Eminem comes out all guns blazing in the new album titled “The Death of Slim Shady”. The most striking thing about this latest offering from the Detroit Rap Legend is the sheer consistency he is able to maintain throughout the 19 tracks (including 3 pivotal skits). This is Eminem’s venture into a relatively unfamiliar territory. 

While there has always been a concept in Eminem’s works, with The Death of Slim Shady, he made a full blown concept album that is a treat for all stans in the word. The 1 hour and 4 minutes long album packs enough meat for stans to chew and the meat is delectable enough to savour it in all of its glory. 

Let’s break down the latest album of the 51-year-old legend song by song and try to find out what lyrical miracles he is able to pull off this time around.

Renaissance: A Song Straight Out of MMLP

The album begins with Renaissance in which Eminem straight up takes up back to the days of MMLP. The flow, the cadence, the beat there has the feel of vintage Eminem here. The song also gives you an instant callback to the opening song of Eminem’s last album “Music to be Murdered By” titled “Premonition”. However unlike Premonition, Eminem here adopts a low pitch flow making the song insane in lyricism. Renaissance sets the tone for the album that is going to be a stupendous battle between himself and his infamous alter ego. 

Habits: A Trip Down the Memory Lane to Offensive Eminem

Following up the powerful Renaissance, Eminem comes up with Habits, this song features White Gold, who has churned out catchy choruses for the rapper in his previous songs “Zeus” and “You Gon’ Learn”. Habits gives you a peek into Eminem’s most offensive avatar. For my money, this song is by “Slim Shady” only. Taking dig at “little people” and unwantedly dragging everyone is peak shady behaviour. 

Trouble: A Career-Ending Song

After Habits comes the most perplexing song of the album, with Eminem or should I say Slim Shady cussing blind people, deaf people, cripples and most importantly Gen Z. Eminem gives an open challenge to Gen Z to cancel him and the song ends in a gothic manner with Shady citing that Eminem and Shady need each other. 

Brand New Dance: A Dated Song with a Catchy Beat

The weakest offering of the album for me is this song. While it becomes evident later in the album that this song was supposed to feature on “Encore 2004”, it adds little to nothing to “The Death of Slim Shady”. Yes, it has a catchy beat and some quirky lyrics, but all references are too dated and the unwarranted calling out of Christopher Reeve makes it the most forgettable song on the album. 

Evil: Lyrically the Strongest Song on the Album 

It is pretty evident that Eminem is not one of the best singers out there when it comes to rappers. However, when he plays by his strengths he can come up with some of the finest hooks ever. That happened in “The Real Slim Shady”, “Without Me”, “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” and several other songs in his career. And that’s what happened with this song of “The Death of Slim Shady” as well. 

Evil has Eminem do the complete heavy lifting of the song and boy does he do that well. With strong verses after strong verses, Eminem takes you into his evil psyche and tops it up with a killer hook that immediately finds a place in your memory. Lyrically, possibly the finest song on the album with a great symphony of vocals and beat. 

Lucifer: Relapse Vibes All Over!

Eminem teams up with Sly Pyper in Lucifer— the song which has “Relapse (2009)” vibes all over it. While the flow in the song is not one of Eminem’s best, strong lyricism coupled with a strong hook by Sly Paper makes the song a memorable track to vibe to. With playful lines like “I have a walk like half a block to get a can of Coke”, the song is brimming with cheerful and offensive energy of Relapse through and through. 

So, if there is a completely distinctive song in “The Death of Slim Shady” then it is Lucifer. Eminem and Sly Paper takes you back to the days of “Relapse” with a manic energy (devoid of accents) and sick beat.

Antichrist: The Return of ‘The Eminem Show’ Eminem

Remember “The Eminem Show” aka the greatest Eminem album of all time aka one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time? If there is one song that is able to capture the energy of that album in all of its glory in “The Death of Slim Shady” then it is Antichrist. Eminem is able to deliver complex lines with such playful energy that instantly reminds you of his vintage avatar. The song has everything that makes Eminem great, be it the intoxicating flow, the rhythmic cadence or an instantly memorable hook. 

If it wasn’t for the jarringly weird verse of “Bizzare” at the end of the song which appears completely out of place, this would potentially crack my top 3 in the album. But for what it’s worth, the song is vintage Eminem that serves as a delicious treat for all Eminem fans around the world. 

Fuel: Eminem Channelling His “Rap God” Energy with Insane Rhyme Scheme

The collaboration of Eminem and JID in Fuel was something that came off as a pleasant surprise for fans of both artists. The song begins with an aggressive verse of JID which seems absolutely on point. The lyricism is insane and the beat is outrageously addictive. Till the time JID is on the mic, you start believing that he is the star of the song. But as always, Eminem comes in and completely outraps JID. 

With a rhyme scheme that instantly gives “Rap God” flashbacks, you start to forget that JID was even featured in the song. However, no matter how insanely Eminem raps here, it feels weak in the overall context of the album and dips dangerously into Rap God rappity territory, where even though you are impressed by the rap, there is no profound or deep meaning to the lyrics. But, if we speak solely about rapping abilities, this is Eminem’s best song in “The Death of Slim Shady”. 

Road Rage: Controlled Rage in a song that is too ‘Try Hard’

With one of the weirdest hooks ever, Eminem brings Road Rage. This song is accompanied by Dem Jointz and Sly Pyper. The overall idea of Road Rage is solid. However, the execution is extremely questionable. The song feels very dissonant with a hodgepodge of several interesting elements that don’t amalgamate in a cohesive manner. Honestly, I don’t even have anything interesting to say about this one. The beat switch is very weird and the concept is all over the place. Perhaps, the only good thing about it was the ending part where Shady or Eminem dyes the other guy’s here. Otherwise, it is just strictly decent. 

Houdini: The Return of Slim Shady

Guess who’s Back, Back Again? You guessed it right, folks, it is none other than blonde antihero Slim Shady. While on paper, Houdini seems nothing more than just a nostalgia bait, it works big time because of Eminem’s phenomenal lyricism that makes the song a fitting sequel to the 2002 classic “Without Me” without ever feeling derivative of it. Eminem name drops “Megan Thee Stallion”, “R Kelly” and many more in this true blue hip hop track. 

With a funny concept of “Shady Must be Stopped” and playful rhymes, Eminem once again proves he is best in the business when it comes to combining playful rhyme with a thematically dense concept. 

Guilty Conscience 2: A Masterpiece in Every Sense of the Word

Remember “Evil Twin” from “MMLP 2”? Well, now there’s an even more evil twin to the evil twin, i.e. Guilty Conscience 2. With Guilty Conscience 2, Eminem once again proves that nobody can hold his hands when it comes to storytelling through rap. This is conceptually Eminem’s song since “Bad Guy” which was released back in 2013. It is a song that begs for a music video because the storytelling is phenomenal.

The final verse between Eminem and Slim does nothing but proves that even at the age of 51, there is no rapper who tells a better story through rap than Eminem. This is the song that people will return to and marvel at its greatness. Houdini might get more popularity, Fuel might get more love from stans, but Guilty Conscience will forever remain etched in my memories for its sheer boldness and staggering storytelling. 

Head Honcho: A Creatively Bankrupt Song with Little to No Redeeming Qualities

Following Guilty Conscience 2, we have Head Honcho featuring Ez Mil– a song that is borderline incomprehensible because it never conveys anything. Ez Mil’s verse is extremely weak and frankly confusing. Eminem does breathe some life into this hollow pit of a song, but it still fails to register its importance in the album’s overall concept because of its sheer amount of vapidness. Honesetly, if “Brand New Dance” didn’t exist, this might have been the weakest song on the album. Nothing more to say. 

Temporary: A Spiritual Sequel to ‘Mockingbird’

After the flaming trainwreck of a song called “Head Honcho” comes Temporary. A song nobody (including me) expected to be a part of “The Death of Slim Shady”. An album with a title that suggests either a playful banter or a sinister face-off had no place for emotions I thought but I was proven wrong by Eminem. Temporary shows us the vulnerable side of Eminem without holding back. 

Just the fact that Eminem makes a song for Hailie for “When he is Gone” is extremely sad and tragic and the soul crushing lyrics of the song only contributes further to the tragic quality of the song. The song also features conversations between Eminem and the little Hailie which only makes it more saddening. Thematically, it might feel a little out of place, but if we look at Eminem’s discography, this is one of most personal works to date. 

Bad One: The Grooviest Hook combined with Playful Lyricism

Bad One will always be the dark horse of “The Death of Slim Shady” whenever the album is mentioned. With Eminem dropping some serious shades towards Candace Owens and White Gold coming up with the catchiest hook of the album, the song is the one that will find place in most stans’ playlists. While there is nothing deep or special about the song itself, it remains extremely fun and catchy throughout. 

Tobey: Corny Lyrics Saved By a Sick Beat

Even before the release of the album, I have always grown accustomed to “Houdini” and “Tobey”. Tobey was another song along with Houdini that was released as a single before the release of the album. It features Big Sean and BabyTron whose verses are decent enough and Eminem has nothing much to do when his verse comes. The starting verse with “Tobey Maguire got bit by a Spider, me? Must have got bit by a goat” sounds extremely corny and the lyrics succeeding it are not that great either. 

This said, the song on a whole is not bad at all. It features a catchy beat and Emimen’s flow is very much on point. So while the song is no masterpiece/ hilarious piece/ outrageous piece, it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb. 

Somebody Save Me: An Emotional Rollercoaster and a fitting Swansong

There have been several speculations of “The Death of Slim Shady” being the last album of Eminem’s career and “Somebody Save Me” featuring Jelly Roll ignites this doubt even more. In this song, Eminem is full of regrets talking to Alaina and Hailie. He is in a constant state of remorse claiming how he let drugs ruin his life and inevitably his children’s as well. 

We see Eminem in his most fragile state and the song becomes a cry for help more than anything else. Jelly Roll’s vocals in the hook makes the song even more impactful and it becomes the perfect swansong for the illustrious career of Eminem. So, if Eminem were to retire after this album, I am glad he did so with this song. 

While I might have sounded overly critical in some places of this article, I genuinely believe that “The Death of Slim Shady” is the most consistent work of Eminem since 2010s “Recovery”. If I were to rate the album, it would be somewhere around 8.5/10. This is for sheer belief of Eminem in the concept and delivering on all fronts. If we speak of his last few works– “Kamikaze” (2018) had a constant emotion (anger) and “Music to Be Murdered By” was extremely inconsistent. So, “The Death of Slim Shady” has come as a fresh breather in the discography of Eminem that will be memorable for a multitude of things.