“Eminem on Leaving His Slim Shady Persona Behind: ‘I’ve Grown Up… People Are More Sensitive Now’
The rapper had a “spirited conversation” with his problematic persona in a video released alongside his July 2024 ‘Complex’ cover story
Eminem is ready to move on from Slim Shady for good.
If the 51-year-old rapper (born Marshall Mathers III) didn’t make that clear enough with his The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) album earlier this month, he made sure to double down on his goodbye to his rap persona for Complex’s July 2024 cover story.
In a “spirited conversation” titled Slim Shady vs. Marshall Mathers: The Face-Off, which dropped on Tuesday, July 30, alongside the cover, Mathers and the alter ego — known for being unapologetically raw — discuss Shady’s problematic role in Eminem’s 26-year rap career and how he’s grown past it.
“So you think it’s entertaining to just be a d—head and piss people off?” Mathers asked Shady after the character trashed his “lyrical miracle” music releases by saying, “People want to be entertained.”
“Look, man. I’ve grown up, bro. My fanbase has grown up,” the “Tobey” rapper continued. “The world’s changed. F—ing people are way more sensitive now. Every other week on TikTok, Gen-Z discovers you on Monday and cancels me on Tuesday.”
Mathers went on to place blame on Shady, saying he’s “the reason I had to self-medicate” — referencing his past struggles with addiction — and why he “almost lost my f—ing career, my family, my life.” He added, “Life’s been great since you’ve been gone.”
Eminem introduced the conceptual death of Shady for his twelfth studio album back in April with an Instagram teaser video released as the Detroit Murder Files — inspired by true crime series Unsolved Mysteries — in which he asked, “Who killed Slim Shady?”
From there, the “Lose Yourself” rapper dropped a plethora of cryptic Easter eggs about Shady’s demise, from a fake obituary to a mysterious hint about making his career “disappear” for his “last trick.”
Related: Jelly Roll ‘Can’t Believe’ His ‘Childhood Hero’ Eminem Sampled His Hit ‘Save Me’ for Death of Slim Shady Album
The Grammy winner brought Shady back to life for his “Houdini” music video on May 31, partially re-creating the visual for his 2002 song “Without Me,” on which he famously rapped, “Guess who’s back, back again? / Shady’s back, tell a friend.”
In the new video, however, the two faced off in a comic book-style battle, in which they melded into an older version of Eminem with slightly longer, bleached blond hair.
Eminem performs onstage at Live from Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central in June 2024
A day before The Death of Slim Shady’s arrival, Eminem shared a disclaimer about the album on X (formerly Twitter), letting fans know how it’s meant to be listened to. “Public service announcement: the ‘death of slim shady’ is a conceptual album,” he wrote, “therefore, if you listen to songs out of order they might not make sense. Enjoy.”
Some songs on The Death of Slim Shady harken back to the persona’s crass lyrics that helped Eminem rise to fame in the late ‘90s and early 2000s — like track nine, “Fuel,” which includes a shocking reference to Alec Baldwin and Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was fatally shot on the movie set by a prop gun in 2021.
“But it’s in a holster, I proceed to bust it / F— around and get popped like Halyna Hutchins / Like I’m Alec Baldwin, what I mean is buckin’ you down, coup de grâce….,” Eminem raps on the song.
Related: Eminem Calls Out Diddy’s Sexual Assault and Abuse Allegations in 3 New Songs
On the same track, the musician boldly called out Sean “Diddy” Combs’ numerous sexual assault allegations with lines like, “I’m like a R-A-P-E-R (Yeah) / Got so many S-As (S-As), S-As / Wait, he didn’t just spell the word, ‘Rapper’ and leave out a P, did he? (Yep).”
Mathers called out Shady’s controversial tactic in their Complex conversation, saying, “Bro, you’re just doing the same s— you always do. Make the f—ing single fake controversial without really offending anyone, and then put all the f—ed up on the deep cuts so that people talk about the album after it drops.”