News Anchors on Eminem’s ‘The Death of Slim Shady’ Call Him a Studio Genius

Devin Scillian and Kimberly Gill are known for presenting the news, but their recent involvement with Eminem’s new album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace), has them in the spotlight. Featured in the skit “Breaking News,” the WDIV anchors report on the rapper’s supposed attempts to “cancel himself.”

Scillian introduces the faux news segment over background music by Eminem and Luis Resto, while Gill reports on fan protests outside Eminem’s Mom’s Spaghetti restaurant in Detroit. “It’s more than either one of us expected,” says Scillian, an award-winning songwriter and musician.

Interestingly, Scillian has appeared on two of Eminem’s tracks before—2009’s “Careful What You Wish For” and 2020’s “Darkness.” However, he notes that this appearance is garnering much more attention, speaking to the high anticipation surrounding the album. Gill highlights the uniqueness of her inclusion, pointing out that her entire name is mentioned in the report.

Both anchors only learned of their inclusion days before the album’s release. “I think that’s part of why we didn’t get too excited,” Gill explains. They are often asked to keep such projects confidential, not knowing if their contributions will be used until the album is out.

Describing their experiences, Scillian adds, “The music world relies heavily on secrecy. It’s a need-to-know basis, and apparently, we didn’t need to know.” The pair worked on the project over several sessions, dating back two years and as recent as this past spring.

They found Eminem to be “very collaborative.” “He gave us an idea of what he wanted but was also very interested in how we would do it as real journalists,” Gill says, adding that it was exciting to have Marshall Mathers seek their advice on delivery.

“He’s very hands-on,” Scillian notes. “He knows what he’s looking for, but also experiments with different takes. It’s almost like he’s using them as watercolors, playing around later to decide what’s included.” Recalls Scillian, “After we were done, Eminem said, ‘Wow, that was crazy you could do that in one shot.’ We look at each other and think, ‘If there’s one genius in this room, it’s probably not the two of us!’”

An exciting moment for Scillian came when the album’s full credits were revealed, listing them as musicians. “I looked on Wikipedia, and we are under Musicians on the list,” he says humorously, noting his name appears just below Steve Miller.

Scillian is set to cover the Summer Olympic Games in Paris for WDIV. So, what’s the bigger achievement—being on an Eminem album or possibly reporting on a gold medal? “I’m going to put it on a T-shirt,” he laughs.

Source: Billboard