Eminem is a veteran of the game, but he continues to produce results. The 51-year-old’s latest album, The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce), arrived at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 rankings this week.
The 19-track album was released less than two weeks ago (July 12) and had the most impact of any rap album in 2024. It sold 281,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, making it the Detroit rapper’s 11th No. 1 album.
This milestone placed him in the same league as Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, and Kanye West, all of whom have 11 No. 1 hits on the long-running chart. The four are currently only behind Drake (13 No. 1s), Jay-Z and Taylor Swift (14 No. 1s), and The Beatles (19 No. 1s).
Eminem, in normal manner, took digs at several people on his most recent album. On “Antichrist,” he accused Diddy of assaulting Cassie in 2016. “Next idiot ask me is gettin’ his a** beat worse than Diddy did [pause]/ But on the real, though/ She prolly ran out the room with his fkin’ dildo/ He try to field goal punt her, she said to chill/ Now put it back in my a and get the steel toe,” the rapper began to rhyme.
READ MORE: The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) Is Eminem’s 11th Number-One Album
He repeated it again on “Fuel” with JID, rapping, “I’m like an R-A-P-E-R. Got so many S-As, S-As. Wait, he didn’t just spell the word ‘rapper’ without a P, did he? R.I.P. Biggie, rest in peace./ And ‘Pac, both of y’all should be alive/ But I ain’t trying to fight him/ ‘Cause he might lay a hit on me like Keefe D did him.”
Slim Shady didn’t just stick to the men, as Lizzo was a topic in his bars. For the track “Road Rage,” his rhymes went: “Ain’t never really truly over ’til Lizzo sings/ We should coddle fat people, yeah, here’s a concept, let’s celebrate onset/ Diabetes and instead of us dieting we can just have a pie-eating contest.”
Eminem also mentioned Candace Owens on the tracks “Lucifer” and “Bad One,” doubting her Blackness and criticizing her political views. She said, “The first thing I want to say is that Eminem is plainly gay. It’s unfortunate that Eminem cleaned out his closet but never came out of it. I just want to remind everyone that he is a struggling internally gay man, and we should pray for him.”
Owens said that her response to him was advantageous since it would help him gain traction online. “I’m doing this because I want to help him go viral because this is sad,” she told me. “This is quite sad. I want you to be sad for Eminem. Because this is not the way to end someone’s career, and I want us all to work together to make Eminem relevant again. At the very least, the fact that I am talking about him makes him relevant. And he gets this.”
READ MORE: Eminem’s ‘Fuel’ ‘Get Popped Like Halyna Hitchins’… Calls Out Baldwin For ‘Rust’ Shooting
She refuted charges that she was not Black enough by referencing the “Lose Yourself” rapper’s decision to abandon his race. “You’re the one that’s actually cosplaying a race that you aren’t,” she informed me. “You’re desperate for Black Americans to pick up your tracks because you abandoned the audience of a lot of people who were listening to your music.”
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