Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? In a recent video for Complex, the rapper Eminem acted out a conversation between his real self, Marshall Mathers, and his alter ego, Slim Shady. “Slim” was highly critical of Mathers, implying that he’d never had as big of an impact after he ditched the moniker.
“Don’t get it twisted […] You’re not f***in’ Taylor Swift. You had one era that mattered–mine.”
This statement seemed to allude to the fact that Swift, 34, has managed to reinvent herself continuously as an artist. Her record-shattering Eras Tour references the many successful phases of her musical career. It appears that Eminem has battled with some insecurity about his ability to change in the same way.
The Marshall Mathers version of Eminem, 51, defended his 25-year career and said that Slim Shady was “a cartoon character.”
The clip was quickly circulated by a Taylor Swift fan account on X, (formerly known as Twitter) and Swifties seemed to derive a lot of pleasure from the rapper’s praise of the pop star.
One fan remarked, “Eminem sent Taylor flowers after Kanye stormed the stage and ruined her VMA speech. He’s always liked her.” (Note: Newsweek Entertainment was not able to verify this, but Eminem did publicly denounce Kanye West’s actions at the time, according to Entertainment Weekly.)
Another X used posted: “i knew slim shady would love taylor”
The praise was rather graciously timed, as Eminem’s latest album, “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce),” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 last week. The album finally beat out Swift’s latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” which had held the top spot for 12 weeks.
Still, there seems to be no “Bad Blood” between Swift and Mathers. Swift is known to be a fan of Eminem, and even covered his Oscar-winning song “Lose Yourself” during a past tour. It appears the respect is mutual.
