Shady XX

9.16.20

Artwork by @msaputo

Another day, another Eminem conspiracy theory and I will not get bored. Eminem has most recently been in the news regarding a home break-in where the trespasser allegedly expressed he was there to murder Eminem. On a lighter note, Eminem was just up for a few awards at the VMA’s and has had a few features here and there, on songs and interviews. In other words, Eminem is still here, he is still working, and he is still relevant. Is there a potential for a new Shady Records album, or does everyone just want a piece of the pie?

The most recent conspiracy comes from an artist on Instagram who goes by the name of  Mike Saputo. Though he has less than seven thousand followers, many of the guys behind the senes go unrecognized at large levels like the talent you see the artwork designed for. A quick look at Mike’s page and anyone can tell he is a Marshall Mathers fan, and has apparently been the man behind the creative for years.

Mike shares multiple takes on the Music to Be Murdered By album cover, as well as tons of other single cover artwork over the years. One photo he shared was the single artwork to D12’s Purple Pills. An interesting catch that not just anyone would realize, was in the bottom right corner, there was a note that said “2004 D12 World.” Well, Purple Pills actually was released on Devil’s Night in 2001. A fan did call out the artist in the comments, to which he claimed it was an error and this piece may not have made to print. At a first glance, I wonder if that is the case for all of this work, however there are many reasons to believe this is true.

The artist does share the final artwork from Music to be Murdered By, which we can confirm is valid. There are also final posters and artwork for Eminem’s last Australia tour, and a single he did with Detroit rapper Danny Brown. The artist also shared the album artwork for Royce Da 5’9’s Book of Ryan, as well as artwork for other artists like Machine Gun Kelly (interesting coincidence) and Lil Mosey. Since there is some legitimate work here, and some random work, I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he is an enormous Eminem fan, and has seen gotten his work recognized by the artist and other who have aligned with using his work on certain projects. This is pretty common for artists looking for a specific creative direction. Clearly this guy has a vision for Eminem’s overall aesthetic.

As recent as two days ago, Mike shared a new post on Instagram consisting of four different logos. Allegedly, these logos were designed for an album, Shady XX, which unfortunately never dropped. Shady XV was a dual disc album that released in 2014 to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of Shady Records. Disc A was all new music from Eminem and his collective, Slaughterhouse. Disc B were all your favorite hits from D12 to G-Unit, to Obie Trice, Ca$his and Bobby Creekwater. Mike explains in his caption that he was tasked to design the album cover for Shady XX, a new album to celebrate twenty years, which would have been some time in 2019.

So sometime last year, we started working on some things to celebrate Shady’s 20th. I worked up a ton of logos and other assets for it. Ended up the project never made it to the light of day unfortunately. So I was left with a whole bunch of stuff I thought came out pretty good, but nowhere to use it. Such is the design life. Here’s a first batch of just some of the stuff I did, there was a ton. I am particularly fond of the Deadpool-esque logo done of Skam’s mummy from SSLP, with the bandages forming an XX. @shadyrecords @eminem #shadyxx #shady #logo - @msaputo

Mike shares a long caption about his inspiration behind the logos. To me, it is unclear whether an album was actually in the works, or if he was excited for the idea of the twenty year anniversary of Shady Records and wanted to create some artwork if something would have came up. Of course, all Stans thought we would get something for twenty years (we got some merchandise, sweet).

The idea of a Shady XX album, insinuates another album with Eminem’s latest collective of talent under the Shady Records branch. This would include Compton rapper, Boogie, as well as the Buffalo trio, Griselda. While I would absolutely love this project, it seems like at this state in time, we have missed the boat on the twenty year anniversary. Though I would never put the idea to rest that there is some kind of a Shady Records project being put together, just the artwork put some of these artists in a state of shock.

Hot New Hip Hop caught on to the artist’s post, and naturally used the title of their article claiming a new album with the artists. Westside Gunn from Griselda quote tweeted them, suggesting he had never heard of said album. Boogie then responded, confirming he felt the same. From this we can assume they felt uneasy about not being involved in a Label project which they are a part of.

If the artist had just begun working on these last year, the year of the anniversary, one would assume if there was an album, it was either done, or the artists would have known about it. So, it is completely understandable that the guys were upset, until Paul Rosenberg stepped in to save the day. Obviously Paul has enormous insights to Shady Records, and he confirmed this was never an album. In fact, the artwork was designed for “a vinyl box set that was scrapped due to production time.” This was likely a package of passed records, which the artist actually shared he had done in the past.

Boogie was very well receptive to Paul’s clarification. Westside Gunn gave Boogie a shout out, but is now on to discussing Kanye West’s Twitter trouble.

Overall, I want this project but so far it feels safe to say that this is all fake news. The artist’s caption was definitely tricky. It does seem like Shady Records are fans of the work, but this guy is a Stan for sure. Hopefully he did not reach too far on this one now that he got the whole crew round up.