The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)

''The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)'' is the twelfth studio album by American rapper Eminem. It was released through Shady, Aftermath Entertainment, and Interscope Records on July 12, 2024. The concept album centers around a battle between Eminem himself and his Slim Shady alter ego. The album incorporates hardcore hip hop, satirical hip hop, and conscious hip hop. The album contains guest appearances from White Gold, Sly Pyper, JID, Dem Jointz, Ez Mil, Skylar Grey, Big Sean, BabyTron, and Jelly Roll. Production on the album was handled by Eminem himself, alongside Dem Jointz, Fredwreck, Cubeatz, Cole Bennett, and DJ Premier; as well as frequent collaborators Dr. Dre, Mr. Porter, and Luis Resto, among others.

The album debuted at number one in 16 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. ''The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)'' was supported by three singles: " Houdini", " Tobey", and "Somebody Save Me". The album was met with mixed reviews, with Yahoo! News reporting that it holds the lowest Metacritic score of any Eminem album. Critics praised Eminem's rapping techniques but panned the lyrics. Criticism centered on lyrics that were considered transphobic and offensive.

Background

Eminem referenced his alter ego, Slim Shady, in songs like "My Name Is" (1999) and " The Real Slim Shady" (2000). The image of Slim Shady is synonymous with how Eminem appeared as a young man on stage and in videos, including his bleached blonde hair. The provocative persona was described by '' Time'' as a "nightmare projection" and "raging fantasy id" in 2002. On March 19, 2024, long-time producer and collaborator Dr. Dre revealed on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' that Eminem was working on his next studio album and that it would be releasing in 2024. During the 2024's NFL draft event in his hometown Detroit on April 26, he shared a video in the style of real crime show, '' Unsolved Mysteries'', poses as a question of "who killed Slim Shady?". A reporter dressed in a trenchcoat lists the enemies Shady has made over the years, with rapper 50 Cent commenting on the persona. The teaser also incorporated clips of "My Name Is", "The Real Slim Shady", and " Without Me" (2002). The album and tentative release date were announced at the end of the 56-second long video, along with the opportunity to pre-save the record. The fake obituary for Slim Shady appeared in the May 13 issue of the '' Detroit Free Press'' newspaper as promotion for the album. Eminem is pictured in overalls and a hockey mask as his Slim Shady persona, while the obituary reads, "Ultimately, the very things that seemed to be the tools he used became calling cards that defined an existence that could only come to a sudden and horrific end. His complex and tortured existence has come to a close, and the legacy he leaves behind is no closer to resolution than the manner in which this character departed this world."

On May 21, Eminem made a cryptic post to his social media, containing a video with an iMessage chat addressed to "All Contacts" with the message "...and for my last trick!" Eminem changed his social media profile pictures to match the rabbit-in-a-top-hat emoji used in the post. Following the post, fans took to social media to express their concerns and theories about Eminem's potential retirement. On July 9, Eminem revealed the album cover on his social media pages before releasing the album three days later. On July 11, Eminem posted a "public service announcement" on Twitter that the album is "conceptual", and advised fans to listen to the songs in order.

Singles

On May 28, 2024, Eminem posted a joint video with magician David Blaine. The video shows a FaceTime between Eminem and Blaine, with the former asking for help and a magic trick to which the latter responds by eating a glass of wine. He then previews the track, called " Houdini", by playing a short instrumental snippet. At the end of the clip, the song title and release date are revealed. It was released as the lead single on May 31, along with an accompanying music video. The single was a commercial success, reaching the number one spot in twelve countries and on the Global 200.

On June 28, Eminem posted a teaser for the album's second single, titled " Tobey", a collaboration with fellow American rappers Big Sean and BabyTron. The short black-and-white clip depicts Eminem wearing a Jason mask and wielding a chainsaw, while standing next to the featured artists, with an instrumental snippet playing in the background. The song was released on July 2. A Lyrical Lemonade music video for the track was released on July 8, following a 3-day delay due to its unfinished production.

On July 19, a week after the album was released, "Somebody Save Me", a collaboration with American singer Jelly Roll, was released on streaming services as the third single.

Critical reception

''The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)'' received generally mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 46, which indicates "generally mixed reviews", based on 16 reviews. '' Detroit Free Press'' gave the album a positive review by saying "The production is tight, the wordplay dependably clever, the vocal flow confident and versatile." At the same time adding that the album is in the same league as his previous albums, '' The Eminem Show'', and ''Encore'' the latter being literally as the track " Brand New Dance" was largely recorded in 2004. '' Complex'' stated that the album was "just vintage Slim Shady shit". ''Billboard'' stated that the best track on the album was "Somebody Save Me", calling it a "teary-eyed end to the Slim Shady journey".

'' Clash'' stated that "''The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace)'' doesn't quite feel like an ending, but neither does it feel like a continuation", and later stated that it features some of Eminem's best rapping in decades. Meanwhile, '' The Independent'' gave the album two out of five stars, stating that "if twas 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."

In a review for ''Cult MTL'', Mr. Wavvy called ''The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace)'' Eminem's "strongest album in over a decade, which may say more about his abundance of misfires since ''The Marshall Mathers LP2'' than it does about the quality of this body of songs." Writing for '' The Daily Telegraph'', Neil McCormick described the album as "funny, shocking, contradictory, utterly outrageous, offensive, sentimental, clever, dumb and occasionally even (whisper it) wise".

'' Rolling Stone'' concluded "He's still young—barely into his fifties—but he takes a bizarre amount of pride in clinging to opinions he formed in his teens, and making those his whole point. Still blaming his problems on women, scared of trans folks, enraged by the idea of weird people doing weird shit, still moaning about his mom? He begs to get canceled by audiences who don't think about him and have no idea he thinks about them."

Commercial performance

In the United States, the album debuted at number 1 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, accumulating 281,000 album equivalent units which consisted of 114,000 downloads and 164,500 streaming-equivalent units. This gave Eminem his 11th album to top the chart, tying him with Barbra Streisand, Kanye "Ye" West, and Bruce Springsteen for the fifth highest number of albums to reach the summit. ''The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)'' was also the highest selling rap album of 2024, and is the second-largest sold album of the year behind Taylor Swift's ''The Tortured Poets Department''. It would also unseat ''The Tortured Poets Department'', which was number one on the Billboard chart for 12 weeks, for the number one spot on the ''Billboard'' top 200 chart.

''The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)'' also opened atop the UK Albums Chart with 45,000 chart units and became his 11th album to take the number one spot. It stayed at the top for three consecutive weeks. The album debuted at number 1 in an additional fourteen countries, including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Track listing

Notes
* signifies a co-producer
* signifies an additional producer
Sample credits
* "Habits" contains excerpts from the episode, called " Safe Space", taken from the show, ''South Park''.
* "Lucifer" contains a sample from "Land of Milk and Honey", written by Andres Holten and Hans van Hemert, as performed by Mouth and MacNeal.
* "Road Rage" contains interpolations from " Ha", written by Terius Gray and Byron Thomas, as performed by Juvenile.
* "Houdini" contains a sample from " Abracadabra", written by Steve Miller, as performed by the Steve Miller Band, and an interpolation from " Without Me", written by Jeff Bass, Kevin Bell, Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn, Marshall Mathers, and Malcolm McLaren, as performed by Eminem.
* "Somebody Save Me" contains a sample from "Save Me", written by David Ray Stevens and Jason DeFord, as performed by Jelly Roll.
* "Kyrie & Luka" contains a sample from "Move the Crowd", written and performed by Eric B. & Rakim.

Personnel

Musicians
* Eminem – vocals
* Luis Resto – keyboards (tracks 1, 2, 4–13, 15–17, 19)
* Sly Pyper – additional vocals (track 2)
* Dem Jointz – guitar, keyboards (track 3)
* Steve King – guitar (track 4)
* Curt Chambers – bass, guitar (track 7)
* R Palmer – spoken word (track 7)
* Bizarre – additional vocals (track 8)
* Traci Nelson – additional vocals (track 8)
* Teeba – bass (track 9)
* JRGotTheHits – drums (track 9)
* Cocoa Sarai – additional vocals (track 10)
* David "Preach" Balfour – keyboards (track 10)
* Steve Miller – additional vocals (track 11)
* Devin Scillian – newsreader (12)
* Kimberly Gill – newsreader (12)

Technical
* Brian "Big Bass" Gardner – mastering
* Mike Strange – mixing (1–6, 8, 9, 12–17), engineering (all tracks)
* Steve King – mixing (track 4)
* Dr. Dre – mixing (tracks 7, 10, 11)
* DJ Premier - engineering (track 20)
* Tony Campana – engineering
* Dem Jointz – engineering (track 3)
* Don Cannon – engineering (track 5)
* Quentin "Q" Gilkey – engineering (tracks 7, 11)
* Fredwreck – engineering (tracks 7, 11)
* Lola Romero – engineering (tracks 7, 11)
* BabyTron – engineering (track 17)
* Milan Becker – engineering (track 17)
* Tom Kahre – engineering (track 17)
* Jeffery "Champ" Massey – engineering assistance (tracks 7, 11)
* Jeremy Zumo Kollie – engineering assistance (tracks 7, 11)
* Vic Luevanos – engineering assistance (tracks 7, 11)

Charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)
2024 albums
Aftermath Entertainment albums
Eminem albums
Interscope Records albums
Shady Records albums
Albums produced by Eminem
Albums produced by DJ Premier
2020s concept albums