Eminem
's journey to the top would have been a different story without
Slim Shady
, the exaggerated persona he passed the mike to when it was time to fire off his most offensive and attention-grabbing lyrics. Crass and problematic but rarely serious, the
character provided a needed foil to the often-tortured
Marshall Mathers
, and was the star of many of
's earliest hits. He returns on concept album
The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)
, in which the two sides of the rapper's personality face off in a fight to the end. Returning from the early 2000s to 2024 with a lot of the same jokes, references, and tired points of view,
Slim
spends the front half of the album spewing as much seemingly random verbal menace as possible, aiming loosely at cancel culture, Gen Z, pronoun usage, and wokeism. Still an undeniably gifted rapper,
gives a strong showing of his multi-leveled wordplay and dexterous flow. "Habits" has the pop sparkle that took him from the underground to the radio, and while the inclusion of "Brand New Dance" is questionable at best (the song was shelved in 2004 and is devoted to mocking quadriplegic actor
Christopher Reeve
, who died that same year), the chunky beat and sinister chorus are surefire nostalgia for times when
was dominating mainstream culture. For the most part, however,
The Death of Slim Shady
is a bewildering slog to get through. The general concept gets old almost immediately, and from there we're left with a painful lack of new ideas.
does what he's done before: recycles a classic rock hook for the chorus of "Houdini," switches into a faster-than-fast chopper flow at the end of "Lucifer," and closes with an emotional ballad on "Somebody Save Me," complete with a heartstring-tugging hook from
Jelly Roll
. The pacing is as confusing as the generally shaky concept, as the standoff between
Marshall
and
reaches its bloody conclusion six tracks before the album ends. Even approaching
as generously as possible -- one of the most skilled rappers of all time knowingly denouncing his former self as out of touch and no longer part of his world view -- it's still difficult to understand why he stretches this thin idea out over an entire album. The "edgy" humor struggles to land, the transphobic and anti-woke lyrics are more embarrassing than sad, and even if the point is that
's once shocking perspectives have passed their expiry date, there's very little inspiration to drive this idea home. Much as with the last several albums that came before it,
is really about
grappling with age, his place in rap culture, and his relationship with his own celebrity and artistry so many years in. It debuted at the top of the charts like most of his studio albums before it, but even
's consistent commercial success can't save him from his growing irrelevance, truly a fate worse than death. ~ Fred Thomas