Is There a Secret Message in The Death of Slim Shady?

Eminem's Death of Slim Shady album dropped and had the biggest streaming day of any rap album this year. On the surface, it seems like the thrilling last ride of Eminem's alter ego, Slim Shady, but is it? Is there a secret message in the Death of Slim Shady?

When you listen to the album, you hear Slim Shady take control of Marshall and try to get Eminem canceled before Eminem takes control back and kills off Shady. However, playing the album backward tells us the opposite story. What if Slim Shady killed Marshall and changed the order of events to fake his own Death?

1. Somebody Save Me

Somebody Save Me, the final track of the album, is meant to be the tragic end to Slim Shady. Eminem has made Slim Shady synonymous with his drug use, so it makes sense that Slim Shady didn't overcome his addiction and died. However, what if this track is foreshadowing? If we treat this song as the intro, it would be like a show or movie showing us a future death that hasn't yet happened but will inevitably happen.

2. Guess Who's Back (skit)

Ken Kaniff returns for the first time in this skit since the Marshall Mathers LP 2, 11 years ago. Now that the foreshadowing is over, we see the return of a familiar face who first debuted in the Slim Shady LP. He even says, "Thought you got rid of my ass?" It could be referring to Ken's long absence but it also alludes to Slim Shady being alive.

3. & 4. Tobey/Bad One

Both of these songs are meant to be Eminem songs without the influence of Slim Shady after Eminem finally got rid of him. However, it still makes sense if you listen to the album in reverse. This is the beginning of the album, and these are the Eminem tracks, and you can see Eminem talking his shit and drifting towards Shady. Tobey is spicy but still definitely Eminem, but Bad One makes reference to Eminem loving to piss people off, and Eminem maintains that it is Slim Shady who does all the dark stuff, not him, which ties into the chorus where he references his bad attitude, aka Slim Shady. However, in this track, Eminem is still separating himself from Shady, saying people think they want Shady until Shady actually shows up, and they get offended.

5. Temporary

This is a profoundly emotional song Eminem made for his daughter Hailie for when he dies and can't speak to her anymore. It's meant to comfort her and help her move on and live a happy, healthy life. However, what if Eminem is actually already dead? This song is for after his death. This is the first big clue that Eminem died instead of Slim Shady. He starts it by saying, "Hailie Jade, I wrote this song to help you cope with life NOW that I'm gone. " Also, if you listen really closely, Eminem's tone of voice changes to almost a different voice when he says, "Now that I'm gone," and goes back to normal for the rest of the verse. It could be a coincidence, or it could be Slim Shady.

6. Head Honcho

On Head Honcho, Eminem responds to criticism that he is unrelatable by saying that if you can't relate to him, then you probably have never experienced adversity. Eminem then says that by age 5, he had been through more than most people go through in their lifetime. He describes being attacked and watching his uncle get stabbed in the stomach. In addition to bringing up his trauma, he brings up how people are turning on him for saying one bad thing. He says he hasn't had this much flack in a while, and Eminem also talks about how Shady helped Eminem overcome the media and his trauma. Eminem even mentions relapsing into Shady before declaring this his coupe de grace. All this would suggest that this is the setup for his final ride as Shady. All these topics are the perfect setup for the next song, which serves as the climax of the album.

7. Guilty Conscience 2

In this song, Eminem rap battles himself. Eminem is trying to get Shady to grow up. Eminem blames Shady for becoming a monster and ruining his life. He tells Shady his antics are pathetic. Shady, on the other hand, thinks Marshall Mathers is pathetic. Shady argues that they are the same and that Marshall is responsible for everything Shady did, but he's stopped working with Shady and became a punk. Shady wants Marshall to be like he used to be. Shady wants Marshall to be more like him. He also points out Marshall doped him up with drugs and alcohol, and that's how he lost control of Shady, but Shady still made him rich and famous and made sure he never took shit from anyone ever again.

The battle becomes physical when Marshall goads Slim into untying Marshall to shoot a fair one. Now, if you listen to the album as it is presented from the Renaissance to now, it would seem like Marshall was able to beat Shady and kill him. However, if you reverse the tracks, this is the start of Shady's takeover. Marshall wakes up and tells Paul that he had a horrible dream that Shady was making him say all this controversial shit, but he couldn't stop, and Paul just hangs up on him and says fuck you. After the hang-up, Marshall laughs, or does he? If Marshall really wanted Shady to grow up and he didn't do these things, would he find Paul's anger at his antics funny? No, this is Shady laughing at his plan coming together. He's out now.

8. Breaking News Skit

In this track, the album restarts because Slim Shady is now in control. He shows Eminem all the chaos he has wreaked since being let out. The news talks about Shady trying to cancel himself and how people worldwide are trying to protest Eminem. This is in line with Shady's argument from Guilty Conscience 2, where Shady wants Eminem to be like him. He's trying to force Eminem to be like him by doing so much damage that Eminem feels there's no other option but to be Shady because Marshall is destroyed in the people's eyes.

9. Houdini

Now, this track is just classic Slim Shady on a rampage, and it makes perfect sense as the first song on the Slim Shady side of the album. It even starts with Shady's birth as a devil-horned demon baby. We also know from the music video that Eminem does a call back to his Without Me video, where he wakes up with two women in his bed and dresses up as Rap Boy to save the day. However, this time, he's not going to stop kids from buying the album; instead, he's going to stop Shady.

This timeline is perfectly aligned with the reverse order. We saw that Slim Shady got out after Guilty Conscience Two, and he made Marshall watch what he was doing in the real world. Well, now Eminem has woken up and is off to stop Slim Shady. However, Once again, he doesn't beat Slim Shady. As we saw in the Houdini video, Eminem and Slim Shady battled and ended up fusing into a weird mix of both of them.

10. Road Rage

Road Rage is also the perfect song to go after Houdini. Now that Eminem and Shady are combined, Eminem is growing more controversial and mean. We see that the tone is different from Shady alone, as he was on Houdini. Eminem and Shady are even having an internal battle on this song. In the middle, Shady dies their hair blonde, and Marshall tries to stop him but fails. In the ad-libs, you can hear Shady egging on controversial bars and Marshall yelling for help.

Eminem's voice even starts changing when he sarcastically asks, "I gotta memorize pronouns of a ciss man?" Then Eminem yells, "No, wait," before Shady takes over completely, and the beat changes to Juvenile's "Ha," and Shady makes fun of Eminem, thinking that Shady is too Juvenile(pun) and wanting him to tone it down. Shady also says, "That's Shady speaking his mind like it was his mouth, huh?" Shady is taking over this fusion. He references a boxing match and talks about people saying he won't win, which works both as a reference to Eminem in general and his underdog rise to the top and the battle between Shady and Eminem. Shady also says Fuck Christopher Reeves in response to criticism of Shady dissing disabled people. This is significant because in Guilty Conscience 2, Eminem and Shady argued over Reeves and Shady dissing disabled people. Eminem even slips into a full 1999 Slim Shady voice at the end of his last verse.

11. Fuel

Looking at this song through the Shady lens in reverse album order is interesting. Eminem talks about the voices in his head, forcing him to say all this controversial shit before he goes into one of the most incredible flows and rhyme patterns you will ever hear. Eminem also blames his attacks on the world, which always came for him and made him into who he is today. Also, the chorus talks about never running out of fuel. But this could also apply to Shady. This is supposed to be the Death of Shady. There is no place for Shady in 2024. Shady is supposed to grow up. However, what if the fire inside never dies? "What will you do if he doesn't run out of fuel? "

12 & 13 Anti Christ & Lucifer

Slim Shady continues to try to get Eminem canceled by saying the most controversial things. It's probably why he says Marshall is the anti-Christ instead of Slim or Eminem. He wants to ruin this new tamer-Marshall, and bring him back to Shady. Then, we get our second return. First, there was Ken, and now, there is Bizarre. Letting Bizarre say whatever he wants at the end of your track definitely gives you a good chance of getting canceled.

Shady continues this satanic theme by calling Marshall Lucifer and his followers a satanic cult. However, Shady goes a little further and starts using his mom to show how vicious he is. He says, "But if this is what he do to his mom (Pfft), Imagine what he'd do to you. " Going after his mother and his deceased father shows Shady getting darker. At the beginning of the Lucifer track, a voice says the Coup De Grace is the kill shot between the eyes, an end to the pain. This could be in reference to Eminem himself and the pain of his existence or the only way to get rid of Shady and this fused state.

14. All You Got Skit

In this skit, Marshall asks why Shady is doing this, and Slim Shady tells him it's because Shady gave Eminem everything, and then he turned his back on Shady. He wants to prove that he is good for Eminem, but he's frustrated that Eminem doesn't see it. He also points out that Marshall has tried to kill him before but hasn't been able to. He also says Eminem can't outthink or outgrow him. He also says that Shady will always come back and that Shady is all Eminem has.

This skit is extremely significant. Shady is inferring here that Slim Shady always comes back because, on some level, no matter what Eminem says, he always feels like he needs Slim Shady. Also, Slim Shady's mission is clear: he wants to make everything so bad that Eminem sees how much he needs Shady. He wants to be all Eminem has. But Slim also says he can't be killed, and we know that in Houdini and Guilty Conscience 2, Eminem tries to stop Shady but fails. This skit makes us return to those tracks that have already happened when listening in reverse order.

15. Evil

Evil is back to Shady's regularly scheduled programming of dragging Eminem down a dark path. In the song, Eminem even admits he deploys Shady and hides behind Shady during the blowback. Also, not only is Shady influencing Eminem, but he's also just flat-out taking over. Several times in the songs, Eminem protests what Shady is saying.

16. Brand New Dance

This song also makes a lot of sense in reverse. In Guilty Conscience 2, Slim Shady calls Eminem a pussy for taking Brand New Dance off of Encore after Reeves died. Well, now that Slim Shady is in control, he released the track, and this might be the peak of Shady's attempt to cancel Eminem.

17. Trouble

As this battle goes on and Shady gets darker, Eminem and Shady have another confrontation, and Shady just starts doing shock lines like " fuck blind people" Eminem tries to stop him. Shady makes fun of him for trying to clean it up before once again saying Eminem needs to understand that we need each other. He wants Eminem to embrace the dark side more. He also says you thought we were dreaming, huh? This is very interesting because we know Eminem wakes up in Guilty Conscience 2 from what he thinks is a dream. This also points to a reverse order. Also, Slim Shady is drugging Eminem in this song, forcing him to relapse and tying him up. As we near the end, we return to Eminem and Shady's confrontation.

18. Habits

Slim Shady starts the song by continuing to force Eminem to drink and do drugs by threatening him with his gun. He also references their previous battles on the album by saying that Eminem thought he got rid of him. This is further proof that Shady didn't die. Habits talks about Eminem being addicted to Slim Shady. He can't let him go. " I know you can't get rid of me forever because you know that I'm prescription man. Next time, I'll be in your vein (Yeah)." This addiction and vein talk reminds us of the first track, Someone Save Me, where Eminem succumbs to drug abuse.

19. Renaissance

Wow, the album's last track is in reverse order, and it sounds like the beginning of Eminem's "Premonition" on Music to Be Murdered By. At the song's start, we hear Eminem or one of the three personas kill someone and start digging a grave. Could it actually be someone digging something up? On Premonition, Eminem says, "As much as I hate you, I need you." Maybe it's a coincidence, but maybe not.

Now, back to the final track of the album, Renaissance. It's the ending that really tells the story. Eminem says, "So you can wait for your flowers until you're blue in the face Stupid, you ain't gonna get 'em until your funeral, wait (Hm)." We hear him talk about not getting your flowers until you die, and then he's grabbed and attacked, and the track cuts out as he yells wait. Slim Shady killed Eminem on Renaissance. He beat him on Guilty Conscience 2, made their hair blond, started taking over and drugging Eminem, and finally killed Eminem. Eminem says on Someone Save Me that he feels like he's stuck in an alternate reality. Eminem is the inevitable death foreshadowed in Somebody Save Me at the beginning of the album. Slim Shady killed Eminem and altered the order of the tracks to cover his.

Did Eminem pull off a reversible album? Who was really killed? What side are you on? #Marshall or #Shady?