EMINEM'S SLIM SHADY FACE-OFF: IT'S ALL RATHER COMPLEX

"Slim Shady vs. Marshall Mathers: THE FACE-OFF," which accompanies the new Complex cover story, offers a fascinating (and never-before-possible) video conversation. In it, the adult Eminem has a painfully honest dialogue with his irascible, endlessly profane, eternally young (and AI-generated) alter ego, Slim Shady.

What might've been an amusing promotional stunt to tout Em's hot, #1-debuting Shady/Aftermath/Interscope album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) turns out to be something deeper: a surprisingly dialectical discussion about changing social values, growing older, sobriety, pop stardom, rap cred and "cancel culture." It's also richly funny and (for this era, at least) intermittently shocking, and includes a delicious nod to Curb Your Enthusiasm. Check it out right here, and then dive into the Complex story, a revealing study of Em's creative process that's studded with great visuals.