perfect album, it has its share of charm and attention to detail in most of the places that matter. I think this is one of those albums that, on the surface, is a fun listen but doesn’t quite hold up as well when put under the microscope. The attempts at cancellation here, for example, are surface-level at best and fail to provide much in the way of real, controversial conversations being had in 2024—a time period ripe with its own share of controversies and political targets. It just feels to me like Eminem is a man with too much to lose and is afraid to piss off the wrong people—a far cry from his earlier years where the controversy and negative news articles are what helped him rise to stardom in the first place. It’s a fall from grace we’ve witnessed before, with stars like Howard Stern who generated controversy to gain popularity, only to turn tail and disingenuously flip their ideals to protect the career they’ve built. While it’s understandable, it will still ultimately upset a majority of your core base that originally tuned in for the controversy.
Overall, I give this album a 7/10.
Rating: 7/10 – Above average, bordering great
Written by: Michael Miserendino
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