Eminem Announces 'The Death of Slim Shady' in His Upcoming Album

Eminem has decided to kill off Slim Shady. The Detroit rapper, now 51, has announced that his twelfth studio album will be released this summer and will be titled 'The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace)' (meaning 'The Death of Slim Shady (Mercy Blow)'). A trailer announcing the album was released on the rapper's social media, shortly after his appearance at the NFL 2024 Draft. The video features a real crime journalist talking about the death of Eminem's alter ego, Slim Shady. 'Through his complex rhymes, often criticized and extravagant, the antihero known as Slim Shady has had no shortage of enemies,' says the journalist. Then appears Eminem's longtime friend and colleague, 50 Cent, who states: 'He's not a friend, he's a psychopath.' The journalist continues: 'The same vulgar lyrics and the same controversial antics could have led to his death. Join me as we reconstruct the events that led to the murder of Slim Shady.' Finally, Eminem himself appears: 'I knew it was only a matter of time for Slim.' The rapper had surprisingly released his last album, 'Music to Be Murdered By', in January 2020. It was an immediate success, reaching the top spot on the Billboard 200 and the single 'Godzilla' with Juice Wrld, peaked at third place on the Hot 100. Slim Shady has long been Eminem's artistic alter ego: he made his debut with 'Slim Shady EP' in 1997 and was also featured on 'The Slim Shady LP', which came two years later. The character of Slim was often the one to whom Eminem entrusted his most aggressive and violent lyrics, which branded him as a controversial rapper from the start of his career. He assumed the alter ego identity in songs like 'Guilty Conscience', ''97 Bonnie and Clyde', and, ironically, even in a song called 'Kill You'. In Italy, Slim Shady also caused a stir at Sanremo for his violent and sexist rhymes. It was 2001, Raffaella Carrà was hosting the festival, and the announcement of Eminem as a super guest caused a scandal so much that for the first time in the history of Sanremo a song ended up in the prosecutor's office. Following a report from the Theological Studies Center of Milan, the Sanremo prosecutor demanded that Rai preview the lyrics of the scheduled song. Rai sent the translation of the song 'The real Slim Shady'. But the prosecutor concluded that nothing could justify blocking the performance. In reality, Eminem on stage proposed 'I'm Back' but above all the still unknown 'Purple Hills', where he sang: 'I don't give a f... if this chick's my mother, I'd still f... her with no condom.' Almost everyone railed against that performance: from the then Minister of Communications, Salvatore Cardinale, to the president of the Supervisory Commission Mario Landolfi, and even Arcigay. Except for Carrà, the president of Rai at the time, Roberto Zaccaria ('Yes to criticism, no to preventive censorship,' he said) and Don Pasquale Traetta, the spiritual assistant of the festival ('Eminem is a child of God too,' he declared).