A recently surfaced picture made Eminem fans debate its authenticity.
In a picture that nobody recalls seeing before, Marshall is posing in a military fatigue patterned coat and his trusty Kangol hat, making a recognisable “Berzerk” face. A blurred background, slightly out-of-focus body mass and painfully smooth skin made the whole picture look like a cartoon. Still, the facial expression was so recognisable that I was screaming “Eminem” at a spectator. Maybe, a little bit too loudly.
The conversation started online on what that could be. A new photoshoot for Marshall’s upcoming project? But why with a face he was making in a music video nine years ago? Some suggested the possibility of this image being generated by an AI, some suspected some heavy-duty photo editing job.
Still, something in the image looked familiar. And then the answer came. Eminem’s face there looked exactly like it was in a photo taken in 2019 in Abu Dhabi.
Back then, Marshall played a solo show on The Alchemist’s birthday. Em gave him shout out from the stage, and Mr. Porter took a selfie to preserve the moment.
Look at the shadow on the face, the light on the hat, the shape of a mouth and a beard. But above all, look, even a diffraction pattern that goes across Em’s eye on the original photo is reproduced on a new picture. The case is closed, it is a fake. It is up to you to decide if it is important who made it.
