On 12th July, a couple legends came through and dropped new records, Marshall Mathers released a spiritual sequel to his '99 classic, with The Death of Slim Shady, and the boom bap legends of Common and Pete Rock dropped The Auditorium Vol.1.
Eminem - The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)
In the late 90's we saw the birth of Slim Shady, the vulgar, middle-America terrorising, multi-syllable crunching criminal, who with his explicit and vivid lyrics, brought us into his cartoonish world of blood and horror. The alias is legendary and one of the best ever, but in 2024, in a world that has progressed socially (for the most part), this style of blunt vulgarity sticks out like a sore thumb, so it's time Slim Shady is finally put to his death.
This is a concept album that is quite interesting and pulled off fairly well. Through skits in between, at the start, and at the end of songs, we hear Slim take Em hostage, rapping with his dark and callous wit on multiple songs throughout, in attempt to get Eminem "cancelled" once and for all - an idea that Em needs to realise will never come to fruition no matter how much the voice in his head wants it to. This happens until the back-end of the album where Eminem finally defeats his alter-ego in physical combat, but also in their lyrical back-and-forth on the song Guilty Conscience 2. This song displays his ability to craft narratives and write dialogue which rhymes perfectly, although the song has less replay-ability than his other storytelling tracks in his catalogue. At the end of the song Eminem wakes up from a nightmare and rings his manager Paul to tell him about the dream and all the things he rapped about on the album up to that point, being chased by "PC Police" for example. So for the listener it's a little confusing, is Slim Shady actually dead, or was it all just a dream. The tone of the album shifts after Guilty Conscience 2 and the death of Slim, we get two very sentimental tracks in Temporary and Somebody Save Me, which were emotional tear-jerkers, one being a message to his daughter Hailie to be listened to after his death, and Somebody Save Me being very similar to the song Arose on Revival where he raps from the perspective of if he died from his overdose in 2007. For whatever reason that song makes me feel very nostalgic about myself and me listening to his music over all these years.
There's a slight mis-choice in the order of the tracklist because between Temporary and Somebody Save Me, we have the tracks Bad One, and Tobey, which are tracks which come a lot more aggressive and harder, I don't care for Bad One, but Tobey is a brilliant ensemble track with BabyTron and Big Sean that they all kill, I just think they could have come before or even after the two tracks which book-end them with significantly different tones.
So yeah, some confusing moments with the concept and the tracklist, but the main thing that was going to determine my enjoyment was always going to be, are the songs good? Are the songs interesting? The production was understated but pretty solid throughout. But the rapping was awesome, the extended multi-syllable rhyme schemes were exceptional, for example the first verse on Evil where the same rhyme scheme goes on throughout the whole verse, my favourite bar was, "all I do is spray, spew the hate while I fuel the flames, who to blame for my screwed-up brain".
The hundreds of different flows Em provided for us were absolutely fantastic, the flow at the end of Antichrist or the "C" alliteration in Fuel blew my head off - "got the most content on the continent and constant compliments give me confidence, I'm a cross of common sense and incompetence, I'm cognizant that conflicts are consequence of accomplishments accomplished through competition".
His tone and delivery sounded sharp and clear, the whole thing sounded a bit 2004-2010 Eminem - in different stages (I know that's a long time-period but some of it felt very Encore and some moreso Recovery). His voice on Renaissance was cold as hell and I know we've had some issues with corny bars/puns in recent projects but that was toned down way more than it was on Revival or Music to be Murdered By. Some of the bars were disgusting, I loved the line on Renaissance, "helped me rebel against shit so well and vent, so eloquently yet, I was irrelevant, soon as I quit givin' a fuck I started to sell-a-bit." "Sell a bit" being a homophone with "celibate" relating to (not) "give a fuck".
His homophone and wordplay game was elite level. The wordplay was a lot more tolerable than the cringe bars we've had in more recent projects. Not every bar was perfect, the line on Guilty Conscience 2 I thought was pretty poor, "that's conspiracy to commit murder lyrically, so clearly you're the accessory like jewellery". I can hold Eminem to a very high standard with his bars sometimes, and that means it makes my enjoyment of his stuff decrease, but knowing that he can spit like he can on Fuel and Antichrist, I think it's fair to expect better.
Some of the content matter was to be expected, but still disappointing. I know the point of the album was his alter-ego was coming across and taking over, saying outrageous stuff and that Marshall has to try and restrain against that, but on the song Guilty Consience 2 he says (as Slim Shady), "you created me to say everything you didn't have the balls to say, what were you thinking but in a more diabolic way". So, with that in mind, does Eminem really have the basic, stupid and un-nuanced opinions of trans people, like he did with gay people all those years back then, does he resent fat people, because that was a knew one, or is it all in fact an act to trigger liberals? He still triggers conservatives as well, taking shots at Colin Kaepernick's detractors and Candice Owens, so as usual, I can enjoy his political satire, but the stuff I don't enjoy or agree with is in there too *sigh*. I guess at this point, because some of the content matter is such low-hanging fruit, I just have to ask what is the point of it? What is the purpose of this in his story and career? Some of the lyrics on here are likely to age terribly like some of his earlier lyrics have, whereas, you can make meaningful and timeless music that we did hear on this album in moments, so why spend so much time poking fun at an already marginalised group.
Overall, a phenomenal performance from Em on the majority of songs. Bringing a dark and charismatic presence and pen-game that is truly Goated and still slick, with wit and punch. Maybe 2-3 songs too long, I personally would remove Lucifer, Bad One, and Road Rage, hook-wise they're good but these songs are the biggest criminals in terms of corny wordplay and eye-roll content matter. I think that would leave a more solid, concise list of tracks. Some huge highlights at the top of the album with Renaissance, Antichrist and Fuel, and some touching moments towards the end as well. The ordering of the songs muddied some of the concept for me, but I did enjoy the concept of the album, albeit it did get a bit confusing as to whether Slim Shady actually died or not. If he did die, RIP to one of the best aliases of all time and one of the most talented lyricists to ever live, and an all-round bad egg. And if he is still alive, see you on the next one.
Star Track - Fuel
6/10
The Auditorium Vol.1 - Pete Rock & Common
Since I first listened to like water for chocolate, Common has released a constant stream of good music keeping the 90s style hip hop heads hydrated and this album is no different. Common teaming up with Pete Rock is like having a pint of cobra with your jalfrezi, perfectly suited. If the Hip Hop scene had a multiverse, there would be a world where these two are Gang Starr.
Throughout this album, Commons flow is goated. Although slightly unorthodox, his flow seems effortless and smooth as always, perfectly matched to most of Pete Rocks beats. If you want to listen hard, you’ll find word play in varying levels and will probably catch more and more bars every time you replay a song. If you can’t be arsed to listen and dissect every bar, fear not; above all else, the songs on this album are smooth and easy to vibe to - a perfect example of this is the song ‘everything so grand’ and pretty much sums up the best of Common and Pete Rocks’ vibes.
Pete Rocks beats are consistently good on this with very creatively used samples. There’s a couple in their that sound a little bit messy and not a smooth as you’d expect from Pete Rock (so many people and wise up) but this is actually a nice change and are still good songs. Pete even jumps on and displays his smooth talent in lyrical form on ‘all kind of ideas’ saying "I still make hits like I used to, keep your top 5 I’m gods favourite producer" - outrageously truthful bars and probably my favourite verse on the album. Speaking of favourite verses, De La Souls own Posdnuos pops up with a killer verse on ‘when the sun shines again’ matching the smooth beat that flips the sample on everybody loves the sunshine. A song that proves the old school continues to provide good music.
Common continues to provide smooth sounding music throughout the years without stealing trendy styles or hopping on waves. Further to this, he’s never sounded corny or dropped ‘empty music’, he always comes with meaningful content evident in ‘A god (there is)’. If you don’t like the first song on this album then you won’t like most of the songs on the album. That's the only slight negative if this album. It’s not ground breaking or oozing with something different. Most of the songs are similar and the flows don’t vary significantly but why should they, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. A smooth album that’s easy to listen to and the fact it’s volume 1, I’ll be keeping my ear to the ground for the next installation to drop. Recommend this to anyone who’s into the smooth/chilled sub-genre of Hip Hop.
Star Track - Fortunate
8/10
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