“The Black Slim Shady” by The Game

The Game is a rapper who is known not to be afraid to publicly bring it to anyone, and accordingly he has gotten into what seems like some genuine industry-based street beefs in the past. None of those beefs were ever, it would seem, with Eminem. 

However, earlier in 2022, he began to call Marshall out. And even then, he did bring Haile herself into the equation, it didn’t see that the The Game had a genuine gripe with Slim but was rather claiming to be a superior rapper (against what many others believe), and also, it should be noted, seemingly drumming up publicity for his new album. 

Well now said album, “Drillmatic”, has been dropped, and contained therein, pretty surprisingly, is not only a diss track aimed at Eminem but also one that is a whopping 10 minutes (and 25 seconds) in length. So considering how long it is, perhaps the best approach would be to tackle this analysis verse by verse.

“The Black Slim Shady”

Apparently, what the title alludes to is The Game proclaiming himself “the Black Slim Shady”. Or put otherwise, this track revolves around a motif of him impersonating and making fun of the real Slim Shady, i.e. Eminem. 

But before getting to the first chorus, the song starts off with an interlude in which the vocalist appears to be taking on the role of an Uber driver who is making rounds “kinda close to 8 Mile”, i.e. Eminem’s ‘hood. But that’s something that we’ll get to later.

Verse 1

From the onset of the first verse, it can indeed be deemed that The Game is out to imitate the style of Slim Shady. And it should be noted that, there doesn’t appear to be any actual disses against Eminem in this verse. 

Instead, as we pointed out before, “Slim Shady” is a persona that Eminem dons whenever he decides to drop potentially off-putting raps in a don’t-give-AF fashion. And it is such that The Game has obviously set out to do. Accordingly, we find him making unusual, semi-comedic statements such as ‘sticking his d*-k in your podcast’ and expressing a desire to ‘smash Saweetie’s p*-sy to smithereens’.

The Chorus

The chorus that follows proceeds to buttress the aforementioned theory, that The Game is in part using this opportunity to remind the world that he’s uncuffed in his own right. 

Verse 2

And when the second verse commences, it becomes obvious that he’s once again, shall we say interpolating “The Real Slim Shady“. For instance, he acknowledges the infamous “Dr. Dre’s dead” line from said song. 

And it can be said that what we’re dealing with here is standard Game fare, i.e. guntalk and braggadocio, mixed with the type of real-world comedic assertions that Eminem is known for. So for the instance the rapper reveals, in a colorful way, his sexual attraction to Lizzo. 

He also gets to engaging in some wordplay, with Dr. Anthony Fauci and Omarion (i.e. Omicron) being involved. But still, let it be noted that now, after two verses, we have yet to come across an actual Eminem diss.

However that sorta changes shortly thereafter. To make a long story short, the second interlude is a play on “Stan“, Eminem’s best-known storytelling rap. So the aforenoted Uber driver is actually revealed to be the fictional Stan’s little brother. “Stan”, of course, was fatally obsessed with Slim Shady. But as for his little bro, he goes on to proclaim that Eminem “used to be like this rap god”. So the implication in such a statement is that Marshall has fallen off since.

And that said, The Game apparently proceeds to carjack said Uber driver. This, in a way, is a further shoutout to Eminem’s artistry, as he has the tendency to regularly depict himself, in a narrative fashion, as a criminal, murderer or what have you in his songs.

Verse 3

So then, in the third verse we finally get to the direct attacks against Mathers. And in that regard The Game takes a common approach when it comes to criticisms of Eminem. He depicts him as a culture vulture and wigga basically.

Then the vocalist gets even more personal, namedropping DeAngelo Bailey, an infamous figure of Eminem lore, as he was someone who bullied Marshall in his youth. Then the Game goes on to claim that Mathers is suffering from depression, which is why he has experienced his well-publicized drug abuse issues.

Afterwards, still amidst the lengthy third verse, The Game expresses what appears to be the actual premise of this song, which is claiming Eminem’s spot as the top rapper, so to speak. And yes, Eminem has in fact sold more records than any other rap artists. 

But what The Game is getting at is that such commercial success does not translate into street credibility. Indeed, under his estimation, Eminem is a corny lyricist who doesn’t deserve the adoration he gets. 

And so it is as the passage concludes, with The Game asserting that Shady is not even a “top five” rapper, as generally argued, while simultaneously touting his own lyrical skills and toughness. In doing so, the vocalist appears to allude to his own former beef with Jay-Z (which, to note, The Game seemingly tried to squash earlier in 2022) as well as the time Suge Knight infamously intimidated Vanilla Ice who, by the way, is (or was) a White rapper, as is Eminem.

Phil Collins Reference in “The Black Slim Shady”

In the verse in question, The Game uses a ton of references of Eminem’s past if you will, to perform some notable wordplay. For instance, he manages to incorporate one of the more outstanding citations from “Stan”, where Eminem namedropped Phil Collins’ iconic song “In the Air Tonight“. But again, The Game is not doing so in a flattering way. In fact what he seems to be saying via that reference, comprehensively, is that in the past Eminem tried to relate to Tupac, who is generally considered to be realest rapper ever, but Marshall is not authentic enough to genuinely claim that he can do so.

It is worth noting that “In the Air Tonight” is the same Phil song that Eminem references in his classic song “Stan”.

Dr. Dre

In the bridge that follows, in true Slim Shady fashion may we say, The Game puts forth that he’s “crazy” and “not Mr. Nice Guy”. He also once again mentions Dr. Dre for like the third or fourth time already. However, he doesn’t actually diss Dre. For whereas it is common knowledge that the good Doctor had a hand in Eminem’s come-up, what isn’t as widely known is that he put The Game on also.

Verse 4

At the beginning of the fourth verse, The Game seemingly alludes to having beef with the following:

• Interscope Records (his former label)
• Jimmy Iovine (the head of said label)
• UMG (the parent company of Interscope)
• 50 Cent 

In times past the vocalist was down with Fiddy’s own label, G-Unit, but their relationship became acrimonious not too long thereafter. And of course, Eminem is a long-time compatriot of Fiddy himself.

The Game left Interscope in 2012, upon his contract expiring though, at the time, it seemed the door remained open for him to re-sign later. Well he never got back down with the label, and interestingly, earlier in 2022, he was reportedly snubbed by head honcho Iovine himself. This was an act which subsequently reignited 50’s beef with The Game.

Some More Attacks against Em

And as for the rest of the extended verse, The Game continues to bring it to Eminem while simultaneously referencing certain Slim Shady songs as well as figures from Marshall’s life. This includes the rapper mentioning “Kim”, Em’s ex-wife, as well as his “mother”, who Marshall himself has put on blast more than enough times. 

It can be deemed that The Game’s attack on Mathers is twofold. On one hand he’s claiming to be a better rapper. On the other hand, he’s verifying himself as being more ‘hood than Eminem. 

The rapper also clarifies, in a roundabout way, that this isn’t about race, as he actually thanks Machine Gun Kelly, another White rapper (who is known to have beef with Mathers) before closing out. Indeed what The Game is putting forth is not only that Eminem stole the style of Black people – so to speak – but that he’s also bad at it, i.e. “never” possessing an ‘understanding’ of “ebonics” to begin with.

In Conclusion

And conclusively, the nature of the outro reinforces a theory we put forth earlier – that all of this is The Game’s elaborate way of inviting Eminem to a rap battle. Well actually, this is something The Game himself confirmed back when he first attacked Mathers, that he wants to challenge Shady to what is known as a Verzuz, where two established hip-hop artists go head-to-head with each other.

The problem with that ambition on the part of The Game though is that competitors of respective Verzuz battles are usually of similar standing. Meanwhile, he isn’t nearly as successful or, all things considered, popular as Eminem. But still he’s trying to get a rise out of Shady, maybe resulting in a series of diss tracks being thrown back-and-forth, which would still prove profitable to The Game anyway. 

Or if nothing else, even though he dropped an entire album at the same time as “The Black Slim Shady”, this appears, at least at the time of said dropping, to be the only song amongst the 30 tracks featured that is making headlines.

The Game

The Game experienced his musical heyday back during the aughts. In more recent times, this rapper, who is 42 years old as of the release of this track, doesn’t sell as many records as he used to. But currently, his name can be regularly found circulating amongst hip-hop news/gossip sites.

When was “The Black Slim Shady” released?

It came out on 12 August 2022. It was put out through 100 Entertainment and the MNRK Music Group, i.e. the labels behind “Drillmatic” – Mind vs. Heart, which is The Game album it is derived from. 

And to note the rapper has previously dropped a diss track, even longer than this one, which was most notably aimed at G-Unit (that being 2005’s “300 Bars & Runnin’”).

Credits

The Game wrote “The Black Slim Shady”. The track’s producers are Brian Joseph King and Hit-Boy (the latter of whom is given a shoutout in the intro).