As an overall concept, this album is Eminem coming face-to-face with his alter ego, Slim Shady, and Em confronting a lot of the things that have been part of his identity especially during his peak in the 2000s:
Drug addiction, being controversial, violence, pop culture references, etc.
The first track, ‘Renaissance,’ is reminiscent of “old” Eminem, particularly on The Eminem Show or Encore, from the beat to the voice Eminem uses to the subject matter. The purpose is to set the stage and let the listener know that we’re going back in time to re-experience the Slim Shady persona, and this time around Em is going to take him down once and for all.
The song ends with a line about artists not getting their flowers until they’re dead, foreshadowing the death of Slim Shady later on in the album.
Next, on ‘Habits,’ Slim Shady is back and immediately forcing Em to do drugs (he’s been sober since 2008). This track lets you know the type of timing Slim Shady is gonna be on in this album, using the r word and saying he doesn’t care who he is offending. Eminem is fighting it saying “you can’t say that” but acknowledging that Slim Shady is a part of him “But I’m still an addict, so it’s getting harder” and the chorus is essentially Em saying he’s addicted to Slim.
On ‘Brand New Dance,’ Eminem brings back his recurrent poking fun at Christopher Reeves on a track that was originally meant for Encore, literally bridging the present with the past. The track is from Slim Shady’s perspective.
On ‘Evil’, ‘Lucifer’ & ‘Antichrist’ we see more of Slim Shady essentially being a menace to society, and Eminem equates himself to the devil.
‘Fuel’ is a track basically about longevity, but I also see it as Eminem passing the torch to JID. Em is saying he’s not going to run out of fuel, and reflects on what he’s been through, but by giving JID the lead verse (which is nearly 1:30), I think he’s basically saying that yeah, I’m here to stay but also acknowledging he won’t be able to do this forever and passes the baton to JID (who has said he was a “super fan” of Em back in the day and has rapped on his beats). You could say that there’s a similar effect with EZ Mil later on but I’d like to think the JID one has more weight because he’s more established (and I think he’s better quite frankly).
‘Road Rage’ & ‘Houdini’ are more tracks where Slim Shady takes over, and Road Rage especially has some of the most egregious lines on the album.
‘Guilty Conscience 2’ is the turning point of the album, where Eminem is finally able to suppress Slim Shady and the rest of the project is much more mature.
The back-and-forth between Em and Slim is reflected in 2 distinct voices, one which sounds like modern Eminem and one that sounds like old Eminem (representing Slim Shady).
In their confrontation, Eminem calls out his own hypocrisy by saying that he hates bullies yet had no hesitation bullying everyone back in the day in his music. The Slim Shady voice on this song is Eminem’s temptation to tap into a lot of the bad things he said or did back in the day that also led to him being so famous (and thus making more money, etc). Slim Shady is his drug addiction personified, saying he got stronger when Marshall fed him drugs and alcohol (and thus Em would do more “bad” things).
Em takes back control at the end of the track and seemingly k!lls Slim Shady.
The next song, ‘Head Honcho,’ is immediately a new direction thematically and it feels like Eminem is tackling some of his past trauma on this song (as opposed to being so blatantly chaotic like he was as Slim Shady), like his uncle getting st@bbed, his mom making him take sleeping pills, and feeling hated by everyone for what he’s said in the past.
The next few tracks are more of this mature Eminem. ‘Temporary’ is a nice song dedicated to Hailie. ‘Tobey,’ as we all know by now, is about being the GOAT – but I think Tobey Maguire was the Spider-Man specifically chosen for this song because he is the older, veteran Spider-Man who some might see as “washed” or “nostalgia-bait” but will always be the goat – same as Eminem (in his eyes).
The album ends on ‘Somebody Save Me’ which imo is one of the best songs on the album. It features Jelly Roll, who also notably beat drug addition. Eminem addresses his kids directly on it and it’s in the same vein as ‘Castle’ and ‘Arose,’ 2 of modern Eminem’s most beloved tracks.
The song depicts an alternate reality where Eminem actually d!ed and is a way for Em to reflect on his life and look at what could’ve been if he didn’t get clean, such as not being able to walk his daughter Hailie up the aisle at her wedding (which he did in fact do in real life). While the timeline of this song is not real, the guilt and emotions Em pours into it clearly are. It’s a great wrapping up of the album as it shows what would’ve happened if the “evil Slim Shady” persona took over, or if Eminem lost his battle to drug addiction.
In conclusion, I think that this album is Eminem’s way of wrestling with some of the challenges he has had late in his career, like people saying they miss the old Eminem, finding subject matter to rap about, or even just pushing himself in other ways beyond technicality (I found his flow to be much stronger on this album than in recent times, for example). I think it’s Eminem acknowledging that things are different now, but was a way for him to celebrate some of the really fun characters he was a part of like on Houdini, while also reflecting on how dangerous it would’ve been if he fell victim to the darkness like on ‘Somebody Save Me.’
It’s a way of saying he’s glad for where he is now, he had some great (and some terrible) experiences along the way, but he wouldn’t trade how it turned out for anything.
Source: Gothamhiphop on X
