Eminem invented his Slim Shady alter ego as his music was “going nowhere”.

The 51-year-old rapper – born Marshall Bruce Mathers III – soared to global fame with his 2000 hit ‘The Real Slim Shady’, and in a video titled ‘Slim Shady vs Marshall Mathers: The Face-Off’ to go with his cover story for Complex magazine, the musician reflected how his performing persona came about – before saying it pushed him into addiction.

He told a younger AI generated version of himself in the clip: “I invented you because my life was f***** up. My music was going nowhere and I was broke.”

But he attacked his alter ego by declaring: “You didn’t fix anything. You actually made that s*** worse.

“You’re the reason I had to self-medicate. Because of you I almost lost my f****** career, my f****** family, my life.

“Life’s been great since you’ve been gone.”

Eminem, who has been clean and sober for years after his well-documented addiction battles, recently released his latest studio album ‘The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)’ and hours before it came out the rapper told fans on X: “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.”

Eminem has also shared an obituary for Slim Shady in the Detroit Free Press, declaring him dead ahead of the release of the record.

It said: “A product of Detroit who began his career there as a rogue splinter in the flourishing underground rap scene of the mid to late 1990s, Shady first became a household name in 1999 with the debut of his playfully deranged single ‘My Name Is’, which – along with its uniquely eye catching video – exposed the young artist and his lyrics to a wider audience.

“Ultimately, the very things that seemed to be the tools he used became calling cards that defined an existence that could only come to a sudden and horrific end.

“His complex and tortured existence has come to a close, and the legacy he leaves behind is no closer to resolution than the manner in which this character departed this world.

“May he truly find the peace in an afterlife that he could not find on Earth.”