Eminem decided to kill Slim Shady. The Detroit rapper, now 51, has announced that his twelfth studio album will be released this summer and will be called “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace)” (aka ‘The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace)’). A trailer with the announcement of the album was published on the rapper’s social networks, shortly after his appearance at the 2024 NFL Draft. The video shows a real crime journalist talking about the death of Eminem’s alter ego, Slim Shady. “Through his complex, often criticized and whimsical rhymes, the antihero known as Slim Shady had no shortage of enemies,” the journalist says. Then Eminem’s longtime friend and colleague 50 Cent appears, stating: “he’s not a friend, he’s a psychopath.” The journalist continues: “The same vulgar lyrics and controversial antics may have led to his death. Join me as we piece together the events that led to Slim Shady’s murder.” Finally, Eminem himself appears: “I knew it was only a matter of time for Slim.”
The rapper had surprisingly released his latest album, “Music to Be Murdered By”, in January 2020. It was an immediate success, reaching number one on the Billboard 200 and the single “Godzilla” featuring Juice Wrld peaking third place on the Hot 100.
Slim Shady has long been Eminem’s artistic alter ego: he made his debut with “Slim Shady EP” in 1997 and was also the protagonist with “The Slim Shady LP”, which arrived two years later. The character of Slim was often the one to whom Eminem entrusted his most aggressive and violent lyrics, which marked him as a controversial rapper from the beginning of his career. He took on the alter ego’s identity in songs like “Guilty Conscience,” “’97 Bonnie and Clyde” and, ironically, in a song called “Kill You.”
In Italy Slim Shady also made Sanremo tremble with his violent and sexist rhymes. It was 2001, Raffaella Carrà was hosting the festival and the announcement of Eminem’s arrival as super guest caused such a scandal that for the first time in the history of Sanremo a song ended up in the prosecutor’s office. After a complaint from the Center for Theological Studies of Milan, the Sanremo prosecutor’s office demanded that Rai see the lyrics of the song included in the setlist. Rai sent the translation of the song “The real Slim Shady”. But the prosecutor concluded that nothing could justify blocking the performance. In reality Eminem on stage proposed “I’m back” but above all the still unknown “Purple hills” , where he sang: “I don’t give a f… if this girl is my mother, I’ll fuck her anyway without a condom”. Almost everyone thundered against that performance: from the then Minister of Communications, Salvatore Cardinale, to the president of the Supervisory Commission Mario Landolfi and also Arcigay. Except for Carrà, the president of Rai at the time, Roberto Zaccaria (“Yes to criticism, no to preventive censorship”, he said) and Don Pasquale Traetta, spiritual assistant of the festival (“Eminem is also a son of God”, he declared).
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