Eminem Makes Death of Slim Shady Alter Ego Official With Grim Obituary

Slim Shady, the alter ego of rapper Eminem, has died. The news, broken Monday by the Detroit Free Press, comes just a few weeks after Eminem announced plans to kill off his infamous alter ego on his upcoming album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce).

Slim Shady was birthed on December 10, 1997, with the release of Eminem’s Slim Shady EP. He served as Eminem’s violently unhinged alter ego, which allowed the artist to express his notoriously uncensored feelings on crime, drugs, sexual assault, and murder.

The obituary, featuring an image of Slim Shady in his signature Jason Voorhees mask, remembered the “controversial rapper” as “a rogue splinter in the flourishing underground rap scene of the mid to late 1990s” who “became a household name in 1999 with the debut of his playfully deranged single My Name Is.”

“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,” the obituary continues in grim fashion. “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.”

The details of Slim Shady’s demise, as well as the cause of his death, are unclear at this time.

Of course, the announcement is just some particularly inventive marketing for Eminem’s new album. The controversial artist teased his alter ego’s death last month in an equally inspired Unsolved Mysteries-style promo, which promised to “recreate the events that led to the murder of Slim Shady."

The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) is expected to drop sometime this summer, though an exact date has not yet been specified.