8 Takeaways From Eminem’s ‘The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)’ Album

Slim Shady is back—possibly for the last time.  

Eminem has just released his 12th studio album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), and it features the legendary rapper trying something new: releasing a fully realized conceptual album. 

The Death of Slim Shady is about Eminem’s inner battle with his alterago. Longtime fans should know that there is Em and then there’s Slim Shady, the rude, vulgar, confrontational rapper willing to go at anyone. Even in 2024, Slim Shady very much wants to piss the world off, and spends a good portion of the album sending fire at a wide spectrum of people, from Lizzo to Diddy to ‘Ye to Ja Rule to poor Christopher Reeve (again). 

This is Em’s first album in four years, and we can already say it’s a stark improvement over 2020’s Music to Be Murdered, with the rapper energized by the idea of doing something that’s a little out-of-the-box for him. And it does seem like Em is particularly pleased with this album. Hours before the release, he urged fans to listen to it as an entire project, not in bits and pieces.  

So that’s exactly what we did. Here are eight takeaways from Eminem’s new album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce).