Eminem to kill off Slim Shady alter ego on new album: 'It was only a ...

11 days ago

Toronto Sun

'He’s not a friend, he’s a psychopath'

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Published Apr 26, 2024 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 2 minute read

In this July 20, 2015, file photo, Rapper Eminem attends the premiere of "Southpaw" in New York. In a tweet Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017, Eminem said is hosting a promotional event Friday in Detroit in the style of a pop-up restaurant with a menu featuring "mom's spaghetti." The event is to promote his new album, "Revival." Photo by Evan Agostini /Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Eminem has announced he is saying goodbye to his alter ego Slim Shady with his upcoming twelfth album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grace).

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The rapper, who was born Marshall B. Mathers III, has employed Slim Shady as his alter ego since his 1997 Slim Shady EP and The Slim Shady LP, which dropped two years later. The character has often been one he’s assumed to deliver his rude lyrics.

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“Hi, kids, do you like violence? / Wanna see me stick nine-inch nails through each one of my eyelids?” he begins on the 1999 hit track My Name Is. Eminem later used the character to mock Christina Aguilera on The Real Slim Shady.

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In 2000, then-Ontario attorney general Jim Flaherty tried to have Eminem barred from entering the province ahead of a show at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.

Flaherty said the rap star’s lyrics were so violent toward women that the artist shouldn’t be allowed to perform in Canada. “I personally don’t want anyone coming to Canada who will come here and advocate violence against women,” Flaherty told Queen’s Park Bureau.

After the fallout, Eminem went a decade before playing Toronto again when he made a surprise appearance at OVO Fest in 2010. He hasn’t played a show in the city since.

The 15-time Grammy winner announced the new record during the NFL Draft in Detroit Thursday night. An album trailer shows a crime reporter discussing the death of Em’s blond-anti-hero alter ego, Slim Shady.

“He’s not a friend, he’s a psychopath,” 50 Cent says making a cameo.

“The same rude lyrics and controversial antics may have ultimately led to his demise. Join me as we recreate the events that led to the murder of Slim Shady,” the reporter adds.

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Eminem himself makes an appearance at the very end, saying, “I knew it was only a matter of time for Slim.” The clip ends with a look at the possible album cover, which shows a bleeding man with a knife wound to the chest.

The hip-hop artist’s last studio album, Music to be Murdered By, was a surprise release when it came out in 2020 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

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