It begins with a ‘hawk tuah’: ‘Renaissance’, the primary monitor on Eminem’s exhaustingly self-obsessed twelfth album, finds him spitting on a grave. That may be a really trendy reference, however he’s clearly trapped within the early 2000s. The rapper even says so himself on ‘Antichrist’: “Someone wants to return and hit the reset button / Again to 2003 ’trigger how did we get caught in / This woke BS?”
Right here is the modus operandi of ‘The Dying of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)’, which is 51-year-old Marshall Mathers yelling at clouds for a claustrophobic 64 minutes, albeit inside a story that often will get him off the hook. He’s described the file as a “conceptual album” and implored his stans to devour it so as. In any other case, he warned, the story “won’t make sense”.
In reality, Em may be overestimating the complexity of what unfolds all through these 19 tracks. The aforementioned grave is that of Slim Shady, the outrageous, say-anything alter-ego who swung a chainsaw via turn-of-the-century pop. The concept is that Slim has crash-landed in 2024, main him to have an effect on bug-eyed rage at so-called wokery, snowflakes and, y’know, elevated consciousness of the challenges confronted by individuals who aren’t white, male millionaires.
So there’s a weird, prolonged tirade in opposition to physique positivity (‘Street Rage’), a joke about Kanye West/Ye’s psychological well being ‘(Dangerous One’) and a number of other sarcastic references to being ‘cancelled’. The provocation is leavened by a tool that sees Eminem repeatedly chastise Slim, like Dr. Frankenstein wrestling together with his monstrous creation. At occasions, it’s an efficient dynamic; nonetheless distasteful you may discover the jokes on ‘Responsible Conscience 2’ (the gag about deaf individuals is gorgeous in its cruelty), they’re delivered within the context of an appalled Em insisting that what Slim’s stated is unacceptable. “You’re nonetheless mentally 13,” he marvels, “and nonetheless thirsty for some controversy.”
Later within the monitor, simply in case anybody missed the purpose, Eminem informs his unruly cost: “You simply sound like a dick.” If the identical scene have been depicted in a movie, no one would decry the actor delivering the egregious traces. This was the thesis of Eminem’s 2020 album ‘Music To Be Murdered By’, which featured ominous vocal samples from grasp of suspense Alfred Hitchcock, who crops up right here too. “The ‘coup de grace’,” the director intones on ‘Lucifer’, “is the ultimate shot proper between the eyes.”
There’s drama in a person who got here from poverty going toe-to-toe with the doubtful means he achieved stardom, and it’s true that we dwell in a conservative and considerably risk-averse cultural local weather. In principle, then, ‘The Dying of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)’ poses compelling questions. What would it appear like if some of the controversial characters of the pre-9/11 world occurred to collide with the social media age – and what wouldn’t it inform us about what’s occurred in between?
The reply, it seems, is that the intrigue would quickly put on skinny. Catchy lead single ‘Houdini’, which interpolates 2002 mega-smash ‘With out Me’, indicated the album’s obsession with nostalgia; it’s barely plausible that Eminem remains to be banging on about South Park, his mum and Christopher Reeve (the latter of whom died two full a long time in the past). When even Eminem appears to realize it’s past the pale to deadname Caitlin Jenner, as Weird does on ‘Antichrist’, you realize the routine is exhibiting its age.
On the plus aspect, Eminem does fulfil the promise of ‘Houdini’. That is probably the most musically accessible album he’s launched since 2013’s ‘Marshall Mathers LP2’. He largely eschews the malfunctioning robotic supply that’s outlined his output since 2017’s Trump-baiting ‘Revival’. The manufacturing is appealingly cartoonish and rubbery, from the elastic bassline that twangs via ‘Model New Dance’ to the wailing horror film synth on ‘Bother’. And, after all, you merely can’t fault him technically: ‘Gas’’s Diddy gag ought to take its place within the pantheon of his biggest disses. These are undeniably well-crafted songs, regardless of the content material.
As its lead single urged, Eminem is trying to have it each methods right here – to emulate his 2000s hits whereas lampooning Shady as a cultural relic who makes geriatric barbs at delicate Gen Z-ers (as on ‘Bother’), which permits him to say the identical outdated thirstily provocative stuff. The extent to which he does so solely overshadows the purpose he’s apparently making an attempt to make. Rather more highly effective is ‘Short-term’, a genuinely shifting ode to his daughter, Hailie, which proves Marshall Mathers can say one thing that issues when he desires to.
So, who killed Slim Shady? In bringing him again to the sunshine and exhibiting him up as irrelevant, maybe Eminem’s executed his outdated pal in for good. OK, we get it – Shady was a stunning character. Now that he’s useless, how about getting some new materials?
Particulars
- Launch date: July 12, 2024
- File label: Shady/Aftermath/Interscope Data
