Eminem wants his fans to know he’s over his decades-long rapping persona, Slim Shady, as he embarks on a higher plane of consciousness.
The rapper bid farewell to Slim Shady in the cover story of Complex’s July 2024 edition.
“So you think it’s entertaining to just be a d******* and p** people off?” Mathers asked Shady after the character trashed his ‘lyrical miracle’ music releases by saying, “People want to be entertained.”
He also gave reasoning in his spirited conversation titled ‘Slim Shady vs. Marshall Mathers: The Face-Off’ with his alter ego who he credited as Slim Shady in his 26 year long career.
“Look, man. I’ve grown up, bro. My fanbase has grown up,” the “Tobey” rapper continued. “The world’s changed. F****** people are way more sensitive now. Every other week on TikTok, Gen-Z discovers you on Monday and cancels me on Tuesday.”
He went on to blame Shady for his past struggles with addiction. From self-medicating to ‘almost’ losing his ‘career, family, life, he iterated how ‘life’s been great’ ever since he left that persona.
Mathers called out Shady’s controversial tactic in their Complex conversation, saying, “Bro, you’re just doing the same s*** you always do. Make the f*** single fake controversial without really offending anyone, and then put all the f*** up on the deep cuts so that people talk about the album after it drops.”
This recent gibe was an attempt to double down on his recent fallout with his character Shady after he introduced the conceptual death of Shady for his twelfth studio album back in April with an Instagram teaser video released as the Detroit Murder Files — in which he asked, “Who killed Slim Shady?”
The rapper, 51, then dropped a dozens of cryptic Easter eggs about Shady’s demise, from a fake obituary to a mysterious hint about making his career ‘disappear’ for his ‘last trick.’
For those unversed, the Grammy winner brought Shady back to life for his Houdini music video on May 31, partially re-creating the visual for his 2002 song Without Me, on which he famously rapped, “Guess who’s back, back again? / Shady’s back, tell a friend.”