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Devin Cillian and Kimberly Gill are in the business of reporting news, not making news, but these two broadcast journalists are getting just as much attention as the lead story that's part of Eminem's new album, “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace).”
The two anchors from Detroit's NBC affiliate WDIV appear in a skit called “Breaking News,” covering the hometown rapper's alleged attempt to “cancel himself” in a release. Over a background score composed by Eminem and frequent collaborator Luis Resto, Sirian introduces a fake news segment and relays it to Gill, who is covering a fan protest outside Eminem's Mama's Spaghetti restaurant in Detroit.
“This is way more than either of us could have ever expected,” Sirian, an award-winning songwriter and performing musician himself, told Billboard. He's previously appeared on two Eminem tracks — “Careful What You Wish For” from the 2009 album Relapse and “Darkness,” which also features Gill, from Eminem's 2020 album Music To Be Murdered By — but says he's even more excited about this appearance.
“It seems like the other albums just came and went with very little notice. This one was kind of crazy,” Cillian points out. “I think it speaks to the heightened anticipation for this album in general.” Gill adds: “Especially since Devin mentioned my name when he gave me the album in the report, my name is all over the place on the Eminem album. That's the difference.”
Gill and Cillian only found out their song would be on the album a few days before its release. “I think that's one of the reasons we weren't too excited,” Gill explains. “We don't know if he's going to use it or not. That's what we do. They ask us not to talk about it. We go away and forget about it. Months go by and next thing you know the album is released and we're on it. We were chosen!”
“The secret world of music relies heavily on secrecy – you only know if you need to know, and apparently we didn't need to know,” Cillian said, adding that they were well aware.
The two worked together at Eminem's studio on several occasions, from two years ago through this spring. They also found Eminem to be “very supportive.” “He told us what he wanted, but he was also very interested in how we would do it as real journalists,” Gill says. “So it was really cool to have Marshall Mathers asking us for advice on what to say.”
“He's very hands-on,” Cillian says. “He knows what he wants, but he lets me do a few different things at the same time. It's like playing with paints, like watercolors, and you don't know if they'll end up in the song or, in this case, the skit, or not. And it's really fun… After we were done,[Eminem]was like, 'Wow, that's amazing you could do that in one shot.' We looked at each other and said, 'If there's one genius in this room, it's probably not the two of us!'”
Another thrill for Cillian was when the full credits for the album were finally revealed: “I looked it up on Wikipedia and we were under the musicians list,” he says, laughing. “My name is just below Steve Miller. I don't get any more important than that.”
Cillian is on his way to Paris to cover the Summer Olympics for WDIV. What's bigger: winning a gold medal or being able to say, “I'm on Eminem's new album?” “I'll put it on a T-shirt,” he says with a laugh.