Why he wanna kill Shady when those are the best tracks on this album...
Shit was fire and then Temporary played and I ain't gonna lie but I skipped it. Then it got better but still the beginning half was way better. Didn't think it'd be this good since the only single I heard was Houdini and it was fine but I didn't like it that much.
yeah the first half is just crazy good. Honestly if you took tracks 1 to 13 and maybe cut out habits, it'd be a 12 song Slim Shady album which is pretty incredible in 2024.
Second half is weaker, especially if you're a big fan of classic slim and not a big fan of recent em. That's where I'm at after a few listens.
Edit: not sure if it's a reach but i've seen some folks say that the album is set up this way on purpose. It's conceptual until guilty conscience, and then after that, he's killed slim shady and so it then sounds like recent em. And that is the overarching concept and that's why the tone shifts after guilty conscience
Ive seen nothing but almost universal praise across reddit, Facebook and reactors in YouTube. All linked posts are positive towards it and the shots he has fired. Or how its number 1 streamed album in 45+ countries etc.
The most negativity i have seen anywhere is this thread, which still feels more positive than negative and nothing brutal at all. Obviously no artist can make work that literally everyone will love.
I doubt any fans of Eminem would dislike the album. His haters would dislike it no matter what. Feels like a success to me.
After a four-year break, Eminem has returned to the Hip Hop circuit with 'The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)' in yet another attempt to redeem himself.
hiphopdx.com
1.3 out of 5
Instead of mocking those atop the social structure, he has chosen to target those at the bottom of it. The musical equivalent of comedians who do Donald Trump impressions, Eminem's excruciating lack of self-awareness has made him proud of picking low-hanging fruit without realizing it's all he can reach since he stopped growing years ago.
This red-pilled extravaganza, unfortunately, will only encourage the likes of Tom MacDonald and Ben Shapiro to keep rapping, while the larger Hip Hop community moves on to bigger and better things.
The return of the rapper’s nihilistic alter ego makes his 12th album feel like a confused, conflicted attempt to recreate his 00s success – his flow is perfect as ever, but he can no longer provoke true outrage
www.theguardian.com
3 out of 5
More often, it feels so desperate that it ends up committing the cardinal sin of being boring and repetitious: put it this way, if Caitlyn Jenner got a royalty for every time her name was used as a punchline, she'd be an even richer woman.
Seven thoughts on Eminem's awful new album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace). Read our review.
consequence.net
(no score)
The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) has a runtime of over 64 minutes. It would be more fun to pick one good song and listen to it on repeat. It would be more fun to clean every bathroom in your house. It would be more fun to softly bang your head against a wall once a minute for 64 minutes. Pick pretty much anything that isn't a crime except for listening to this album — you really can't go wrong.
Rapper maintains his signature sharpness of diction throughout – it’s the content on his latest No 1 album that’s at fault
www.independent.co.uk
2 out of 5
But if this album was conceived to let Mathers have his cake and eat it – to indulge his earlier, purposefully offensive wordplay under the guise of struggling against the Shady persona within – the reality is the worst of both worlds.
The Freudian theme is intriguing; a better album would have fleshed it out, dug deeper. But that would have come at the expense of a couple of Caitlyn Jenner jokes, and he couldn't have that, could he?
Eminem’s Jekyll and Hyde tendencies were evident from the start. Splitting his negative emotions from a more secure place of introspection, the divide
www.clashmusic.com
5 out of 10
'The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace)' doesn't quite feel like an ending, but neither does it feel like a continuation. A mixed, often muddled album, it features some of Eminem's best rapping in a decade – those fast, skippy-yet-intricate flows will never fail to thrill – but his pen is often blunted. It's at once an effective piece of fan service, while also being a record that disappoints.
I've seen three separate reviews use the phrase "trying to have his cake and eat it too," which I used above as well.
The idea of this concept album is actually brilliant. But it ends up completely shallow because it never actually feels like he's trying to tear down the Slim Shady persona and the awful things he would rap about in 2000. It just feels like he's using the idea of a concept album to get away with saying them in 2024.
Reading he's rapping about trans women and politically correctness/woke, whatever you wanna call it, in a negative way, is so mind numbingly boring and predictable.
To be honest I expected more original ways to "hate" from Slim Shady than what we basically see in every comment section of any social media. But overall I like the album.
I've spun it several times now and I quite like it overall. I think a 3/5 is fair on my personal scale. Fuel will be an eternal classic I feel, as will GC2 and I think Somebody Save Me in particular will be treated well by time.
I'm on the "I think the production went hard and I love pretty much all the beat selection train" personally, even after many listens.
He's in his bars as usual, plenty of really clever and fun lines. The bars taking shots of Candace Owen in have been stuck in my head, I'm sure it's a joke that's been made but this was my first-time hearing Klandace which is inspired. There's a lot of layered wordplay over the track list that watching reactions is just flying over lots of folks heads, which is par for the course but I find it particularly sad here. Eminem's flow is the best in over a decade and there's a pretty diverse amount of beat switching and playing with rhyming patterns that keeps things interesting. I like the Em is taking a shot at a concept album, they're pretty hard to pull off.
Which brings me too... did he pull it off?
In general, I think yeah it lands, though almost assuredly a large part of the audience won't actually realise the intent, see: all of the culture warriors and right wingers taking this as some big anti-woke, anti-pc win, when essentially the intent of the album is to say "Bruh, this shit is corny and played out and just because it's on a good beat and rapped by one of the GOAT's doesn't make it stink any less.".
I do think it peaks with Guilty Conscience 2 and kind of stumbles. There are still tracks and bars effectively playing into the themes, particularly on the closing track but overall, the back half feels comparatively bonus tracky - not that the songs are bad by any means, I relate to Temporary and Somebody Save Me on a personal level more than most of Em's sentimental tracks. I also really enjoy Head Honcho, but it feels less thematic in the back half for sure.
One thing I will say is that you can tell that Eminem is kind of tired of the schtick no matter how fun it may be to have access to 'shock rap' content for writing purposes. Why? Because despite all the cancelling bars and what not it's uhh... not that offensive in comparison to actually old Slim Shady who went a lot harder into shock territory. This very much feels like playing a character rather than feeling it. Even as someone who is a part of multiple groups being punched down upon on the album, I just can't muster any offense or shock because well... it's just not very shocking and feels very old and played - I can only get upset at my grandad taking shots at my sexuality so many times before I start to feel like I'm the parody and find it easier to just stop caring.
Plenty of stuff old Em said would still be shocking today, but this is bread and butter shit that's been a staple (not saying that's a good thing at all) of hip-hop for decades. It's not like it left and Em is bringing it back, it's been here the whole time so it's just stale. And without the offense or shock songs written almost entirely around those concepts start to stop eliciting much reaction. It's bought into stark contrast the most with the Bizarre feature, where that feels the most old school Slim Shady era feeling verse on the whole thing lol.
And that could be part of the point Em is making for sure, but it also just... makes it feel repetitive in I would guess unintentional ways. There are a handful of tracks that I think are well produced, with some good bars, and good flow that I just won't listen to outside of a full album listen because once out of the context of the album they become kind of repetitive and somewhat bland, full of slurs and bigotry that just make it a tiring listen. It's an odd duck of a thing, I think they're good as part of the concept but that's where they shine.
Well, that's the thing, right? It shouldn't just be the groups he goes after that get upset at it. If he's using ablest and transphobic slurs in his lyrics, shouldn't we all call that out as unacceptable? Or does it become okay because of the story he's trying to tell?
I'm genuinely struggling with that because there is a lot that I like about this album.
Semi-off topic rant incoming for a topic I have struggled with for years.
Yeah I do feel this struggle myself. I get upset at plenty of other artists, comedians etc who use similar language so what's different? Is it because I like Eminem and have somewhat of a parasocial relationship via growing up with him? Is it because I believe that he doesn't actually believe basically any of it? Does that make it better or worse? Is it because in this case it feels so played out that it loses any bite? Is it because it's in service of a larger point that I largely respect? I dunno.
I have a similar thing with the comedian Frankie Boyle whose bread and butter was (and still is to an extent) cleverly written shock humour. Why does it not bother me there? Is it again, because I like Frankie Boyle? Is it again because I know Frankie Boyle believes none of it and in actuality is super left leaning politically and has worked behind the scenes to make comedy a more diverse and equitable place? Is it because I agree with his politics? Is it because a lot of his shock humour is used to point out bullshit?
And then the question kind of becomes is it fair to give a pass on these things when the intent had no harm, and they're being used as a tool in service to a positive point? What does intent matter anyway?
And then why does say... South Park not work for me when it goes for a similar type of humour and commentary? Is it because I find it politically insipid, never arising to even the moderate amount of bar of awareness of songs like White America and Mosh? Is it because I don't think it comes entirely out of a place of not intending harm, and don't believe the writers are just jokey-joking for a lot of it but actually have an undercurrent of genuine believed fuckery? Is that the difference? Is that a fair dilleniation?
I dunno, and I kind of hate that I don't know. I'm a social worker, I work with the people that even used without intent to harm can be harmed by such rhetoric, hell I'm one of those people myself. I always feel bad in situations where I feel I should feel a righteous anger, or some offence, but just don't - like I'm failing as an ally (in both the in-community and out of community connotations of that phrase) and am being an enabler to both my own and other communities victimisation and discrimination.
Am I just a miserable hypocrite who isn't as good of a person as he likes to think and in fact am willing to give a pass to bad behaviour when it suits me and my likes?
Why he wanna kill Shady when those are the best tracks on this album...
Shit was fire and then Temporary played and I ain't gonna lie but I skipped it. Then it got better but still the beginning half was way better. Didn't think it'd be this good since the only single I heard was Houdini and it was fine but I didn't like it that much.
Yeah I teared up too. Not sure if it's because I'm a dad myself and deeply aware of my own mortality more than most, or if I'm just sentimental but it worked for me.
Reading he's rapping about trans women and politically correctness/woke, whatever you wanna call it, in a negative way, is so mind numbingly boring and predictable.
Yeah it's lame. Guilty Conscience 2 tries to make it sound like it's an act, but then he goes and says the same shit on other songs not in the Shady persona.
I'm a casual fan, I mostly just like his style and wordplay. I didn't know it was a concept album going in and that said I think he took too long to get to let everyone in on the actual concept of the album. There are bits and pieces that let you in on it but you have to go through 13 songs to get to what is ostensibly the reveal.
It's a pretty good Eminem album though.
Count me in with the people shocked this album is actually taking well here but yeah this album is dope as always just like his previous 3 albums. Just love the production on this album a lot as well.
Those lyrics do make a very interesting point about South Park. I've not watched it in years and don't follow the conversation, but I'd assume there are similar complaints to it, like there are about Slim and Gervais, and whatever else.
I guess even when Eminem says those things as Slim (an alter ego), the argument is that.. should he be? Just like Gervais and "It's just a joke" argument.
I don't know what the answer is and I am not in any group that would be part of these types of things so it's not my place to say either.
I think part of it is that raps are seen as an extension of the rapper whereas writers/actors are just doing a role. The "Hero or Hate Crime" episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has homophobic and racist slurs but people tend to just look at these as characters on a show, not that Danny Devito is homophobic or Charlie Day (while being a creator and writer on the show) is racist. The same goes for South Park, Eric Cartman is just a character that's a piece of shit, so even if that's Matt and Trey's real thoughts funneling through him people still look at Cartman as his own entity.
Rappers, on the other hand, are seen as the people, not the characters they sometimes play on a song. These alter-egos are just hyper-realized versions of themselves, similar to B-Rabbit from 8 Mile still being seen as "Eminem" even though it's more of a character. It's different for something like DMX clearly playing the devil in his "Damien" series or Cam'ron playing Death coming to take Cam away after getting shot where that's simply not them, "Slim Shady" is just a more deranged version of Eminiem, who's just an extension of Marshall Mathers. There's no real separation felt there.
Stand-up is a weird one because at times there's clear characters, at times it feels like characters, and other times it's just who they are. Comedy also tends to get more of a pass because, as you said, it's "just a joke" but often that's used as an excuse just to say heinous things. I've said before but a lot of people's "comedy" consists of walking into a room, saying "niggers", and holding for laughter. But it's clear that, with time, most things just become fodder for comedy. There's 9/11 and 9/11-adjacent jokes in family sitcoms (the Simpsons made a joke about it, of all things), imagine telling someone that in June of 2002. So would these same jokes be looked at the same way 15 years from now? Who knows.
After a four-year break, Eminem has returned to the Hip Hop circuit with 'The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)' in yet another attempt to redeem himself.
The return of the rapper’s nihilistic alter ego makes his 12th album feel like a confused, conflicted attempt to recreate his 00s success – his flow is perfect as ever, but he can no longer provoke true outrage
I've seen three separate reviews use the phrase "trying to have his cake and eat it too," which I used above as well.
The idea of this concept album is actually brilliant. But it ends up completely shallow because it never actually feels like he's trying to tear down the Slim Shady persona and the awful things he would rap about in 2000. It just feels like he's using the idea of a concept album to get away with saying them in 2024.
Oh, it's 100 percent that because he's trying to present Shady like he's always been this detached persona who isn't really what Eminem/Marshall Mathers is about. So all those horrible things he said in the past? Just a character I was playing that I'm now formerly retiring.
I don't think this album brings anything new to the table. Eminem's been grappling with growing out of the slim shady shock value for years at this point, and his obsession with his critics/haters continues to drag him down. I remember that being my biggest take-away from revival, that he'd be so much better off artistically if he could just get out of his own way instead of spending entire verses talking about how he doesn't like being perceived.
And in some ways that stuff is worse than ever here! For every attempt at being edgy there's an extended deliberation about the reaction he's expecting to receive for that line, and how he can never win with some of these haters, but also maybe they have a point and it's time to throw in the towel on this stuff, but fuck it let's do it anyway, endlessly responding to the backlash cycle he's made up in his head. It's exhausting! If you've gotta put yourself through all that just to rag on… Caitlyn Jenner… again…?? then like, maybe this isn't a great angle to build an album around lol
This concept hits differently if it drops in the early 2010s. Turns it into a clean reset ahead of a late-career era of eminem potentially trying something different with his music. But in 2024 it's just the latest in a string of inconsistent releases, most of which have already gestured at the subject matter this album is drilling into.
If we are being honest there's just no real circumstance in 2024 where there are this many slurs and punching down bars on an album where the majority of publications could review it favorably, regardless of the context in how those slurs are framed.
That's not a defense of either eminem or the publications, I enjoy the album well enough but after my first listen I knew there was simply no chance of this doing well from the consensus of professional critics - they aren't "allowed" to praise it with this kind of content - even if they might like most of it from an overall sonics or lyrics perspective
I don't think this album brings anything new to the table. Eminem's been grappling with growing out of the slim shady shock value for years at this point, and his obsession with his critics/haters continues to drag him down. I remember that being my biggest take-away from revival, that he'd be so much better off artistically if he could just get out of his own way instead of spending entire verses talking about how he doesn't like being perceived.
And in some ways that stuff is worse than ever here! For every attempt at being edgy there's an extended deliberation about the reaction he's expecting to receive for that line, and how he can never win with some of these haters, but also maybe they have a point and it's time to throw in the towel on this stuff, but fuck it let's do it anyway, endlessly responding to the backlash cycle he's made up in his head. It's exhausting! If you've gotta put yourself through all that just to rag on… Caitlyn Jenner… again…?? then like, maybe this isn't a great angle to build an album around lol
This concept hits differently if it drops in the early 2010s. Turns it into a clean reset ahead of a late-career era of eminem potentially trying something different with his music. But in 2024 it's just the latest in a string of inconsistent releases, most of which have already gestured at the subject matter this album is drilling into.
yeah, this is all true. i wrote a longer post but it was basically just reiterating what you're saying + the only difference this time is the beats and hooks are actually good.
edit: actually i want to add that him still doing the yoda style sentence structure in order to get to a rhyme is baffling to me. it is bad, every single time, and he does it a few times on pretty much every song.
I'm not sure there are enough ideas within the concept to sustain a full album, much less one of this length. I think the climax with GC2 is really well done, but all of the Slim vulgarities in the record up to that point get increasingly repetitive, and the subsequent songs feel sort of disconnected. I think it's an interesting idea in theory but doesn't quite work, at least as executed here. It feels like well trod territory, content-wise, but with an added layer of self-reflexiveness that winds up not really adding much. He's been grappling with these themes for years already.
That said, ultimately, the reason I listen to Eminem is for his technical gifts as a rapper, which are as strong as ever here. And this is the best sounding album he's released since Encore. I enjoyed it a lot, overall, but not as much as I was hoping to.
Reading he's rapping about trans women and politically correctness/woke, whatever you wanna call it, in a negative way, is so mind numbingly boring and predictable.
Really liked the album myself. Only surprised about the last track. Really depressing song to end the album on. I thought Marshall had his life back on tracks.
Honestly, it feels like every Eminem album after Encore has been him commenting on his past. This album would have had a larger impact like a decade or two ago.
Really liked the album myself. Only surprised about the last track. Really depressing song to end the album on. I thought Marshall had his life back on tracks.
Eminem is kind of hard to grade because he has horrible taste and that's simultaneously part of the music's identity. I'm enjoying the album quite a bit despite disliking how dumb most of it is. Like why tf is he still rapping about Caitlin Jenner and Christopher Reeves? It's so fucking stupid and bizarrely repetitive. Yet sonically most of these songs are very entertaining.
Reading he's rapping about trans women and politically correctness/woke, whatever you wanna call it, in a negative way, is so mind numbingly boring and predictable.
Look bro, he's done something crazy and unique here. It's this thing called a concept album, you've got to listen to the tracks in order to understand the full picture. He might be using slurs and saying horrible things about minorities but bro, he's self aware and that actually makes it okay. It's like South Park, you have to really pay attention to understand the satire.
Don't be a hater, give it a listen first. You've got to hear the album for yourself and listen to all the horrible corny shit he's saying. It's not actually him saying all that stuff, it's actually Shady doing it to get cancelled!
It's been a lot of fun reading responses from folks who clearly haven't listened to the album, or even read what it's about beyond a few snippets from select songs.
Like with everything, I guess liking this boils down to whether you can tolerate the "Slim" portion. If you can't, you'll think it's tired and lame, but if you can you'll appreciate the concept. I'm in the appreciative camp, but I'm not surprised reviewers/some posters here are shitting on it.
Look bro, he's done something crazy and unique here. It's this thing called a concept album, you've got to listen to the tracks in order to understand the full picture. He might be using slurs and saying horrible things about minorities but bro, he's self aware and that actually makes it okay. It's like South Park, you have to really pay attention to understand the satire.
Don't be a hater, give it a listen first. You've got to hear the album for yourself and listen to all the horrible corny shit he's saying. It's not actually him saying all that stuff, it's actually Shady doing it to get cancelled!
It's been a lot of fun reading responses from folks who clearly haven't listened to the album, or even read what it's about beyond a few snippets from select songs.
One thing that I want to draw attention to is that Eminem has found an amazing collaborator in White Gold.
You Gon' Learn on MTBMB was a great track, but I think his hook went under the radar due to how good Royce and Em's verses were.
You get to Zeus on side B, which is probably a top ten Eminem song for me. Incredible verses and amazing chorus.
Then on this album, Habits and Bad One have incredible choruses that really elevate the songs. I think similar to Nate Dogg early on in Eminem's career, White Gold is a dope collaborator who brings out the best in Eminem.
I was reading about Em on Wikipedia and his name came up as they'd collaborated together on Eminems albums and they'd done joint projects together. I've queued a few of Royce's albums up on Spotify anyway.
I've listened to Death of Slim Shady quite a few times today and I do really love it. It all sounds so smooth and well put together. It's perhaps a little odd that it ends on a pretty downbeat song, but this could be Eminem humanising himself showing everyone he's a person who cares about his kids and life. I dunno.
I am curious to see if we get a Side B, Extended or something entirely new soonish.
The album was so hard and then snippets of a little girl's voice started playing and it was clear a more sentimental song is about to start. I was already pulled out of the mood and then Skylar Grey started singing and I got triggered lol. I'll probably listen to it later.
I was reading about Em on Wikipedia and his name came up as they'd collaborated together on Eminems albums and they'd done joint projects together. I've queued a few of Royce's albums up on Spotify anyway.
I've listened to Death of Slim Shady quite a few times today and I do really love it. It all sounds so smooth and well put together. It's perhaps a little odd that it ends on a pretty downbeat song, but this could be Eminem humanising himself showing everyone he's a person who cares about his kids and life. I dunno.
I am curious to see if we get a Side B, Extended or something entirely new soonish.
Yeah Royce is one of my favorites. I like pretty much all of his albums but his best is considered Book of Ryan if you want to start with that. Wiki might not show them so check out the Bar Exam mixtapes as well if you can. And of course, the Bad Meets Evil album he did with Em.
