Eminem just made a comeback after 4 years of absence, but unfortunately, this comeback was not as expected.

The return of the king of rap
After two singles Houdini and Tobey stirred up the atmosphere of the European and American music market, legendary rapper Eminem officially released the album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) marking his return after 4 years of absence. shadow since the 2020 album.

The 51-year-old rapper’s latest studio album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 Albums chart with 281,000 equivalent album units, according to Billboard, based on data from Luminate. The album is currently having the best selling week of any rap album released in 2024 with 164,500 albums, equivalent to 220 million official on-demand streams, 114,000 digital album downloads and 2,500 album sales go out.

The Death of Slim Shady is Eminem’s 11th album to reach No. 1, equaling Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand and Kanye West and scoring the fifth most No. 1s on the prestigious album chart.

With its success on the charts, the album succeeded in helping Eminem “overthrow” Taylor Swift, the female artist whose album The Tortured Poets Department spent 12 consecutive weeks at the top of the charts. This is also The best achievement in the career of this 34-year-old female pop singer when holding the No. 1 position for 3 consecutive months Before the “storm” of Eminem, The Tortured Poets Department fell to No. 4 on the chart. this week.

To promote the album, Eminem ran a unique campaign with images of tombstones and obituaries in the Detroit Free Press newspaper, while encouraging fans to enjoy the album in the correct song order. With a theme revolving around his career and the controversies that erupted throughout his musical journey, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) is seen as the final farewell to the villain Slim Shady – a figure photo associated with Eminem’s name.

The album is full of controversial topics and tactics that Eminem has used in previous albums when the song Road Rage is a criticism of the “body positivity” movement, and Bad One is a joke about health. spirit of Kanye West/Ye.

Despite his efforts to bring tricks and notoriety to his comeback album, Eminem – who almost retired with the album Music to Be Murdered By in 2020, only attracted little attention when it came to the famous female rapper. contemporary Megan Thee Stallion. After that incident, the male rapper still could not create enough heat for the young music listening generation – the main component in the current music market.

Controversy about music quality

Despite being so “hot”, he still suffered criticism and a series of negative scores from experts. Music critics continuously gave below average scores for the album, Album Of The Year page even He even thinks that this is an attempt by a male rapper over 50 years old who is “making trouble” with young people and that the male rapper should really retire.

The Death of Slim Shady only received a 4.8 score from Pitchfork

When Eminem’s new album received a score of 4.8/10 from Pitchfork, he immediately fell into the sights of Peppa Pig – the cartoon character who is the owner of the album rated 6.5 points from Pitchfork, and is also a “evil beast”. dream” of any album released with a score below 6.5. Peppa Pig and the number 6.5 are like a “limit” for true artists. That if they can’t surpass a score of 6.5, they will lose even to a cartoon character! Previously, Taylor Swift herself and The Tortured Poets Department also being called out by this character when only earning a score of 6.0/10.

Returning to Eminem’s album, Pitchfork believes that The Death of Slim Shady only brings back Eminem’s old feeling when accusing the American public of being bloodthirsty, reflecting the spirit of the times of book banning thinkers and performers. armed love.

Rolling Stones gave the album a modest rating of only 2 stars, with an extremely ironic title: “You tried so hard!”. The once great rapper now sounds like a sweating star, trying to reassure everyone that he’s still in his prime.

Whatever motivates Eminem to actually finish and release his new album, it can’t be money, or fame, or any other opinion that needs to be shared. The male rapper is a sensitive soul and he needs recognition. This newspaper also thought it was funny that the male rapper decided to return to stories from 20 years ago: still blaming women for his problems, afraid of transgender people, angry at the idea Strange people doing strange things, still complaining about their mother?

This newspaper also said that this is not the future that anyone hopes for Eminem when in 2001 during his peak, he was also like this. After all these years, everyone can see that Eminem could do more in both his music and his personal life — but only if he really wanted to get up and start living again.

Variety magazine was more lenient when giving neutral comments: After all, who is Eminem without Slim Shady? Eminem’s new album is calm and contemplative, as shown in 2017’s Revival. The author thinks it’s too bad if Eminem chooses to rely too much on the chaos of Slim Shady’s character and his immaturity and ignorance. from this character, overshadowing the legacy he has created over the years.

However, this magazine also believes that the album still has bright spots such as Eminem’s reflective moments, or the song Temporary featuring Skylar Gray and a poem praising his daughter Hailie, with the recording the girl’s voice when she was a child and is considered a memory of his love for her when the male rapper passed away.

Eminem at the wedding of his daughter Hailie – who appears as a highlight in the album

Sputnik Music page, which is famous for rappers’ music products, gave some praise to the album even though it only gave it a score of 3.7. The author comments on why Eminem had to bring back Slim Shady in 2024: “Unfortunately, for all Slim Shady’s sharp wit and honesty, he’s a daring teenager with youthful rebellion, something Eminem realistically cannot sustain forever. The problem, however, is that it has become the definitive yardstick used to evaluate his work since the removal of the character in 1997.”

This newspaper believes that The Death of Slim Shady (Coupe De Grâce) is the best album Eminem has made since The Marshall Mathers LP2. Eminem sees potential in bringing Slim Shady back, as it gives him a chance to take the world by storm once again.

Even though it was just brought back, Eminem’s “wild” personality, Slim Shady, was also “faded” by Eminem in this very album.

And despite the different opinions, one thing that netizens all agree is that this album only resonates within Eminem’s own fandom community or at most, the rapper community. Faced with the “disappearance” of singles and the “obscure” influence on forums despite having to bring back Slim Shady – his most infamous character, what Eminem will do next in the future is The topic makes many people ask a big question.