In 2014, Eminem celebrated fifteen years of Shady Records with the Shady XV compilation project, which featured guest appearances from then-signees Slaughterhouse, D12, and Yelawolf. Boasting a logo drawn by artist Mike Saputo, the album did an admirable job in capturing the spirit of Shady's roster, even if the album was somewhat divisive as a whole. Yet five years have passed since its initial release, and the Shady Records roster has undergone a complete facelift. Gone are the aforementioned parties, replaced by Boogie, Westside Gunn, Conway, and the Griselda trifecta as a whole.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Given that the label had undergone such a drastic lineup change, many speculated that Em's label would be seizing the moment and firing off another Shady compilation in the spirit of the label's twentieth anniversary. In fact, it would appear that such speculations held some merit, as artist Mike Saputo (Shady XV) was actually hired to design several potential Shady XX logos. He confirmed as much on his own Instagram page, sharing a glimpse at four logo concepts and teasing that "tons" more had been created for the occasion.
"So sometime last year, we started working on some things to celebrate Shady’s 20th," confirms Saputo. "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."
Check out the artwork below. As of now, it's unclear as to why Shady XX was sidelined, but it doesn't appear likely that the project will resurface. It's also as of yet unclear whether Shady XX was to be an album like its predecessor, or simply a merch line. In the meantime, keep an eye out for Conway and Westside Gunn's respective Shady debuts, God Don't Make Mistakes and Who Made The Sunshine, coming soon.