Thanks to Detroit News for this:
Sometimes it pays to read the print edition of the newspaper.
On page 3B of Monday’s Detroit News, tucked inside the Sports section underneath a college football notebook item, a three-paragraph “obituary” ran for Slim Shady, the alter ego of rap superstar Eminem.
“Slim Shady Made Lasting Impressions,” reads the headline of the obit, a covert piece of advertising for Eminem’s upcoming new album “The Death of Slim Shady.” “Fans ‘Will Never Forget’ Controversial Rapper.”
Underneath a picture of Eminem in overalls and a hockey mask, a look he sported on 2000’s “Up in Smoke” tour, the copy reads, “A product of Detroit who began his career there as a rogue splinter in the flourishing underground rap scene of the mid to late 1990’s, Shady first became a household name in 1999 with the debut of his playfully deranged single ‘My Name Is,’ which — along with its uniquely eye catching video — exposed the young artist and his lyrics to a wider audience.
“That audience was soon exposed to the extreme darkness of the muse/ rapper, as he led millions of music fans down a road that glorified a demonstrably nihilistic worldview.”
The obit continues and talks about the rapper’s “horrific end,” as well as “his complex and tortured existence.”
“May he truly find the peace in an afterlife that he could not find on Earth.”
The piece is marked as an advertisement, but there’s no reference to the album, or to Eminem, or to Marshall Mathers.
The ad also ran in Monday’s Detroit Free Press.
“The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)” was announced last month, the same night that Eminem appeared at the opening of the NFL Draft in downtown Detroit.
The set is the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s 12th studio album, and first since 2020’s “Music to Be Murdered By.”
The album was teased by an advertisement for a fake “Unsolved Mysteries”-type show titled “Detroit Murder Files.” Watch the ad here:
No release date has been announced for the album, only a summer timeline.
Eminem
