Eminem albums invariably come with a parental advisory warning, but his latest, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) comes with an advisory from the man himself.

As the album dropped the hip-hop star took to social media with a ‘public service announcement’, a feature of his first two LPs, to warn: “The Death of Slim Shady is a conceptual album, therefore, if you listen to songs out of order they might not make sense. Enjoy.”

It’s a record which opens with Eminem, real name Marshall Mathers, spitting on the grave of his controversy-baiting alter-ego Slim Shady only for the character to rise from the dead and possess his creator.

What unfolds is a battle between Em and Shady, the latter delighting in breaking cultural taboos as Mathers frets over his inevitable cancellation.

Over the course of its – slightly overlong – runtime the pair vie for supremacy, culminating in ‘Guilty Conscience 2’. The original song featured Shady as the devil on the shoulders of various characters urging them to do unspeakable things and Dr Dre, Eminem’s mentor, as their better angel.

On the sequel it’s a direct battle between Mathers and his most famous creation, the older and more mature artist admonishing “you’re still mentally 13 and still thirsty for some controversy”, while Shady retorts “yeah but you’re me, and we’re a team so that means we’re in cahoots”.

Many have accused the rapper of wanting to have his cake and eat it too, saying shocking things while providing his own cover by saying he’s speaking in character.

It’s something Mathers addresses himself – “when they get mad or angry at a statement I may have said/I just say ‘man I didn’t say that s***, Shady did” – but also arguably a misunderstanding, as the man himself warned, of the very concept.

Eminem is, of course, not unique in using storytelling and alter-egos in his work. From The Who’s Tommy through Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, to Green Day’s American Idiot some of the most acclaimed albums in history have a narrative through-line, and the main character is rarely a heroic figure.

Arguably the most famous alter-ego is David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, an alien rockstar who lands on a dying earth and is adopted as a Christ-like figure after promising imminent salvation.

After 18 months touring in character, Bowie killed off Ziggy on stage at London’s Hammersmith Odeon in July 1973, closing with ‘Rock n Roll Suicide’, the final track of the album which details the character’s death.

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Whether The Beatles casting off their mop-top image by becoming Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – something My Chemical Romance aped post Black Parade by returning as The Fabulous Killjoys - or Damon Albarn turning himself into a digital frontman for Gorillaz, the alter-ego often tells us something not just about the artist but about the audience too.

Like Bowie killing off Ziggy, Eminem first announced the death of his alter-ego in 2005. On ‘When I’m Gone’ he paints a picture of being on stage in front of an adoring crowd in Sweden, only to see daughter Hailie in the crowd admonishing him for showing more love to his fans than his family. Mathers spits “I turn around, find a gun on the ground, cock it/put it to my brain, scream ‘die Shady!’ and pop it”.

On The Death of Slim Shady, the self-styled most diabolical villain in the world taunts his creator: “how many times you tried to kill me? I always come back. You can’t outgrow me, you can’t outthink me. I’m all you’ve got.”

In doing so he calls back to 2002’s ‘Without Me’, which opens with the line: “I’ve created a monster, ‘cos nobody wants to see Marshall no more they want Shady".

By taking aim at the transgender community, quadriplegics, the deaf, the blind, and the woke he gives us what Slim Shady would be in 2024. That many will recoil in horror is the point. "You want the 'old me'?" Eminem asks his audience. "Fine, let's see how you like it. If you want Shady, this is what I'll give ya."

And it’s ultimately why, on the aforementioned ‘Guilty Conscience 2’, Em brings the character to a final end with the words “coup de grâce, motherf****r” - he's telling us that some things just belong in the past.

The Death of Slim Shady is not a tirade against woke, it’s far smarter than that. It’s proof that you have the freedom to say whatever you like about whoever you want - that doesn’t mean you should.