Slim Shady

“Ha ha
Guess there’s a Slim Shady in all of us…”

Eminem guessed it right : there’s a Slim Shady in all of us.

Slim Shady brought Eminem the key to success and this is how he came up with the concept of his evil alter ego :

“I was takin’ a shit. I swear to God. And the fuckin’ name just popped into my head. Then I started thinkin’ of twenty million things that rhymed with it.”

« Slim Shady » represents the unconscious part of our brain which is full of perverted and evil thoughts. Even the best person on earth has a « Slim Shady » inside of her. Some persons just won’t admit it.
Many persons don’t dare expressing what Slim Shady says or screams on stage but they keep this shadowed part of themselves deep inside.

Ranald Clouston made interesting parallels between the character of Slim Shady and Stevenson’s Mr Hyde :

http://www.lucid.net.nz/lucid2/dr.html

In fact, Slim Shady is the ingenious concept of an evil entity. When Slim shady replaces Eminem, you can watch a man with a brain evil. He suddenly becomes a rapist, a serial killer, a pervert, a « ho’ hater and killer » :

“I had this whole Slim Shady concept of being two different people, having two different sides of me. One of them I was trying to let go, and I looked at the mirror and smashed it. That was the whole intro of the Slim Shady EP. Slim Shady was coming to haunt me…” –
In his « Low, Down, Dirty song », Eminem introduces Slim Shady to the world :

“Warning, this shit’s gon be rated R, restricted
You see this bullet hole in my neck? It’s self inflicted
Doctor slapped my momma, “Bitch you got a sick kid”
Arrested, molested myself and got convicted
Wearing visors, sunglasses and disguises
Cause my split personality is having an identity crisis
I’m Dr. Hyde and Mr. Jekyll, disrespectful
Hearing voices in my head while these whispers echo
“Murder Murder Redrum”
Brain size of a bread crumb
Which drug will I end up dead from
Inebriated, till my stress is eleviated
“How in the fuck can Eminem and shady be related?”
Illiterate, illigitimate shit spitter
Bitch getter, hid in the bush like Margot Kidder
Jumped out (Ahhhh!) killed the bitch and did her
Use to let the babysitter suck my dick when I was little’er
Smoke a blunt while I’m titty fuckin Bette Midler
Sniper, waiting on your roof like the Fiddler
Y’all thought I was gonna rhyme with Riddler
Didn’t Ya? Bring your bitch I wanna see if this dick dick gon’ fit in her…”

Marshall Mathers is angry with his mom and with Kim. Slim Shady dares murdering both of them.
Slim Shady is scary, Marshall Mathers is a regular man. Slim Shady dares doing what goes through Marshall’s head when he’s really angry. Matter of fact: Slim Shady may appear as totally mad and dangerous, but Marshall Mathers has never harmed, nor raped nor has he killed anybody.
Marshall’s detractors need to realize that and to make a real difference between the real Marshall Mathers who is a normal person and Slim Shady who is one of the illest characters that has ever been invented.

When you’re really mad at your partner or friend or anybody else, haven’t you said or thought deep inside of you: “I want to kill that person?”. Be honest, admit it. Anybody of us has happened to have such “shady” thoughts.
Eminem makes his shady side appear on stage, which helps him to express what is really wrong in his life. It is a good way to get rid of the bitterness, anger and rage accumulated inside of us.

Another defintion of Slim Shady can be found in his “No One’s Iller” song from the Slim Shady EP:

“ Nobody better test me, cuz I don’t wanna get messy
Especially when I step inside this bitch, dick freshly
New Lugz, give the crew hugs, guzzle two mugs
Before I do drugs that make me throw up like flu bugs
True thugs, rugged unshaven messy scrubs
Whippin’ 40-bottles like the fuckin’ Pepsi clubs
Down a fifth, crack open a six
I’m on my seventh 8-ball, now I gotta take a piss
I’m hollerin’ at these hoes that got boyfriends
Who gives a fuck who they was
I’m always takin’ someone else’s girl like Cool J does
They probably don’t be packin’ anyways, do they Fuzz?
We walked up, stomped they asses and blew they buzz
Mics get sandblasted
Stab your abdomen with a hand crafted pocketknife and spill your antacid
Sprayed your motherfuckin’ crib up when I ran past it
Fuckin’ felon, headed to hell in a handbasket
Talkin’ shit will get you, your girl and your man blasted
Kidnapped and slapped in a van wrapped in Saran plastic
Get your damn ass kicked, by these fantastic
Furious four motherfuckers
Flashin’ in front of your face without the Grand Masters

Slim Shady, ain’t nobody iller than me…”

Slim Shady is so scary, so perverted, so crazy that you will understand that his speech looks more than surreal. The expression of this shadowed side in Eminem’s lyrics and music is also a good way to humor all the problems we have to face in real life.
Eminem’s exaggeration of Slim Shady’s character, his parodies of violence, misogyny, homophobia and of all the current issues of our contemporary society are a great help in our every day life. Deep down, inside of us, we know a hidden voice talks like Slim Shady, advicing us to do some irresponsible acts and we also know that we won’t follow her, but we may have fun picturing ourselves in Slim Shady’s character for a few minutes…

Quoting Eminem about his mad character:

“Slim Shady is just the evil thoughts that come into my head. Things I shouldn’t be thinking about. Not to be gimmicky, but people should be able to determine when I’m serious and when I’m fuckin around. That’s why a lot of my songs are funny. I got a warped sense of humor I guess.”