Complex released The Face-Off: Slim Shady Vs. Marshall Mathers Video on July 30th in an effort to plug their latest cover story.
The clip finds Eminem portraying himself, Marshall Mathers, and having a frank discussion with his devilish alter-ego, Slim Shady. With the help of artificial intelligence, Shady looks exactly like he did in the early 2000s, when Eminem was in his prime and consistently offending as many people as possible.
But throughout their talk, it becomes increasingly clear how much growing Mathers has done over the last 16 years since getting sober. Much like the concept of his latest album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), Mathers is forced to confront his reckless past while illustrating how much the world has changed since Slim Shady first emerged. The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) sold more than 281,000 equivalent album units in its first week, including 164,500 streaming equivalent units (about 220 million streams), 114,000 pure album sales (all digital) and 2,500 track equivalent album units.
The project debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, marking Eminem’s 11th straight number one album. It also momentarily stole the crown from Taylor Swift, whose Tortured Poets Department album had spent the past 12 weeks at the top. It will return to No. 1 next week for its 13 non-consecutive week.