Eminem pretends to kill his alter ego on his 12th album “The Death Of Slim Shady”. Such a clean play.
It’s “Eminem drops new album!” the new ugly German slogan on every imaginable digital channel in the past few days. “Hit” sounds like a bird doing its business while hopping. For Eminem, a top player in the billion dollar hip-hop game, things are completely different of course. The drawing board should look spontaneous and strictly “street”.
Perhaps inspired by the Taylor Swift phenomenon, the mauler, born Marshall Bruce Mathers III, thought of presenting a concept album for his 12th album “The Death Of Slim Shady” (Shady Records, Intershop), which has a wealth of associations , cross references. and quotes from earlier works, which strengthens fan loyalty even more. His first single, “Houdini,” screamed with an amazing video overload that was an action movie, a cartoon and a fantasy at the same time. The best fodder to burn the synapses in the fan’s brain.
“Coup de Grâce” (Coup de Grace), subtitled “The Death Of Slim Shady”, pretending to break up with Eminem’s peroxide blonde alter ego Slim Shady, is aptly chosen. It’s been exactly 25 years since the Missouri rapper introduced this character. Despite her alleged death, the cover shows her in a body bag, it can be assumed that there will be a sequel at some point, like Hollywood blockbusters. It’s all just a matter of desire and/or the joy of sales. Eminem, who has sold around 400 million records, doesn’t want it anymore.
Treasure of the past
The most important thing in hip hop if it wants to go viral is a crisp sample. Several of these appear in the first single “Houdini”. The central melodic motif comes from Steve Miller’s “Abracadabra”, a pop song that went viral around the world in 1982. There are also bits of “Buffalo Gals” (1983), the original sample of the Eminem song “Without Me” ( 2002), which comes from none other than Malcolm McLaren, that pop wizard between punk and opera. And also spherical sounds recorded by the British pianist Ann Dudley for the British band Art Of Noise led by Trevor Horn, without borrowing much money from the classical composer Erik Satie.
Smart theft can pay off. And so be it, twenty or thirty years later. Eminem’s “Houdini” sold millions of musicians is riding the hot wind. It’s interesting how the money machine of popular music collapsed due to technical innovations, but then reinvented itself in a new way. With “Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay – The dodgy business of popular music”, Briton Simon Napier-Bell has written a standard work on how making money with songs has changed dramatically since the introduction the copyright in London in London. It is 1710.
Hip hop, as the most commercially successful genre, has been doing it professionally for years. Because he digs into the storehouse of the past and finds reusable “ear candy”. The genius of this genre is that it is music that is both contemporary and retro at the same time. This can also be seen in the video for “Tobey”, where Eminem briefly sits down in front of the house where he once grew up and thus recreates the cover of his 2000 album “The Marshall Matters”. Past, present, future – everything flows into another. Conclusion: On “The Death Of Slim Shady” Eminem sounds more toxic than he has in a long time. And this despite the fact that it does not address any current political issue, but that it revolves around its own axis in an autohistorical way.