Guess who’s back — Eminem released a new album Friday, taking aim at “woke” cancel culture and conservative political commentator Candace Owens while sharing his thoughts on transgender people, obesity, and the #MeToo movement.
The outspoken anti-Trump rapper expressed views that may resonate with or offend people on both sides of the political aisle and repeatedly poked fun at Caitlyn Jenner, Kanye West, and Christopher Reeve in his 12th studio album, The Death of Slim Shady: Coup de Grace.
“Breaking news … Detroit rapper Eminem, in a stunning move, has released an album in which he is actually trying to cancel himself,” a news anchor said in a skit on the album. “We got protesters lining the streets. … People are definitely upset over Eminem’s new album and are actually calling to boycott the rapper for songs that include insensitive comments about little people, people with mental disabilities, transgender rights, and the First Amendment.”
Candace Owens in Slim Shady’s scope
Eminem slammed Owens, a BLEXIT co-founder, on the album, claiming she “turned her back on her own race” for financial gain in “Bad One,” the 16th track on the record.
“Candace O, I ain’t mad at her,” he said on “Lucifer,” the seventh track. “B**** forgot she was black. … Laugh at her like them crackers she’s backin’ after her back is turned in a cute MAGA hat with her brand-new White Lives Matter shirt.”
“This MAGA dirtbag in a skirt just opened the biggest can of worms on the whole planet Earth,” he said. Eminem referred to her as “Grand Wizard,” “Klandace,” and “Grand Dragon,” and said, “Like the national anthem, I won’t stand for the tramp.”
Owens responded to the disses by accusing Eminem of being “obviously a gay man.”
“You disgust me,” she said. Owens claimed the rapper was “recycling” criticisms levied at her by black women on the internet and “pretending this is original.” She said that she might have been honored by receiving the “Rap God’s” attention if he were “at the peak of his career” but that, at this point, people should “feel sad for Eminem.”
“I’ve never used slurs to describe black Americans,” she added in criticizing the rapper for referring to white people as “crackers.” She said, “I don’t have an issue with my race, but you very much have an issue with yours.”
Eminem mentioned Kyle Rittenhouse on “Lucifer” as well. The rapper has previously expressed pro-Second Amendment sentiments in his 2004 song “We As Americans” but changed his tune following the 2017 Las Vegas music festival massacre with his 2020 song “Darkness.”
“Kyle Rittenhouse, spittin’ rounds, the TEC shoots (Look out, like, “Brrt”),” he said in reference to the Aug. 25, 2020, incident in which Rittenhouse shot three people, killing two, in self-defense during the Kenosha, Wisconsin, Black Lives Matter riots.
Rittenhouse responded on X, “Can someone tell @Eminem it’s the warthog that goes Brrt not the TEC?”
Reflecting on it later in a 2018 song, “The Ringer,” Eminem admitted he lost a considerable portion of his fan base after slamming former President Donald Trump in a 2017 cipher for BET.
“If I did lose half my fan base, then so be it,” he said at the time.
Rapper-turned-country star Jelly Roll, who has appeared on Fox News multiple times, was featured on the 19th track of the album, “Somebody Save Me.” However, as a convicted felon, he says he is neither a Republican nor a Democrat because he cannot vote.
Tackling the transgender issue
Eminem addressed transgender rights by repeatedly poking fun at Caitlyn Jenner, whom he also refers to as Bruce. He also made fun of the militant use of pronouns and gave his unfettered take on the matter in “Road Rage,” the 10th track.
“And I’m ’bout as much of a boy as Bruce Jenner is,” Eminem said on “Habit,” the second track. “’Cause I’m not a boy, I’m a man, b****. My speech is free as his choice to choose gender is.”
“Holy s***, Cait’ Jenner just flipped,” he joked on “Evil,” the fifth track. “Told me knock this s*** off and quit, and get off her d***.”
He also joked about his “transgender cat” that “identifies as black, but acts Chinese” on “Houdini,” the 11th track and first single to come out from the album.
In “Guilty Conscience 2,” he rapped about a dream in which he was being attacked by transgender people throwing midgets. “And now transgenders attack us, frontwards and backwards,” he said. “They laughin’, throw midgets at us.”
He hammered home his criticism for using preferred pronouns in “Habit,” “Antichrist,” and “Road Rage.” He joked, “All these pronouns, I can’t remember. They or them, theirs? (Whose?) His or him, hers?” he joked, and lamented, “Got heterosexuals crammin’ ’em down our throats now.”
Directly addressing where he stands on transgender rights, he said he is “all for them” but noted that he is not sexually attracted to transgender people. “Call me a transphobe ’cause I just can’t go and try and pretend you was never a man though,” he said. “I mean, damn, bro, it’s just the way I feel.”
He also said, “If men wanna wear lipstick and women’s underwear, who cares? Their s*** is their business.”
”Til Lizzo sings’: Personal responsibility behind obesity
Eminem went on a tear about the dangers of obesity in “Road Rage” after joking that in show business, it “ain’t never really truly over ’til Lizzo sings.”
He chided those who “coddle fat people” as “celebrat[ing] onset diabetes” and joked that “instead of us dieting, we can just have a pie-eating contest.” The rapper added criticism of those who are “extra nice instead of honest.”
After noting that it is “easier to find a triple-X your size” than it is to exercise, Eminem warned about the dangers associated with a poor diet, such as high blood pressure, clogged arteries, heart disease, and obesity. He said people “baby them instead of shaming them, but enabling them can do more harm than good” today.
“All my obese people, if you’re fat, proud, and you know it, raise your hand if you’re shovin’ food in your mouth at this moment,” he added. “But if you’re mad ’cause they’re clownin’ you for poundin’ them donuts (What?) Put ’em down and either do somethin’ about it or own it.”
Eminem’s war on ‘woke’ PC police
The “My Name Is” rapper waged war on “woke” politically correct culture, stating that “somebody needs to come and hit the reset button back to 2003 ’cause how did we get stuck in this woke BS?” in “Antichrist,” the eighth track. “I’m tryna make it regress.”
“Oh, s***, f***, f***** PC police, f***, Gen Z, here they come now,” he said. “’Bout to unload rounds.”
He slammed censorship numerous times, accusing him of “Mom shaming, dad shaming, fat-shaming, man-splaining” labeling those offended by his lyrics as “crybabies [who] attack Shady.” He complained that in modern politically correct culture, people “turn a word like ‘ginger’ into the N-word.”
To push back against censorship and political correctness, Eminem set out to “piss a billion people off at once” and offend as many groups as possible.
“F*** blind people, and deaf people suck,” he said on “Trouble,” the third track. “So do cripples, dumb quadriplegic f**** with Christopher Reeve’s luck.”
He went at his own manager on “Houdini,” calling him a “Snake-ass p****, you male crossdresser, fake-ass b****” before going after his inner circle, “you can all suck my d***, in fact f*** them, f*** Dre, f*** Jimmy, f*** me, f*** you, f*** my own kids, they’re brats (f*** ’em).”
Eminem also slammed “girls who bought t*** to get attention” who get hit on by less attractive men, “so you pretend you’re a victim and me-too ’em. Outraged, how fake.”
He repeatedly used words such as “retarded” and “midget” to push back on those who are offended by the use of those words. In “Guilty Conscience 2,” the 13th track, he joked, “Here’s the thing ’bout retarded people. They don’t f****** know they’re retarded.”
“You gonna cancel me, yeah?” he mocked on “Trouble.” “Gen-Z me, bruh?”
A ‘Guilty Conscience’
The Death of Slim Shady: Coup de Grace was an over-the-top throwback to the “old” Eminem, and his alter ego, Slim Shady. His song, “Guilty Conscience 2” paints a picture of Eminem battling with Slim Shady over how to express his true thoughts.
Eminem repeatedly shames his alter ego over his “embarrassing” antics and vulgarities, while the character of Slim Shady reminds Eminem that they’re the same person and that Shady is really the rapper’s way of saying what he really believes but doesn’t “have the balls to say.”
Expressing a hint of moral clarity, Eminem said that his vulgar alter ego is “immature and … still mentally 13” for picking on Reeve. “You rip on paraplegics, man, seriously?” he chided. He also said he “sound[s] like a d***” for “punching down on little people.”
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Eminem’s 12th album is billed as the death of his alter ego, but throughout the record, he said every time Shady dies, he always comes back.
“The coup de grâce is the final shot,” the “Lucifer” narrator says. “Right between the eyes. Also known as the killshot.”
