“The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace) by Eminem: Well, try

Whatever motivated Eminem to complete and release his new album, it couldn't have been money. It was not to add to his reputation, which is already secure. It's not because he had anything to say, any news to share, any opinions or feelings or (please) ideas. It's not even to remind people that he's an amazing performer, since he already did it in the Super Bowl two years ago. No, it's probably simpler than that—she's a sensitive soul and needs validation. He needs people to pat him on the back every few years and tell him: Hey, it's not bad. You have tried. It's funny how the breakout success of “Houdini” was joked about with the participation trophies, since that's what this album turned out to be. On The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace), He's a legacy artist turned professional participation trophy collector, so he's giving himself a new one for his showcase. It is not bad. Try it.

The Death of Slim Shady he's a star with the yips, sweating to reassure everyone – especially himself – he's still got it. He remembers how great he was at it when he was young, and he hopes to remind you of that by repeating old tricks that he's not necessarily so great at in 2024. “He was just a kid from Detroit who knew how to wreck the booth,” he recalls nostalgically “ Habits”. This kid certainly wasn't planning on recycling the same jokes for the rest of his life. But Eminem can't even imagine anything else. How the hell did that happen?

His albums still sell in huge numbers, so there's that, and he has a dedicated Gen X fan base that looks for signs of continued mastery, though he doesn't seem as tough as he is. Sometimes it gives his comeback albums an extra raison d'être, like me KamikazeHis complaints about mumble rap, but this isn't one of them. He keeps bragging about how edgy and controversial he is, but none of the yes-men in the studio had enough clout (or enough respect) to push him, which is a shame. Every time he says “woke” or “cancelled” or “trans” he makes you think of Hugh Hefner in The girls next door and how none of these girls had the heart to tell Hef how silly he looked in a sailor hat.

The big idea here is Marshall Mathers killing of Slim Shady persona. It's not the first time he's tried this trick, and (you're not telling) it certainly won't be the last, though some might say Shady was in creative care for a minute. Dr. Dre produces the two liveliest tracks, “Lucifer” and “Road Rage.” JID excels on the otherwise laid-back “Fuel,” while Ez Mil, Babytron, and Jelly Roll shine. Everyone pays their respects, trying (and failing) not to lift the star.

As for his rhymes, this album is basically all the Netflix stand-up specials you watched with Uncle Wally on Thanksgiving 2017 when he was too drunk to drive you home. He has nothing in the bag. It goes to Caitlin Jenner (Google — ages ago) and Michael Jackson (died once) and “Gen Z” “PC Police” (it's a thing, according to Eminem). His best celebrity is a David Carradine joke the Weeknd made eight years ago. He doesn't mention Drake. He leans up to Kanye and Andre 3000 flute jokes, but then chokes. he's picking at the low-hanging fruit Diddy. His cleverest wordplay is on “Bad One,” where he quips, “You said you're looking for miniature golf/Thought you said men should be jerks.”

The Death of Slim Shady comes on the 25th anniversary of his classic 2000 debut The Marshall Mathers LP, when his creative potential seemed wide open. She was a fresh voice, before she was a superstar, rapping about crappy jobs and being bullied in high school, instead of over-the-top celebrity issues. But it had a bigger hit The Slim Shady LP, and once he found success with that angle, he decided, at a surprisingly young age, that he was done thinking of new ideas. That's him yet young—only in his fifties—but he feels a strange pride in clinging to opinions he formed in his youth and making them his whole meaning. Is he still blaming his problems on women, afraid of trans people, outraged by the idea of ​​weird people doing weird shit, still whining about his mom? He begs to be undone by the public who are not thinking about him and have no idea that they are thinking about it.

It's kind of shocking when you think of all the people who signed on to this album without telling their cow that he could do himself a favor by learning new jokes or listening to some new music, but he sounds closed off to outside voices. “I suck my cock better than you” — this is not the wretch he hoped it was.

The Death of Slim Shady harks back to one of Eminem's primes: D12's “Purple Pills” way back in 2001, with a high-speed, raucous rant where he's “Mr. Suffering with a trick up his sleeve/To get up on you like Christopher Reeve.” You might have laughed at that gag at the time, or felt sick. But it's fair to say that no one, not even his worst enemies, would have predicted that two decades later, yet to make jokes at Christopher Reeve — in fact, he devoted an entire song to repeating the same joke that once took him three seconds. “Brand New Dance” is sad enough on its own, but it gets sadder later in the album when it hedges its bets by claiming it's an old outtake that was censored (yeah right) because it's too edgy (totally, sure), as if he's too embarrassed to admit it's the best he can do right now.

Honestly, this is not the future one would have hoped for Eminem in 2001. Hell, even Christopher Reeve wouldn't have wished him such a fate. After all these years, you wonder if anyone will have the heart to tell him that he still has a lot of life and music ahead of him — but only if he wants it enough to get up and start moving.