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Veeze and Rylo had fans clamoring for this track when they posted a snippet on social media earlier this year in February and now its finally here. Directed by Kevin Mares, the video for “F.A.F” — short for “F—ed a Fan” — shows Detroit’s Veeze going bar for bar with Alabama’s Rylo Rodriguez in front […]
Eminem fans have been waiting quite some time to get a new album from the rapper — four years to be exact. So when he finally dropped the 19-track The Death of Slim Shady Friday (July 12), longtime admirers were quick to rejoice on social media.
“im speechless,” one person tweeted a few hours after the album dropped. “25 years later & its a full circle moment. eminem delivers one of his best albums & showing us what slim shady does one last time.”
Another fan added, “he just dropped the best album within the last decade … Your favorite rapper can’t f–king compete,” while someone else raved, “Lyrics, word play, message, beats, production, all TOP TIER.”
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And though the album — which follows 2020’s Billboard-200 topping Music to Be Murdered By — has only been out for a few hours, listeners have already come together to elect a few songs as fan-favorites. There’s the project’s closer “Somebody Save Me,” featuring Jelly Roll, as well as previously released singles “Tobey” featuring Big Sean and BabyTron and “Houdini,” but the most beloved track appears to be the emotional “Temporary.”
Featuring old recordings of Em’s daughter Hailie Jade, who’s now 28, the song finds the hip-hop titan giving his kin something to remember him by once he’s died. “I wrote you this song/ To help you cope with life now that I’m gone … How should I start? Just wanna say look after Alaina, Stevie, and Uncle Nate/ And sweetie, be strong,” he raps, referencing his two adopted children, 31-year-old Alaina and 22-year-old Stevie, as well as his half-brother Nathan.
Suffice to say, fans are pretty much a bucket of tears. “Me hearing ‘Temporary’ and ‘Somebody Save Me’ after laughing and vibing for 45 minutes,” one listener wrote on X, sharing a gif of Matthew McConaughey sobbing in Interstellar.
Keep reading to see some of the best reactions to Eminem’s brand new The Death of Slim Shady below.
im speechless. 25 years later & its a full circle moment. eminem delivers one of his best albums & showing us what slim shady does one last time pic.twitter.com/K1WZCoOqD8— Omar 🥱 (@omartalkss) July 12, 2024
Jelly Roll checked a historic item off his bucket list when notching a collaboration with Eminem on “Somebody Save Me,” which served as The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)‘s poignant closer.
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Hours after the track made waves on streaming services, Jelly Roll reflected on Friday (July 12) in an emotional post to social media about having the chance to contribute to one of his “childhood hero’s” projects.
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“I always say my childhood hero’s lived somewhere between Willie Nelson and Eminem,” he began. “As a teenager (and still today) I could recite every song on the Slim Shady album, the Marshal Mathers album and the Eminem show. When I bonded out of jail at 17 years old and was sneaking into cyphers and battles in Nashville they would also play the ‘lose yourself’ beat when I came out on stage at the freestyle battles. I related to every word Eminem wrote. I understand him and felt like he understood me, which was rare cause I spent most of my life feeling misunderstood.”
Jelly Roll continued: “So you can imagine how I felt when I got that the call that Eminem would be sampling my song “Save Me” on his new album. And for him to use the song to discuss the other side of what could’ve happened if he would’ve allowed his demons to win brought me to tears. If you haven’t heard it yet, check out “Somebody Save Me” on Eminem’s new album ‘the death of slim shady’ special shout out to Paul Rosenberg , you’ve been nothing but kind to me and treated me like family and gave me opportunities I didn’t deserve, forever grateful.”
Rapper Chris Webby hopped into his comments to put the seminal moment in perspective. “Legendary my brother,” he wrote. “I had such a moment listening to that album last night and then when I heard your voice it stirred up crazy emotions in my soul. Hard to even explain it honestly, but I’m so damn proud of you dude.”
“Somebody Save Me” heavily samples Jelly Roll’s “Save Me,” which reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November following a Lainey Wilson remix.
Jelly Roll’s angelic chorus surrounds Eminem vulnerably opening up in a candid letter to his children where he admits his faults as a parent and expresses regret about the past. “They say my lifestyle is bad for my health,” the country star sings. “It’s the only thing that seems to help.”
The Nashville-bred star met Eminem for the first time before hitting the stage together outside the Michigan Central Station venue. The heartfelt embrace was captured by Jelly’s wife, Bunnie XO. “When the goat meets THE GOAT,” she captioned the clip soundtracked by Eminem’s “My Name Is.”
Jelly Roll joined Em on stage at the June show where they performed Slim Shady’s Aerosmith-sampling “Sing For the Moment.”
Check out Jelly Roll’s post below.
Eminem is back. The Detroit legend reasserted his status as a titan in the rap game with his The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) album on Friday (July 12). The Grammy-winning rhymer loaded up his 12th studio album — and first since 2020’s Music to Be Murdered By — with 19 songs and a pair […]
As certain sects of Democrats continue to seriously eye Vice President Kamala Harris as a replacement for President Joe Biden atop the ticket for the 2024 Presidential Election, voters are reflecting on their perception of the history-making VP. Among those voters are Billboard-charting rapper and actor Guapdad4000.
On Thursday (July 11), Guap took to his official X page to quote a post featuring a clip from a 2019 Vice YouTube video in which Jamal Trulove, reflected on Harris’ role in sending him to prison for six years during her time as San Francisco’s district attorney.
“Kamala Harris basically sent my mom to jail, changing the course of me and [my] siblings’ lives,” Guap wrote. “She never looked up from whatever she was reading, she never even looked moms in her eyes in court.”
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The “Bali” rapper’s tweet helped reignite social media conversations regarding Harris’ history as a “progressive prosecutor” and Black voters’ relationship to her — particularly in the wake of Biden’s disastrous debate performance and the subsequent hysteria about his viability as a candidate. In an exclusive statement to Billboard, Guapdad 4000 contextualizes his X post and opens up about the emotional impact of Harris’ role in his mother’s imprisonment.
“[First,] I have to highlight my momma to see if she wants me to divulge the full details,” he says. “I wrote the tweet thinking like, ‘Man, it just sounds like I’m not putting any accountability on my momma for committing a crime.’ But where we from and what’s illegal now, and especially the laws that was put in place in California during the Biden administration, it just feels like a slap in the face to the s—t that we had to go through.”
“The removal of a parent from my little sister’s life — even if it was briefly, even if it was a long time — no child should be going through that on purpose,” the Black and Filipino rapper continues. “Now, am I proud that my mom was moving illegally? No, but I understand the pressures of the hood when you were a parent, especially with kids like us. Literally, imagine taking care of me. Some support is needed.”
Harris’ record as a prosecutor came under heavy scrutiny during her first presidential campaign back in 2020. Though she touted herself as a “progressive prosecutor,” several instances throughout her time as both San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general highlighted her tendencies to fall in line with the status quo rather than pursuing true criminal justice reform.
“Time after time, when progressives urged her to embrace criminal justice reforms as district attorney and then the state’s attorney general, Ms. Harris opposed them or stayed silent,” wrote Lara Bazelon, the former director of Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent, in a 2019 New York Times op-ed. “Most troubling, Ms. Harris fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony, and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors.”
“The feeling that [my mother] described of [Harris] not being able to look somebody [she’s] sending to jail in their eyes is 1) unnerving and 2) dehumanizing as f—k,” says Guap, who celebrates the five-year anniversary of his Billboard Hot 100 debut next week. On the chart dated July 20, 2019, he debuted alongside several other rappers with “Costa Rica” (No. 75), a fan-favorite from Dreamville‘s 2019 compilation, Revenge of the Dreamers III.
As more and more voters continue to voice their disillusionment with the presumptive nominees from both the Democratic and Republican parties, some folks are making the tough choice to sit out the upcoming election, including Guap. According to FiveThirtyEight, 57% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Biden — that’s the highest his unfavorability rating has been since Jan. 1, 2022. Comparatively, just 53% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of former President Trump.
“Even knowing all of this, I still ended up voting for Biden [in 2020,]” notes Guap. “Now, would I vote for them? Honestly, [no.] We funding and are a part of a whole genocide. This country was built on so much racism. I’m not surprised, but as much as I wanted to cheer for a f—king Blasian vice president — and our president is so old, so she might as well be the pseudo president — [Kamala’s] done nothing to change my opinion about her… I ain’t voting for nobody.”
Billboard has reached out to Harris’ team for comment.
Check out Guapdad4000’s tweet below.
Kamala Harris basically sent my mom to jail changing the course of me and siblings lives and she never looked up from whatever she was reading , she never even looked moms in her eyes in court . https://t.co/mGUctL7jBv— GUAP (@guapdad4000) July 11, 2024
TMZ caught up with Fat Joe to get his thoughts on veteran rappers and producers linking up to drop albums. Common and Pete Rock‘s long-awaited collaboration dropped Friday (July 12), and Nas and DJ Premier have plans on releasing a project, as well. Answering a question about who might have the better album, the Bronx […]
A few nights ago, while I was driving home, the shuffle chose “BBE” by Anna and Lazza. The chorus is one of those that immediately get stuck in your mind, the lyrics are a statement of empowerment, a sort of manifesto of a strong and determined girl who never has to ask.
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In the time I spend with her for the interview I discover two things in particular. The first is that behind that tough image there is a very sweet girl in her early twenties who, overwhelmed by a success that has taken away a piece of her adolescence, sometimes dreams of exchanging her famous life for a normal one for one day, like any of her peers. The second is that also “real bad bitches cry,” as she raps in “Una Tipa Come Me,” undoubtedly the best of the 18 tracks on Vera Baddie, her debut album, released on June 28.
It’s strange to think that it is only her first album, given that from 2020 to today – between singles with tens of millions of streams and collaborations with the heavyweights of the Italian rap scene – the rapper has constantly dominated the Italian charts and in 2023 was the most listened to female artist in Italy. But she wanted to do things well and in her own way, taking the time necessary to mature and make a project that wasn’t something ephemeral but that will make her proud when she listens to it again in ten years.
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After having met the “Real Baddie,” in this interview we discover the real Anna: from the fragility of her twenties to the desire for sincere human relationships, from the most important goal she has achieved to music as therapy to exorcise anxiety, from the little girl she was to the woman she is now.
Anyone who listens to this album will be amazed at how you opened up about your fragilities, something you hadn’t done yet.
I think so, too. I hadn’t dug into myself yet. It took me time to do it. For me it’s much easier to make a song to entertain and have fun rather than delve into the things that hurt me, into my relationships with people. This album unlocked me from this point of view.
Was there something that made you realize that you were ready to show a different side of yourself?
Certainly the fact that many girls told me that they see themselves in me made me feel the need to explore other sides of being a girl today. I wanted to address more facets of this thing, even the negative ones. I’m proud to have brought out another part of me and I’ve matured a lot as a person to be able to do this, to unite my feelings with music.
The album arrives four years after your first singles. In an interview you said that you didn’t want to become famous as it happened but to work your way up. Did taking time also help you sort out what was happening in your life?
Yes, it took me a few years to stabilize my life, also because success came when I was still very young, in a particular moment like quarantine. These four years also helped me grow as an artist. I feel like I’ve really raised the bar in my songs. I want my name to have a certain value and depth, and that it be understood that I take music seriously, because it is what I live for.
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Can we say that this has nothing to do with being a woman in a male-dominated world?
Absolutely yes! I’m here because I’ve never felt a difference between me and my male colleagues. The more this is emphasized, the more girls feel discouraged from being rappers. When they say that I’m the best in Italy I would respond: “I’m not the best, I’m simply the only one who let herself go and who never gave a damn about being a woman among only men. Even at the cost of receiving insults.” I didn’t bring “female rap,” I brought my music, period.
If female rap existed, male rap should also exist…
Right! Do you know how many times I get told that I am proof that women can rap too? Rap is rap, period. There is no gender, the important thing is to do it well. Many times, girls feel disadvantaged because they don’t feel supported, but when I started, who supported me? Nobody. It was me, alone. Little by little I built my own path and asserted myself.
Anna for Billboard Italia
Andrea Ariano
The concept of “baddie” means more than it seems, right?
Being a baddie doesn’t just mean being a girl who has fun: the baddie is the one who transmits determination to other girls, who helps them in times of need. Girls understood this, and that’s enough for me.
You said you suffered a lot from criticism in the past. Now that you’ve grown up, how do you deal with this?
I have a lot less hating than before because people have gotten to know me. They see me in concert and appreciate the person I am. Over time I learned not to care. Bad things no longer affect me as they used to because I take them as something negative towards those who say them, not towards me who receive them.
You also said that the criticism had tripled the moment you exploded, so much so that the internet had given an image of you that didn’t correspond to the real one. Were you ever afraid that after your debut single “Bando” everything could end?
More than anything, people put the fear in me. I knew very well what I wanted to do in life, but many people can’t wait to destroy you. I remember when they told me: “In a month she will already be gone.” But damn it, I’m still here, and I’m here because I have a lot to give, because I’ve always been convinced about this, because I felt that this was my path.
I often see videos of you with your fans and you still seem like a very humble girl.
I think this has a lot to do with the fact that I haven’t enjoyed a normal life. From the age of 16 onwards, all the things I did were inherent to my job. So outside of that I want to be as normal as possible and enjoy life. My simplicity is not to do others a favor or to make me say, “Oh, look how humble Anna is.” I love being like this, I love having a normal chat with someone, why should I be a snob?
Is the fact of including so many references to your adolescence in the album also a way to recover a moment of your life that you didn’t experience as you wanted?
Maybe. Often at night I dream of my old school, my old classmates, the environment I frequented before. I miss those things because I haven’t enjoyed them at all. I’m not even someone who has made many friends in an organic way in life because I haven’t had the time or the way to do it. I suffered a lot for this. Young girls often tell me that they envy my life, but I envy theirs and they don’t even imagine it.
For this album you also worked in the U.S. and one could tell it. It’s a very international sound.
Yes, for example I wrote “Una Tipa Come Me” there, but most of the songs were born in my bedroom at home. In my head there is no such thing as having someone write something to me. If I make songs, it is to say something, and that must come from me. I could never get other people to put their words in my mouth. Music for me is such an intimate and personal thing that I couldn’t let someone change it. It bothers me when they say: “Oh, Anna has improved, I wonder who writes her lyrics.” Well, nobody!
In your producers, however, you have complete trust.
Absolutely. They are fundamental, without them this album wouldn’t be what it is. I do my thing, I write the lyrics, but if there isn’t a good backing track none of this is possible. I’m happy that such fresh and cool young people are finally making their way in Italy.
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Earlier you mentioned “Una Tipa Come Me,” which for me is one of the songs that will most surprise those who listen to the album.
Yes, it’s definitely the most introspective song on the entire album. I had started working on it in the studio with an American producer while I was in the USA, but I was too tense and couldn’t finish it, so I picked it up again while I was alone in my room. Last summer was a bit of a tough time for me. I lost a lot of kilos due to stress. I had a very fluctuating mood and therefore I needed to throw these feelings out and talk even more about myself, about my character. It freed me a lot.
In the intro you say: “Doing this stuff helps more than a psychologist.”
For me music has always been a cure. I suffer a lot from anxiety which also manifests itself in a psychosomatic way, and when I feel like I’m starting to feel bad I put on my headphones, listen to music and I swear I feel better. It’s really my therapy, my life revolves around music.
We talked about criticism. Can you tell me what is the nicest thing a fan has said to you?
It makes me proud that many girls tell me that I give them the determination to face everyday life and the dark times. Once a girl wrote to me that her dad had had a heart attack, and listening to my music relieved her. For me it was a wonderful thing to know that I was making life a little less burdensome for a person who was going through a difficult time.
What is the most important milestone you have achieved so far?
From a personal point of view, it would be being able to help my mother have financial stability. I have always seen her work hard, so allowing her to no longer work and giving her a serenity that she never had is the greatest joy. For me, the relationship with my parents is everything: when they are well and have no worries, life changes you completely. In terms of career, however, I would say working with Sfera Ebbasta. When I was a young girl it would have seemed impossible, but in a few days I will be singing at the San Siro stadium in Milan with him. If I had told this to my past self, she would probably never have believed it!
And what would younger Anna say to Anna today?
She would say that she’s proud of who she has become because that is exactly who she always wanted to be. If Anna as a child could travel in time and see me now, she would get excited, she would say that I’m really cool, that she got to where she is on her own and because she believed in it so much. Well, perhaps the greatest achievement is simply being me.
If you plan on listening to Eminem‘s new album The Death of Slim Shady, you may want to make sure you have tissues handy before you get to track 15. On “Temporary,” the 51-year-old rapper featured recordings of his daughter Hailie Jade back when she was just a toddler, promising that he’ll always be with her even after he dies.
The emotional song opens with Em soliloquizing, “A lot of people ask me, am I afraid of death?”
“The truth is, I think what scares me the most is not being able to say all the things I wanna say to you when I’m no longer here,” he continues in spoken-word form. “So this song is for Hailie, for when that day comes.”
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The track then cuts to an old audio clip of the 15-time Grammy winner speaking to baby Hailie, who’s now 28. “Where’s Hailie? Where’s she at?” his younger self asks, before his small daughter adorably roars, “This ain’t Hailie, it’s a monster!”
“Hailie Jade, I wrote you this song/ To help you cope with life now that I’m gone,” current-day Em raps. “How should I start? Just wanna say look after Alaina, Stevie, and Uncle Nate/ And sweetie, be strong.”
The Detroit artist is also Dad to adopted kids Alaina, 31, and Stevie, 22, whom he mentions in the previous line; Nate is the rapper’s half brother, Nathan Mathers. He continues to urge Hailie to move on after his death — “Don’t you dare shed a tear, what I tell you?/ ‘Straighten up, little soldier’” — in between more throwback recordings of his daughter’s voice and a stirring chorus performed by Skylar Grey.
Though it might be the most heartbreaking, “Temporary” isn’t the only time Eminem addresses his kids on the 19-track Death of Slim Shady. On “Somebody Save Me,” which features Jelly Roll, the rapper includes a clip of Alaina speaking to him when she was a little girl and apologizes to all three of his children for missing out on their lives due to his struggles with substance abuse. (The rapper celebrated 16 years of sobriety earlier this year.) And on lead single “Houdini,” the Detroit icon raps, “F–k my own kids, they’re brats,” while in the video, he gives Hailie, Alaina and Stevie the finger on FaceTime.
It’s also far from the first time Hailie – who married Evan McClintock in May with her famous dad at her side — has been on one of Eminem’s songs. The hip-hop star also featured her on 1999’s “97 Bonnie and Clyde” and 2002’s “My Dad’s Gone Crazy,” as well as dedicated “Hailie’s Song” on The Eminem Show to her.
Listen to “Temporary,” featuring a young Hailie Jade, below.
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Eminem returned with his first album in four years as The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) hit streaming services on Friday (July 12). Tapping into his Slim Shady alter ego at times throughout the LP, Em doesn’t hold back when targeting fixtures around pop culture and within hip-hop, especially when it comes to Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The embattled mogul caught the Detroit legend’s wrath on multiple tracks, as Eminem sniped the Bad Boy CEO regarding the litany of sexual misconduct allegations made against him in recent months.
The only clean name-drop of Combs from Em came on the jarring “Antichrist,” in which he seemingly references the 2016 footage of Diddy assaulting his ex Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel. (Diddy apologized days after for his actions and said his “behavior on that video is inexcusable” in a self-recorded video posted to Instagram; the apology was later deleted when he wiped his account clean of all posts.)
“Next idiot ask me is getting his a– beat worse than Diddy did,” Em raps, but stops short of naming Cassie. “But on the real, though/ She probably ran out the room with his f—ing d—o.”
Billboard has reached out to Diddy’s reps for comment.
Fans believe there were another pair of disses on the J.I.D-assisted “Fuel,” on which Em pays tribute to The Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac, and appears to insinuate Diddy had a role in the deaths.
“R.I.P., rest in peace, Biggie/ And Pac, both of y’all should be living/ But I ain’t tryna beef with him (Nope)/ ‘Cause he might put a hit on me like Keefe D did him,” Marshall Matthers spews.
Just the bar before, Em seemingly uses “P, did he?” as a homonym of P. Diddy. “I’m like a R-A-P-E-R/ Got so many S-As (S-As), S-As/ Wait, he didn’t just spell the word, ‘Rapper’ and leave out a P, did he?” he asks.
Part of Cassie’s sprawling 2023 lawsuit alleging rape and years of physical abuse against Diddy included an allegation that the decorated music executive attempted to blow up Kid Cudi’s car in 2012 after finding out that the “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper was romantically interested in her.
“Mr. Combs told Ms. Ventura that he was going to blow up Kid Cudi’s car, and that he wanted to ensure that Kid Cudi was home with his friends when it happened,” Ventura’s lawyers wrote. “Around that time, Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway.”
Em seems to rap about it on “Bad One”: “The f—ing bomb with the puffy on/ I’m blowing up for Kid Cudi’s car/ In front of his house where all his buddies are.”
Cassie and Diddy ended up settling the lawsuit less than 24 hours after she filed in November 2023. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Diddy and his legal team have vehemently denied all of the sexual misconduct allegations made against him in other lawsuits.
Listen to “Antichrist,” “Fuel” and “Bad One” below:
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Jelly Roll‘s “Save Me” is getting a second life on Eminem‘s new album The Death of Slim Shady, which dropped Friday (July 12) and features a surprise duet with the country star on its final track, an emotional open letter to the rapper’s children.
The song, titled “Somebody Save Me,” heavily samples Jelly’s 2023 hit, which reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November after Lainey Wilson jumped on the remix. The Detroit rapper’s new track opens with a recording of him shrugging off a younger version of his 31-year-old daughter Alaina’s pleas for him to come eat with her, after which the “Son of a Sinner” musician’s voice jumps in.
“Somebody save me, me from myself,” Jelly sings in the snippet. “I’ve spent so long living in Hell.”
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Em proceeds to dedicate bars to all three of his kids — he’s also Dad to 28-year-old Hailie and 22-year-old Stevie — openly apologizing for his past history of choosing drugs over his children. “I don’t even deserve the father title/ Hailie, I’m so sorry/ I know I wasn’t there for your first guitar recital,” he raps. “Alaina, sorry that you had to hear me fall in the bathroom … Stevie, I’m sorry, I missed you grow up and I didn’t get to be the dad I wanted to be to you.”
In between Slim’s verses, Jelly’s emotional chorus fades in and out. “They say my lifestyle is bad for my health,” he belts. “It’s the only thing that seems to help.”
The surprise collaboration comes about a month after Eminem and the “Need a Favor” artist teamed up for a live performance of the former’s “Sing for the Moment” as part of NBC’s Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central special. Jelly sang the portion of Aerosmith’s “Dream On” sampled in the hip-hop titan’s The Eminem Show hit.
“Em reached out, his team reached out and said, ‘Would you be interested in doing this?’” Jelly gushed to Entertainment Tonight of the performance in June. “I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was a joke until I met Eminem himself … As soon as I met Eminem, it was like the coolest moment ever, man.”
The Death of Slim Shady features a total of 19 tracks, including the previously released singles “Houdini” and “Tobey,” the latter featuring Big Sean and BabyTron. It comes four years after 2020’s Music to Be Murdered By, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Listen to Eminem and Jelly Roll’s surprise duet “Somebody Save Me” below.
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