Eminem’s Glory is Fading? Latest Album Mocked by Peppa Pig + Media 

After his two singles, “Houdini” and “Tobey,” stirred up the US-UK music scene, legendary rapper Eminem officially released the album “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)”, marking his return after a four-year absence since his 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. This album currently has the best-selling week among rap albums released in 2024, with 164,500 albums, equivalent to 220 million on-demand official streams, 114,000 digital album downloads, and 2,500 physical album sales.

“The Death of Slim Shady” is Eminem’s 11th album to reach number one, tying him with Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, and Kanye West for albums with the fifth most number one placing.

With its chart success, the album managed to dethrone Taylor Swift, whose album “The Tortured Poets Department” previously held the top spot for 12 consecutive weeks. This was also the best achievement in the 34-year-old pop singer’s career, maintaining the number one position for three straight months. Faced against Eminem, “The Tortured Poets Department” had slipped to fourth place on this week’s chart.

To promote the album, Eminem launched a unique campaign featuring tombstone imagery and obituaries in the Detroit Free Press, encouraging fans to listen to the album in the correct song order. Themed around his career and the explosive controversies throughout his musical journey, “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)” is seen as a final farewell to the villainous character Slim Shady, a persona closely tied to Eminem’s identity.

The album is filled with controversial topics and stunts that Eminem has used in previous albums, such as the song “Road Rage,” which criticizes the “body positivity” movement, and “Bad One,” a joke about Kanye West/Ye’s mental health.

Despite his efforts to fill the comeback album with stunts and scandals, Eminem—who had nearly retired with his 2020 album “Music to Be Murdered By”—only gained a little attention when mentioning the famous contemporary rapper Megan Thee Stallion. 

Following that incident, the rapper still couldn’t generate enough buzz among the younger generation of music listeners, who are the main demographic in today’s music market.

Mixed Reactions to the Quality of Music

Despite the initial “buzz,” Eminem still faces criticism and a series of negative scores from experts. Music critics have consistently given the album below-average scores, with Album Of The Year even describing it as a desperate attempt by a rapper in his 50s to “pick a fight” with the youth. In fact, the site took it as far as to suggest the rapper to just retire.

When Eminem’s new album received a score of 4.8/10 from music review site Pitchfork, he immediately became the target of Peppa Pig—a cartoon character whose album scored 6.5 points from Pitchfork and has become a “nightmare” for any album that scores below 6.5. 

In particular, Peppa Pig and the 6.5 mark have become a “benchmark” for serious artists. If they can’t surpass a 6.5 score, they’re worse than a cartoon character! Previously, even Taylor Swift with “The Tortured Poets Department” was called out by this character when her album scored only 6.0/10.

Returning to Eminem’s album, Pitchfork claimed that “The Death of Slim Shady” merely evokes the old feeling of Eminem accusing the American public of being bloodthirsty, reflecting the spirit of the times of book-banning thinkers and armed protesters.

“No matter how self-aware he is about becoming the old white guy scared of a changing culture, Eminem can’t seem to get in front of that fact”, Pitchfork wrote, adding, “He remains one of the biggest-selling and most-streamed artists in the United States, but Em’s perpetually on a back foot, like a wealthy barbarian at the gates working as hard as he can to convince his critics he’s worthy of praise.”

Meanhiwhile, Rolling Stone gave “The Death of Slim Shady” a modest two-star rating, with a highly sarcastic headline: “Well, He Tried” and the caption “The once-great rapper now sounds like a star with the yips, sweating to reassure everyone — especially himself — he’s still got it”.

According to the media site, whatever motivated Eminem to complete and release his new album, it couldn’t have been money, fame, or any opinions needing to be shared, as the rapper is a sensitive soul and he needs recognition. 

The paper also found it amusing that the rapper decided to return with stories from 20 years ago: still blaming women for his problems, fearing trans people, angry about the idea of queer people doing queer things, and still complaining about his mom?

The paper also noted that this is not the future anyone hoped for Eminem when in 2001, at the height of his career, he was like this too. After all these years, everyone can see that Eminem can do much more in both music and personal life—but only if he really wants to get up and start living again.

Variety was more lenient, offering neutral comments: After all, who is Eminem without Slim Shady? Eminem’s new album is serene and reflective, as demonstrated in 2017’s “Revival.” This site noted that it’s unfortunate if Eminem chooses to rely too heavily on the chaos of the Slim Shady character and its immaturity and ignorance, overshadowing the legacy he has created over the years.

However, the magazine also mentioned that the album still has bright spots, such as Eminem’s reflective moments or the song “Temporary,” featuring Skylar Grey, and a poem dedicated to his daughter Hailie, with a recording of her as a child, which considered a memory of his love for her when the rapper passes away.

Sputnik Music, known for its focus on rap music, gave the album some praise despite only giving it a score of 3.7. The author commented on the inevitable reason Eminem had to bring Slim Shady back in 2024, stating, “Unfortunately, for all of Slim Shady’s sharp wit and honesty, as a character, he was a brash adolescent with a youthful rebelliousness to him, something Eminem realistically couldn’t sustain forever. The problem, however, is that it has been the very metric used to judge his work ever since dropping the character in 1997”.

The publication suggested that “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)” is the best album Eminem has made since “The Marshall Mathers LP2.” Eminem saw the potential in bringing Slim Shady back, as it gave him the opportunity to wage a storm against the world once again.

Despite the various opinions, one thing netizens agree on is that this album only resonates within Eminem’s own fandom or at best, the dedicated rap community. With the disappearance of singles and its “dim” influence on forums despite bringing back Slim Shady—his most notorious persona—what Eminem will do next remains a big question for many.

Source: K14