Eminem released his latest studio album, ‘The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce),’ on July 12

Before officially bidding farewell to Slim Shady, Eminem had a heart-to-heart with his alter-ego.

In a video special titled Slim Shady vs. Mashall Mathers: The Face-Off for his Complex cover story on Tuesday, July 30, Eminem reflected on the impact Slim Shady — which has been a part of his career since his 1997 Slim Shady and 1999 The Slim Shady LPs — had on his life.

“I invented you because my life was f—ed up. My music was going nowhere and I was broke,” Eminem, 51, told a younger and AI version of himself.

“You didn’t fix anything. You actually made that s— worse,” he continued. “You’re the reason I had to self-medicate.” Because of you I almost lost my f—ing career, my f—ing family, my life.”

He concluded, “Life’s been great since you’ve been gone.”

The face-off comes after Eminem released his latest studio album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) on July 12. Hours before its release, Eminem told fans on X (formerly Twitter), “Public service announcement: the ‘death of slim shady’ is a conceptual album, therefore, if you listen to songs out of order they might not make sense. Enjoy.”

In May, Eminem shared an obituary for Slim Shady in the Detroit Free Press, declaring him dead ahead of the album release.

“A product of Detroit who began his career there as a rogue splinter in the flourishing underground rap scene of the mid to late 1990s, Shady first became a household name in 1999 with the debut of his playfully deranged single ‘My Name Is,’” the piece read, “which — along with its uniquely eye catching video — exposed the young artist and his lyrics to a wider audience.”

Ben Liebenberg / AP

Eminem in Detroit in April 2024
The obituary continued, “Ultimately, the very things that seemed to be the tools he used became calling cards that defined an existence that could only come to a sudden and horrific end. His complex and tortured existence has come to a close, and the legacy he leaves behind is no closer to resolution than the manner in which this character departed this world.”

“May he truly find the peace in an afterlife that he could not find on Earth,” it concluded.

Meanwhile, in April, Eminem celebrated 16 years of sobriety by posting a photo of his hand holding a new chip commemorating the achievement.

During a 2022 appearance on Paul Pod podcast in 2022, he shared that a near-fatal drug overdose in 2007 was a wake-up call that inspired him to get sober after taking up to 20 pills a day.

“I remember when I first got sober and all the s— was out of my system, I remember just being, like, really happy and everything was f—ing new to me again,” he said.

In 2015, he told Men’s Journal that his kids — biological daughter Hailie Jade and his two adopted children, Alaina and Stevie — were a driving force in keeping him sober. He also replaced “addiction with exercise.”

“When I got out of rehab, I needed to lose weight, but I also needed to figure out a way to function sober,” the rapper said. “Unless I was blitzed out of my mind, I had trouble sleeping. So I started running. It gave me a natural endorphin high, but it also helped me sleep, so it was perfect.”

Eminem added, “It’s easy to understand how people replace addiction with exercise. One addiction for another but one that’s good for them.”