What's The Real Meaning Of The Real Slim Shady By Eminem? Here's What We Think

Eminem is perhaps one of the most successful — and most controversial — artists of his time. The rapper has tried to make his wrongs into rights over the years, by apologizing to Rihanna in one of his tracks and performing at the 2020 Academy Awards after refusing to do so 17 years earlier. Shortly after the performance, Eminem tweeted an apology. "Look, if you had another shot, another opportunity... Thanks for having me @TheAcademy," he wrote. "Sorry it took me [17] years to get here."

But if there's one song that has gotten Eminem a lot of attention over the years, it's one of the ones that initially put him on the map: "The Real Slim Shady." The song was released in 2000 as part of his third album, "The Marshall Mathers LP." It's also a single that has fans scratching their heads over the lyrics for this reason, too.

According to Rolling Stone, "The Real Slim Shady" was produced by none other than Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, and was one of the last songs finished for Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP." The song turned out to be the lead single, and while there's some fan speculation that it might be about Eminem's multiple personalities or imposters, that is not the case. Song Meanings and Facts says that "The Real Slim Shady" is about Eminem and the powerful influence he has had on pop and the celebrity mainstream culture, given all of the references he makes to Will Smith, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, and even Chris Kirkpatrick in his songs. 

That said, Eminem did tell Spin in an interview back in 1999 that he doesn't write songs to boast about his celebrity status or his prowess, but rather about some of his inner struggles. "I actually stopped writing for about five or six months and I was about to give everything up," he revealed. "I just couldn't, though. I'd keep going to the clubs and taking the abuse. But I'd come home and put a fist through the wall. If you listen to a Slim Shady record, you're going to hear all that frustration coming out." Nonetheless, that hasn't stopped fans from still wondering who the real Slim Shady is ...

As many fans can recall, Eminem performed "The Real Slim Shady" at the MTV Music Video Awards with an army of peroxide blondes that looked identical to the rapper himself, prompting the audience to wonder who the real Eminem truly was. Em's friend and longtime lawyer Paul Rosenberg said that it was Dr. Dre's original idea to create the Eminem clones. He told MTV News, "The whole idea of the song was — there's a lot of people like me, but I'm the real deal. And also that there's a lot of carbon copies, but there's a Slim Shady in all of us."

Seeing how Eminem will be performing at the 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show with rap legends such as Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, and Kendrick Lamar, we can't help but wonder if that same army will fill up SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Either way, the halftime performance is set to become one for the history books, as even Snoop Dogg posted on Instagram, "FYI I heard there is gonna be a football game at the Eminem, Dr. Dre and Snoop concert." We couldn't have said it better ourselves. The real Slim Shady doesn't have to stand up, because the entire world already knows who he is.