In Eminem‘s version of the Spider-Man superhero origin story, it’s not a radioactive spider that sinks its teeth into him — it’s a goat. The rapper spins this new narrative on his latest single, “Tobey,” set to appear on his forthcoming studio album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce), when it arrives on July 12.
The single features Big Sean and BabyTron, who Eminem positions as the other two rap figures in his version of the three Spider-Men pointing at each other meme. “Tobey Maguire got bit by a spider, me? Must’ve got bit by a goat,” he raps on the song’s third verse, later spitting: “Way beyond crazy, Shady gone, but hey, maybe, I am the GOAT/With Big Sean and BabyTron, and that’s why they be on the shit they be on.”
BabyTron takes over the first verse and chorus on the record. The Michigan rapper drops bars about rides and riches before passing the mic to Big Sean, who also hails from Detroit. He shouts out the city, which holds significance for all three artists on “Tobey,” rapping: “I got new addresses, I got no reception/I got love and hate comin’ from both directions/Bitch, I come from the D where they BMFing/Where they movin’ them kis like a chord progression.”
A music video for “Tobey” will arrive on Friday, July 5. Eminem first teased the Cole Bennett-directed visual last week. The preview featured Big Sean and BabyTron standing behind Eminem, shown wearing a Jason Voorhees mask while ripping through an out-of-frame figure with a chainsaw while blood gushed everywhere.
The figure is likely the rapper’s Slim Shady alter-ego. In the lead-up to The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce), Eminem has fully leaned into the bit of killing off that side of himself. In May, he published a faux obituary in the Detroit Free Press that read: “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.”
It continued: “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 … May he truly find the peace in an afterlife that he could not find on Earth.”