Eminem Goes ‘Inside the Mind of a Hater’ on ‘Death’ Intro to Mock Criticisms of Kendrick, Ye, J. Cole, and More

The track takes aim at so-called “fans” who are actually just “complainers,” arguing that these “nerdy pricks” are hating without cause.

On his new concept album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), Eminem kicks off the mournful-meets-macabre proceedings by braving the internal thinkings of a hater.

The brisk and concise “Renaissance,” co-produced with Luis Resto, opens with an Edward Scissorhands reference before Em reflects on how his early journey toward not “giving a fuck,” notably with the assistance of his contentious Slim Shady alter ego, ultimately led him to commercial success.

The harrowing journey “inside the mind of a hater” is initiated in the back half of the Death cut, with Em, or perhaps Slim (or some violently-at-war combination of both) rapping that he sees “no fans” but is instead inundated with “complainers” fond of surface-level critiques of artists.

After hopping inside a stereotypical hater’s brain, the lyrics turn to pondering the types of remarks such an individual might make. Em illustrates this point by mentioning albums from Kendrick Lamar, Ye, Joyner Lucas, and J. Cole. After stepping out of the hater’s mind, “nerdy pricks” are further mocked with a quick Wu-Tang nod (“You nerdy pricks would find something wrong with 36 Chambers”) and a mention of the late genius Pablo Picasso.

Now let’s travel inside the mind of a hater
‘Cause I don’t see no fans, all I see’s a bunch of complainers
“Kendrick’s album was cool, but it didn’t have any bangers
Wayne’s album or Ye’s, couldn’t tell you which one was lamer
Joyner’s album was corny, Shady’s new shit is way worse
Everything is either too tame or there’s too much anger
I didn’t like the beat, so I hated Might Delete Later”
You nerdy pricks would find somethin’ wrong with 36 Chambers
It’s what they do to the greats
Pick apart a Picasso and make excuses to hate

So you can wait for your flowers until you’re blue in the face
Stupid, you ain’t gonna get ’em until your funeral, wait

In a sadly unsurprising development, some listeners hastily tried to posit the lines above as somehow constituting a diss aimed at Kendrick and the other artists named. Basic lyrical comprehension shows that this is not the case, not even a little bit, as—and the headine of this very article should make this quite clear—the lyrics are delivered from the perspective of a presumably misery-ridden hater, not Em (and/or Shady) himself.

Em got ahead of such misinterpretations shortly before the Death drop, urging listeners to treat the album as a whole piece instead of piecemealing the experience and obscuring the context.

“Public service announcement: The Death of Slim Shady is a conceptual album, therefore, if you listen to songs out of order they might not make sense. Enjoy,” Em said in a statement shared to X.

While these “Renaissance” highlights aren’t intended as disses, Em’s 12th studio album does see him, most often in character as a particularly fiery Slim, hurling jabs (or jab-adjacent lines) at a wide range of noteworthy figures ranging from Caitlyn Jenner to Diddy. The “Guilty Conscience” sequel, meanwhile, sees Em taking a more apologetic tone in a heated lyrical argument with Slim during which he says this “last hoorah” for the character is for people caught in his web in the past including (among others) Machine Gun Kelly, Will Smith, and Limp Bizkit.

The latter mention, interestingly enough, is decidedly well-timed, as LB mastermind Fred Durst also gave fans something new on Friday. The I Saw the TV Glow actor makes a memorable appearance on Hardy’s “SOUL4SALE,” a track off the Nashville-based artist’s new QUIT!! album. As previously reported, Hardy was enlisted earlier this year by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg to put his own spin on their classic “Gin and Juice” track.