Today, Eminem has released his first album in four years, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce). A concept album that takes in the influential rapper’s career – and various controversies along the way – the artist has framed it as a final outing from his long-standing alter-ego Slim Shady, publishing a fake obituary for the persona in the Detroit Free Press, and using gravestone iconography in the lead-up to its release.
On the record, Eminem frequently references cancel culture, the “PC Police” and “woke BS” – often setting out to shock across the album.
“People are definitely upset over Eminem's new album, and are actually calling to boycott the rapper,” announces mid-album skit Breaking News. “For songs that include insensitive comments about little people, people with mental disabilities, transgender rights and the first amendment.”
It’s a fairly accurate summary of an often-satirical record which grapples with Eminem’s public persona with mixed results, and references events such as Megan Thee Stallion’s shooting, and the 2016 CCTV footage which appears to show P Diddy violently assaulting Cassie.
Elsewhere on the album, Em’ cracks jokes about Christopher Reeve – the late actor and director who was paralyzed from the neck down after a horse-riding accident – goes back and forth on whether to use or censor a variety of slurs, and occasionally alludes to his own vulnerabilities.
While a couple of tracks here border on confessional – Somebody Save Me, for instance, along with the Skylar Grey-featuring Temporary – this is broadly Eminem at his most outrage-provoking and offense-baiting.
Here are just a few of the more controversial one-liners.
“All these pronouns, I can't remember they or them, theirs?”
“You gonna cancel me, yeah? Gen-Z me, bruh?”
“Dance until you're wheelchair bound, here we go”
“Do not tell me what I can't say, that's gay, and not the good kind of gay either, where two men f**k each other and hate beaver”
“Gen Z, here they come now 'bout to unload rounds. Pronouns. Got me like whoa now.”
“Ain't never really truly over 'til Lizzo sings”
“If I was to ask for Megan Thee Stallion if she would collab with me, would I really have a shot at a feat?”
“I get accused of misogyny because I will massage any bitch just like a masseuse”
