Credit: Alamy

Ahead of releasing his new album, The Death of Slim Shady, on July 12th, Eminem has shared a “public service announcement” to fans.

The new release marks Eminem’s first LP since 2020, but unlike his prior two albums, the Detroit rapper hasn’t chosen to surprisingly drop them on streaming platforms with no notice. Instead, he’s taken a careful and considered approach to rolling out the record, which he first teased earlier this year with an obituary in a local newspaper.

Before it was revealed he was planning on releasing a record called The Death of Slim Shady, Eminem sparked interest by placing an article in the Detroit Free Press. The piece read: “Fans ‘will never forget’ controversial rapper,” the piece reads. “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,’ which — along with its uniquely eye catching video — exposed the young artist and his lyrics to a wider audience.”

It also went onto say of the rapper’s demise: “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.”

Thankfully, Eminem is still alive and well, but Slim Shady’s funeral is set to take place on July 12th when the record drops. Rather than just being another ordinary album, Marshall Mathers has constructed a cohesive body of work that he demands to be listened to in chronological order.

Taking to X, on the eve of the album’s release, he shared: “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.”

His message comes just days after the hip-hop icon unveiled the full track list, which contains a whopping 19 songs. It is clear that some of the inclusions on the LP are direct sequels to old Eminem songs, such as ‘Guilty Conscience 2’, which is a direct homage to the rapper’s 1999 song with Dr Dre.

See the full track list for The Death of Slim Shady below.

The Death of Slim Shady track list:

1. ‘Renaissance’
2. ‘Habits’
3. ‘Trouble’
4. ‘Brand New Dance’
5. ‘Evil’
6. ‘All You Got’ (skit)
7. ‘Lucifer’
8. ‘Antichrist’
9. ‘Fuel’
10. ‘Road Rage’
11. ‘Houdini’
12. ‘Breaking News’ (skit)
13. ‘Guilty Conscience 2’
14. ‘Head Honcho’
15. ‘Temporary’
16. ‘Bad One’
17. ‘Tobey’ ft. Big Sean, BabyTron
18. ‘Guess Who’s Back’ (skit)
19. ‘Somebody Save Me’