Eminem Name Drops Kendrick, Diddy, Kanye, & More On New Album
Eminem‘s new album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) is here, and it finds the rapper taking shots at Diddy and Ja Rule while also poking fun at other artists like Kanye West.
The self-proclaimed Rap God revealed that his new album is a “conceptual album.” Ahead of the official drop, he gave fans a warning and some insight into the project. Eminem took to X, formerly Twitter on Thursday (July 11), where he explained that he’s putting out a concept album, so the order of the tracklist is intentional. This means that listeners should listen to The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) in the order he decided to fully understand the artist’s vision and not skip around.
“Public service announcement: the ‘death of slim shady’ is a conceptual album, therefore, if you listen to songs out of order they might not make sense,” he wrote. “Enjoy.”
Shots fired on Eminem’s new album.
The concept album sees Eminem in battle with his alter ego Slim Shady and contains several comments about other music artists such as Lizzo. Most of his lyrical jabs are aimed at Diddy and his multiple sexual assault lawsuits.
On “Antichrist,” he references the CCTV footage of the Bad Boy boss brutally assaulting ex-girlfriend Cassie in 2016. “Next idiot ask me is gettin’ his a– beat worse than Diddy did/ But on the real, though/ She prolly ran out the room with his f—–’ dildo/ He try to field goal punt her, she said to chill/ Now put it back in my a– and get the steel toe.”
“Antichrist” also sees Em joking about Kanye West’s public outbursts while poking fun at his ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s sex tape with Ray J. “Say they wish that I wasn’t so angry/ They wanna see me goin’ off the deep end like Ye, aye/ Rather see me do like Kim Kardashian they say, yeah/ And find a way to get rid of all of this rage, aye [Ray J].”
“Bad One”
“Bad One” features another Kanye reference, this time about his medication and mental health issues. “Brain is dead, space cadet/ Like when Ye forgets to take his meds.”
Some fans pointed out that the most harsh insult comes on the track “Fuel” where Em raps, “I’m like a R-A-P-E-R/ Got so many S-As, S-As/ Wait, he didn’t just spell the word ‘rapper’ and leave out a P, did he?/ R.I.P., rest in peace Biggie/ And ‘Pac, both of y’all should be living/ But I ain’t tryna beef with him/ ‘Cause he might put a hit on me like Keefe D did him.”
The lyrics reference the claim made by Keefe D, the former gang member who has been charged with 2Pac’s murder, that Puffy offered him $1 million to kill both ‘Pac and Suge Knight at the height of Bad Boy’s feud with Death Row Records in the mid-’90s.
Of course, Ja Rule is also unable to escape the jabs as Eminem raps on “Guilty Conscience 2,” the sequel to his and Dr. Dre‘s Slim Shady LP collaboration. He says, “When I say, ‘F— midgets,’ I mean Ja Rule.”
“Road Rage”
“Road Rage,” a song mostly about Slim Shady saying outrageous things about fat people, contains a dig at proudly plus-size singer Lizzo. He says, “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.”
While there are many namedrops throughout the latest Slim shady album, not all were digs at artists. The Death of Slim Shady also finds Eminem defending Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Joyner Lucas from critics.
“Now let’s travel inside the mind of a hater/ ‘Cause I don’t see no fans, all I see’s a bunch of complainers/ ‘Kendrick’s album was cool, but it didn’t have any bangers/ Wayne’s album or Ye’s, couldn’t tell you which one was lamer/ Joyner’s album was corny, Shady’s new shit is way worse/ Everything is either too tame or there’s too much anger/ I didn’t like the beat, so I hated ‘Might Delete Later”/ You nerdy pricks would find somethin’ wrong with ’36 Chambers,’” he raps on the opening song “Renaissance.”
Since the album is still new, something tells us that more namedrop discoveries are to come.
