Album Review: Eminem - The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)

I've had two full weeks to sit with this album - I don't think my thoughts have changed much since day one.

I tend to overreact positively any time Eminem releases a new album. So I wanted to wait until I’ve had some time to fully consider this newest release before officially putting my thoughts out into the world. On my first listen to Relapse I even texted a friend and told them something to the effect of “it feels like 2002 Em again.” I was very wrong about that. So wrong. So very very wrong. It just took me another listen or two to realize it.

The only times I can remember being underwhelmed immediately by a new album from Eminem was in 2004 with Encore and 2017’s Revival. The first time was a major letdown. Eminem was coming off a major heater of a run that started following The Slim Shady LP with classic guest appearances on Dr. Dre’s 2001 and continued through The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show, and 8 Mile. From a commercial success point-of-view, there might not be a better four-year run in hip-hop history.

Then Encore leaked online before the official release date. And I remember convincing myself (and telling Keenan) that it was a fake album. There’s no way what I just listened to could be official. This had to be a bunch of songs that were cut from the real album that will come out soon. But it wasn’t fake. It was real. I was bummed.

By 2017 I had learned to expect less from the artist I was obsessed with throughout high school. He had his ups and downs, some high points and low points, and released mostly forgettable music. I’d latch on to some bars, or flows, or intricate rhyme schemes, or ridiculous attempts at super-sonic speed rapping (I mean, he succeeded, but it’s still ridiculous) but for the most part I felt like he had become a novelty act. Was always a novelty act?

His two-part Music to be Murdered By was refreshingly…normal. A back-to-basics rap album with fewer gimmicks and more straightforward beats and rhymes. I liked it. But again, I wouldn’t put it anywhere near a classic.

So I prepared myself for another new release from the man I used to consider my favorite rapper. To see what he might get up to this time, and how much replay value his shenanigans would have in the year of our Lord 2024. The lead single, Houdini, did not instill much confidence in me. I heard what seemed like a desperate attempt to recapture the magic and menace of an Eminem lead single from the early 2000s. I rolled my eyes, lowered my expectations, and prepared to listen to a 51-year-old man let out the 13-year-old boy inside him once again.

Two weeks later I’m ready to write down my thoughts about this album and make them public, for you to read. Two weeks of texting friends, and overthinking things, and re-listening to old Em and listening to the new album A LOT. My feelings about the album have remained pretty much consistent throughout, so I’m confident they are set. I don’t think I’m going to change my mind.

I’ll stop beating around the bush.

I’ll start with the good. Which I think there is a lot of. From a technical and stylistic standpoint, this is near-peak-level Eminem. The beats he chooses on the album have a coherent, dark yet playful tone that harkens back to his prime (previously defined as the era slightly after The Slim Shady LP through the 8 Mile Soundtrack.) It sets the tone for Eminem to play around with different flows and pockets within pockets in a way that few others can. He truly is putting on a show with his rapping ability on this album.

Eminem has always been a technician when it comes to rapping. He’s an all-timer when it comes to rhyming words. The knock on him in recent years is that he seems to be more interested in pushing the limits of what can be done with speed and flow and less concerned with the actual listen-ability of his music. He’s going for “wow factor” to prove what he can do. He puts on a show, but it’s not one you want to watch over and over again. There’s much less of that on his latest effort. He stays in the pocket and doesn’t push the limits of what is physically possible, and (for me at least) his rapping ability is even more impressive when he’s not trying to prove how impressive he can be.

He really shows off on the Dr. Dre-produced track Lucifer, finding an effortless bounce to match the head-knocking beat from his long-time partner in crime. Two tracks later he links up with another longtime collaborator in producer Mr. Porter for another banger of a showcase where he’s able to go a little bit harder with the flow. He even unleashes an 8-bar rapid-fire spit-fest that winks to his efforts on tracks like Rap God without trying to sound like he’s rapping for a rep from the Guinness Book of World Records.

One thing I’ve always admired about Eminem as an artist is that he raps like a guy who not only loves hip-hop, and the entire history of the art form but also like a guy who flat-out loves to rap. Listening to him I believe that if he never “made it” he’d still be rapping somewhere, anywhere. When I listen to him spit he sounds like a guy who needs to rap. A lot of other artists who’ve had a fraction of the financial success he’s had would have hung it up a long time ago, but he’s still here, going as hard as he can.

For all these reasons, if you’ve ever liked Eminem, you should give this album a chance. It’s a reminder of how good he can be when he’s locked in. I wish I saved that “feels like 2002 again” text for now, because it truly does feel like Eminem at his stylistic peak.

I don’t know if you could feel the enormous “but” hanging over those last few paragraphs. But here comes that gigantic looming conjunction. While the album is stylistically fantastic, from a substance standpoint it is more than just a little bit underwhelming.

With The Death of Slim Shady, Eminem has made a “concept album” where he attempts to both admit that his Slim Shady alter-ego is a washed, juvenile, relic from another time while also using that Slim Shady “character” like he always has - to say shocking things he kind of, sort of, maybe actually also really believes. This has been a running theme in Eminem’s lyrical content for years, and while he addresses it in a more direct head-on manner than ever before it still comes up a little stale.

I get it, he’s tapping into something that I believe is relatable to everybody (at least, I think it is.) His relationship with Slim Shady reminds me of Louis CK’s “of course, but maybe” bit, where the comedian compares what he “knows” and “believes” to the “wrong” and “evil” thoughts that pop up in his head that force him to confront his true nature (or, at least, pretend to.) The thing is, as a society we’ve kind of evolved past all that. The time of saying taboo things just because they are taboo is over. We all get it. We do all have thoughts that make us say “where the fuck did that come from.” I’m not telling anyone to stop saying them out loud. I’m just saying it’s no longer interesting to do so.

Eminem seems to know that as well, which makes the concept of this “concept album” that much more puzzling. He’s having his cake and eating it too. He’s a snake eating his own tail. There are clowns to the left of him and jokers to right. He admits that it’s corny, but in the same breath compares it to a drug addiction. He knows it’s bad for him, but he’s not sure he can stop. I guess the first step on the way to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Hopefully, this time, it’s not the first step on the way to Recovery. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist that. Even though I don’t think Recovery is a bad album at all.)

It does make me wonder what the next step for him as an artist will be. I hope its something that can combine the stylistic choices he’s made on this album with lyrical content that has a little bit more to say. I’d love to see a version of Eminem that I would compare to The Hulk from Avengers: Endgame where he’s a mix of Hulk and Bruce Banner at the same time. He’s not as rage-filled as All-The-Way Hulk, so he can’t reach the heights of his output in terms of sheer force…but he can still do science.

Maybe he really means it this time. Maybe he’s really killed off Slim Shady and plans to move on with his artistic life without his little stinker of an alter-ego. I don’t think it’s the last we’ll hear from Eminem. Like I said before, the man needs to rap. He just can’t stay away from it. And his rapping is always interesting. Here’s hoping he finds something new to say and not just an interesting way to say the same old things.