The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) Review

The idea is decent and the execution talks itself to death. Framing the album as a fight with his own creation should let him examine why the shock material stopped working, but he keeps handing the character the microphone to prove he can still do it, which is the opposite of a reckoning. Half the record is the thing it claims to be burying. Habits and Brand New Dance are the worst of that, jokes about people who cannot answer back, sold as bravery.

Then Temporary arrives, a song written for his daughter to hear after he dies, and it is direct and unadorned and completely disarms you. Somebody Save Me does similar work. The production is the standard late model, big dark synths and hard drums, competent and anonymous. He is still one of the most capable rappers alive at fifty two. He has not had anything he needed to say for about twenty years, and this album is a long documentary about that fact.