14/07/2024
this is it đ
EMINEM - THE DâŹATH OF SLIM SHADY LP REVIEW
As an overall concept, this album is Eminem coming face-to-face with his alter ego, Slim Shady, and Em confronting a lot of the things that have been part of his identity especially during his peak in the 2000s:
Drug addiction, being controversial, violence, pop culture references, etc.
The first track, âRenaissance,â is reminiscent of âoldâ Eminem, particularly on The Eminem Show or Encore, from the beat to the voice Eminem uses to the subject matter. The purpose is to set the stage and let the listener know that weâre going back in time to re-experience the Slim Shady persona, and this time around Em is going to take him down once and for all.
The song ends with a line about artists not getting their flowers until theyâre dead, foreshadowing the death of Slim Shady later on in the album.
Next, on âHabits,â Slim Shady is back and immediately forcing Em to do drugs (heâs been sober since 2008). This track lets you know the type of timing Slim Shady is gonna be on in this album, using the r word and saying he doesnât care who he is offending. Eminem is fighting it saying âyou canât say thatâ but acknowledging that Slim Shady is a part of him âBut Iâm still an addict, so itâs getting harderâ and the chorus is essentially Em saying heâs addicted to Slim.
On âBrand New Dance,â Eminem brings back his recurrent poking fun at Christopher Reeves on a track that was originally meant for Encore, literally bridging the present with the past. The track is from Slim Shadyâs perspective.
On âEvilâ, âLuciferâ & âAntichristâ we see more of Slim Shady essentially being a menace to society, and Eminem equates himself to the devil.
âFuelâ is a track basically about longevity, but I also see it as Eminem passing the torch to JID. Em is saying heâs not going to run out of fuel, and reflects on what heâs been through, but by giving JID the lead verse (which is nearly 1:30), I think heâs basically saying that yeah, Iâm here to stay but also acknowledging he wonât be able to do this forever and passes the baton to JID (who has said he was a âsuper fanâ of Em back in the day and has rapped on his beats). You could say that thereâs a similar effect with EZ Mil later on but Iâd like to think the JID one has more weight because heâs more established (and I think heâs better quite frankly).
âRoad Rageâ & âHoudiniâ are more tracks where Slim Shady takes over, and Road Rage especially has some of the most egregious lines on the album.
âGuilty Conscience 2â is the turning point of the album, where Eminem is finally able to suppress Slim Shady and the rest of the project is much more mature.
The back-and-forth between Em and Slim is reflected in 2 distinct voices, one which sounds like modern Eminem and one that sounds like old Eminem (representing Slim Shady).
In their confrontation, Eminem calls out his own hypocrisy by saying that he hates bullies yet had no hesitation bullying everyone back in the day in his music. The Slim Shady voice on this song is Eminemâs temptation to tap into a lot of the bad things he said or did back in the day that also led to him being so famous (and thus making more money, etc). Slim Shady is his drug addiction personified, saying he got stronger when Marshall fed him drugs and alcohol (and thus Em would do more âbadâ things).
Em takes back control at the end of the track and seemingly k!lls Slim Shady.
The next song, âHead Honcho,â is immediately a new direction thematically and it feels like Eminem is tackling some of his past trauma on this song (as opposed to being so blatantly chaotic like he was as Slim Shady), like his uncle getting st@bbed, his mom making him take sleeping pills, and feeling hated by everyone for what heâs said in the past.
The next few tracks are more of this mature Eminem. âTemporaryâ is a nice song dedicated to Hailie. âTobey,â as we all know by now, is about being the GOAT - but I think Tobey Maguire was the Spider-Man specifically chosen for this song because he is the older, veteran Spider-Man who some might see as âwashedâ or ânostalgia-baitâ but will always be the goat - same as Eminem (in his eyes).
The album ends on âSomebody Save Meâ which imo is one of the best songs on the album. It features Jelly Roll, who also notably beat drug addition. Eminem addresses his kids directly on it and itâs in the same vein as âCastleâ and âArose,â 2 of modern Eminemâs most beloved tracks.
The song depicts an alternate reality where Eminem actually d!ed and is a way for Em to reflect on his life and look at what couldâve been if he didnât get clean, such as not being able to walk his daughter Hailie up the aisle at her wedding (which he did in fact do in real life). While the timeline of this song is not real, the guilt and emotions Em pours into it clearly are. Itâs a great wrapping up of the album as it shows what wouldâve happened if the âevil Slim Shadyâ persona took over, or if Eminem lost his battle to drug addiction.
In conclusion, I think that this album is Eminemâs way of wrestling with some of the challenges he has had late in his career, like people saying they miss the old Eminem, finding subject matter to rap about, or even just pushing himself in other ways beyond technicality (I found his flow to be much stronger on this album than in recent times, for example). I think itâs Eminem acknowledging that things are different now, but was a way for him to celebrate some of the really fun characters he was a part of like on Houdini, while also reflecting on how dangerous it wouldâve been if he fell victim to the darkness like on âSomebody Save Me.â
Itâs a way of saying heâs glad for where he is now, he had some great (and some terrible) experiences along the way, but he wouldnât trade how it turned out for anything.
Source: Gothamhiphop on X
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