Written by written by @bryce
Intro
Coming out with his 12th and potentially final album “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)” sees Eminem feuding between his nihilistic alter ego Slim Shady and the more introspective version of himself. The albums sound calls back to his earlier rebellious energy he had during the height of his 2000s success, while addressing many more introspective themes and personal struggles.
In an attempt to bridge a gap between his past and present selves, Marshall tells a story that features Eminem and Slim Shady as two different characters. Eminem being himself now, and Slim Shady being a representation of many many things including substance abuse and other addictions, nightmares, and even the antichrist.
The Death Of Slim Shady’s Concept and narrative
As mentioned before, across this album Eminem and Slim Shady are two different characters. The tracks “Habits” and “Trouble” showcase the start of the narrative between the two. “Habits” opens up with Slim Shady forcing someone (Eminem) to take some pills. “Trouble” follows up with Slim forcing him to drink some alcohol. This is all in an attempt to get Em to say as many outlandish and offensive things as possible to achieve the ultimate goal of getting them cancelled.
The story continues throughout the album, with Eminem attempting to fight back but falling short and becoming more and more offensive throughout. The following tracks show high points in the evil tendencies, including “Brand New Dance“, “Evil“, “Lucifer“, and “Antichrist“. Eventually they begin to wear off, around “Fuel” (which has an amazing JID feature by the way.)
This goal of being “cancelled” makes a lot of the first half of the album very annoying. It’s controversial for the sake of being controversial, and it feels like he’s straight up saying “uh oh, I said something naughty! I sure hope gen z doesn’t cancel me” while he’s doing puppy dog eyes. I get that that’s kind of the whole point, and he’s showing why he’s killing off the Slim Shady character, but it can be borderline unlistenable at times.
Guilty Conscience 2
It all comes to a head with the track “Guilty Conscience 2“. Longtime fans of Eminem will know the track “Guilty Conscience“, a back and forth track between Slim and Dr. Dre, playing the evil and good conscience of three different people in different situations. “Guilty Conscience 2” is a similar track, but instead it’s between Eminem and Slim Shady.
It’s an internal conflict between everything Slim Shady represents and all the bad things Eminem has done, and his freedom from those things. The track ends with Eminem being so fed up with Slim Shady that he puts his issues aside with every person that He’s had beef with, taking a gun from Slim and shooting him. A murder Suicide, or to fit with the subtitle of the album, a “coup de grâce“, which is a death blow to end the suffering of a severely wounded person or animal. A way to show mercy.
Falling Action and resolution
With that climax, a majority of the narrative comes to an end. The rest of the album details Eminem’s return to power with “Head Honcho“, he’s back to being front and center and Slim Shady is gone. The song details him explaining himself to the world inside the album, everyone he’s offended and received backlash while Slim was in control.
“Temporary” with Skylar Grey is a track dedicated to his daughter Hailie. He starts the song by saying that he’s afraid of passing away without telling her all the things that he wished he had said and everything he wants to make sure she knows. It’s actually a very sweet song, telling her to stay strong, and that it’s not goodbye forever.
“Bad One” is a track that explains a lot of why Slim Shady came back, and explains that it was part of a plan he had. The audience thought that they wanted Shady back but Em used the album as a way to show that it would just piss everybody off. “Tobey” was added to the album relatively late, and doesn’t really contribute much, and “Somebody Save Me” is a song again dedicated to his children and making his peace.
The album is pretty ambiguous and open to interpretation. Whether or not you like it, it’s a very big part of the album and if you have any interest in it I’d invite you to learn all you can and make your own interpretation. This interpretation is largely built off of a post from reddit user u/changedthebeat, and their post on the eminem subreddit. I highly recommend giving it a read.
The Death Of Slim Shady’s Production
“The Death of Slim Shady” has pretty meticulous production. It’s done a very good job at blending modern hip-hop beats and his sound from the 2000s. The suite of producers on the album featuring artists like Luis Resto, Marvy Ayy, Denaun, and Eminem himself among others, together craft a landscape of instrumentals that mirror the album’s thematic intensity. The production can vary wildly from haunting and dark melodies on tracks like “Head Honcho” and “Evil” to hard hitting rhythmic jams like “Houdini“. The energies created by the beats are overall very good, and support Marshall’s vocals very well.
Many of the instrumentals feature a pretty diverse range of musical elements that are seamlessly blended into the traditional hip-hop production techniques that are used. On songs like “Tobey“, you can hear Eminem’s ability to adapt to contemporary rap trends while maintaining his own style.
Overall the production quality is consistently high. The production choices support the narrative with the blend of current and past sounds, accomplishing an album that can sound very appealing to new listeners and longtime fans alike. Every beat features a very close attention to detail ensuring that every track contributes to the cohesive experience, making “The Death of Slim Shady” a pretty good listen despite many of its shortcomings.
Outro
Honestly, “The Death Of Slim Shady” is an overall decent album. But that’s all it is, it’s just decent. It’s got some high points, like “Guilty Conscience 2” and “Fuel“, and nearly every beat is amazing and really supports it, but with how annoying and prevalent the “controversial for the sake of being controversial” lyrics is it gets cemented in being just mediocre.
The only real praise that I can give it is that if I just stop paying attention to the lyrics and what he’s saying, it’s a pretty fantastic album. I already said that most of the beats are really good, and he’s got his flow down and it’s really killer. The feature choices from track to track are stellar too, White Gold on the hook of “Habits” is amazing, and I already mentioned earlier how good the JID feature on “Fuel” is.
But that’s honestly not really a compliment. When I’m talking about hip-hop, paying attention to the lyrics is what I want to do. It’s what I listen to because I’m looking for poetry and clever wordplay, and while Eminem definitely isn’t short on clever wordplay, I just can’t get past how annoying it is to listen to, solidifying “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)” as a 5 in my opinion.
Thanks for reading my review! Do you agree? Do you disagree? I’d love to discuss! If you liked it I’d suggest checking out my other reviews, and let me know of any other albums you’d like me to review, I’m always looking for more. Make sure to stay tuned to The Groove Grounds to read more reviews and articles, and listen to “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)” below! Till next time!
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