Marshall Mathers, most known by his stage name “Eminem”, launched his debut album in 1999 called The Slim Shady LP. With other works such as Eminem’s Show and Recovery he established himself, not only as an 2000’s icon but as a household name in the music industry. The fact he hasn’t launched anything in four years has made this next one long-waited. But not only this, his last two albums were released without any previous announcement. With a concept video, a lead single and many posts on his account on Instagram, people were left eager to understand how this one is going to differentiate from his previous work.
THE DEATH OF SLIM SHADY
Bleached blonde hair, baggy jeans and sharp rhymes were what defined Eminem’s alter ego “Slim Shady”. His lyrics could be separated into two categories: Eminem’s and Slim Shady’s. When more dense topics were brought up it would be Eminem’s, with songs such as “Mockingbird” and “Beautiful”. However, when the lyrics and visuals were more polemic, it was Shady’s. For example in “My Name Is” and “The Real Slim Shady”.
So when he launched a short video called “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) ” fans started speculating. It presents as a news report on the death of a very famous rapper, later to show Slim Shady lying murdered in a house. The reporter states that his infamous and controversial lyrics led him to have a lot of enemies, meaning that anyone that he had a feud with could be a suspect. With the presence of the rapper 50 Cent, in these 56 seconds, it is presented the concept of his next work.
HOUDINI
In the beginning of the song you can hear a voice recording of Paul Rosenberg, Eminem’s manager, saying how he listened to the album and wished good luck to Marshall saying he is on his own now. Meaning that in this one he is probably going to be more ruthless and unpolitically correct in his rhymes, compared to his last album. This being very clear when he disses everybody, even his own daughters, showing that no one is immune to Shady’s.
Using a sample from Steve Miller’s Band’s song “Abracadabra”, Eminem created one of his catchiest choruses. Doing also an interpolation of his own song “Without Me”, with his famous lyrics “Guess who’s back, back again?”, also being referenced in the music video.
The video begins with the rapper and his mentor, Dr. Dre, warning Eminem how a portal from 2002 has opened and his old version -Slim Shady – has gone out and is furious and confused of how things work nowadays. The only one who could stop him is the character “Rap Boy”, with him and Shady having a fight at the end of the video and emerging in just one person.
Being directed by Rich Lee, the director of other Em’s videos such as “Not Afraid” and “Monster”, in Houdini he makes references to some of his popular ones: “Without Me” and “The Real Slim Shady”. In it there is also a cameo of some famous names like Snoop Dog and Pete Davidson.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE REAL SLIM SHADY?
Shady’s fans started creating theories the minute his comeback was announced, understandably, it has been many years since he hasn’t shown up in Eminem’s lyrics. Some believe he went too far in his rhymes when using the alter ego. Nonetheless the success and influence his music made in the industry is undeniable.
While some are excited about Shady’s comeback, others are a bit scared this could be his last goodbye, believing he is lefting some signs, such as the parenthesis in his concept video. It is written “Coup De Grâce” which means “death blow” in french, meaning that this could be his last album before retiring from the music scene. Only adding more to the theories, he posted a facetime video of him talking with the magician David Blaine. In it Marshall states: “And for my last trick, I’m going to make my career disappear.”
Eminem hasn’t said much yet about the album itself. What we actually know is that The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) is his 12th album and due July of 2024. And for Shady’s comeback, it is better to predict the unpredictable.
The article above was edited by Malu Alcântara.
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