Eminem surprise-released his tenth studio album, "Kamikaze," on Thursday night, and listeners are mixed on it from early online reactions. On the album, the 45-year-old rapper disses President Trump, Drake, music critics, and a host of young rappers. Eminem surprise-released his tenth studio album, "Kamikaze," late Thursday night, and early reactions from social media users and critics range from highly positive to negative. On the album, the 45-year-old rapper disses President Trump, Drake, music critics, and a host of young rappers, over a group of beats that largely echo the trap-influenced sound of recent rap. Eminem tweeted out the release of "Kamikaze" on Thursday night with a caption that read, "Tried not 2 overthink this 1... enjoy," followed by a middle finger emoji. Most Eminem fans were quick to jump on the album as a return to form for the rapper, following the release of his critically panned 2017 album "Revival." One critic at Forbes and others on social media were less positive about the project, taking him to task for using homophobic slurs and for the general quality of the music. Listen to the album below:<doc-sep>advertisement advertisement Kamikaze is an apt title for Eminem’s new album, which he dropped on an unsuspecting populace Thursday night like emergency munitions. The new project fires lethal slugs in every direction, including whichever one contains the nearest mirror, leaving scads of pissed-off listeners in its wake. advertisement advertisement “Last year didn’t work out so well for me,” the rapper says at the top of the title track. By that point in the album, more than two-thirds in, you will be intimately familiar with how 2017 played out for Eminem. To recap, the former Slim Shady captured the world’s attention last fall with an explosive anti-Trump freestyle on BET. After turning in his best performance in 15 years, expectations were sky-high for the album that followed a couple months later. What arrived instead, though, was Revival, an album that earned him some of the worst reviews of his entire career. This (unintentional) crash landing is the origin story behind Kamikaze. Part of Eminem’s beef with how Revival was received is that, in his view, critics seemed to just give the album a cursory listen before reviewing it. Admittedly, that’s sort of what I’m doing here, with this very post. However, this is not exactly a review. My one-listen hot take is that Kamikaze is way more in line with what I expected after that BET freestyle, rather than Revival. Eminem sounds hungry to reclaim his tarnished legacy here in a way that resembles how hungry he once was to get rich and earn his spot in the pantheon. Over a series of beats made by himself, Mike WILL Made It, and a slew of other producers, Em’s technical skills are impressive as ever, weaving clever, biting wordplay into dextrous, tongue-twisty speed rap that even Twista would appreciate. Aside from one absolutely unlistenable song, Eminem is either in top form or close to it throughout. Perhaps he had to go through the experience of critical and commercial failure with Revival to arrive at an album like this, one that earned a coveted LeBron James endorsement: Now if y’all think this @Eminem “Kamikaze” album isn’t ???????????????????? you’re just hating and incompetent of lyrics/cadence/breakdown of his raps. Oh and he putting quite a few in a body bag too ????! ???? ???? — LeBron James (@KingJames) August 31, 2018 advertisement advertisement So there’s the review portion done. What this post actually is, though, is a guide to what people will be talking about after they hear Kamikaze, so you can get in on that conversation even if you haven’t had time to listen yet. Let’s go. 1. Eminem is pissed about the reception to his last album. Like, really pissed. Kamikaze is Eminem’s most existential album yet. It’s as though he’s staring down potential irrelevance, and shadowboxing against his own highlight reel. As mentioned above, this anxiety is fueled by the reaction to Revival, which he mentions directly on at least half of the album’s tracks. He doesn’t just blame critics, though; he blames fans for not putting in the work to “get” the album. It’s an attitude best revealed on opening track, “The Ringer,” which is destined to cost Eminem some fans. (Kamikaze truly is the right name for this album.) advertisement I guess when you walk into BK you expect a Whopper You can order a quarter pounder when you go to McDonald’s But if you’re lookin’ to get a porterhouse you better go get Revival But y’all are acting like I tried to serve you up a slider Maybe the vocals should have been auto-tuned And you would have bought it But sayin’ I no longer got it ‘Cause you missed the line and never caught it ‘Cause it went over your head, because you’re too stupid to get it ‘Cause you’re mentally retarded but pretend to be the smartest With your expertise and knowledge, but you’ll never be an artist He’s not just mad because of this one album, though, but rather the general direction his career seems to be going in. On “Stepping Stone,” he gives an overview of his whole trajectory, dripping with vulnerability. Bacardi in hand, never thought the party would end One minute you’re bodyin’ shit, but then your audience splits You can already sense the climate is startin’ to shift To these kids you no longer exist advertisement If there’s a unifying theme in Kamikaze it’s that Eminem refuses to go gently into that good night. 2. Eminem is no longer interested in getting particularly political In 2017, Eminem took a big gamble by telling off his Trump-supporting fans during that scorcher of a BET freestyle. The gamble apparently did not pay off the way he intended. On “The Ringer,” Em seems to correlate the so-so sales of Revival with Trump-supporting fans no longer showing up, wallet in hand. At least that’s the calculus I see behind this somber lament over his own anti-Trump content: advertisement That line in the sand, was it even worth it? ‘Cause the way I see people turnin’ Is makin’ it seem worthless It’s startin’ to defeat the purpose I’m watchin’ my fan base shrink to thirds And I was just trying to do the right thing, but word Has the court of public opinion reached a verdict Or still yet to be determined? ‘Cause I’m determined to be me, critique the worship But if I could go back I’d at least reword it And say I empathize with the people this evil serpent Sold the dream to that he’s deserted It seems as though, from Eminem’s perch, the backlash to the freestyle was louder and more pronounced than the applause of those who enjoyed his risky brushing off of our bridezilla president’s fans. He’s not willing to make the same risk again. Despite the current political atmosphere being perhaps even more inflamed than this time last year, Eminem leaves politics behind on this album almost entirely, save for a reference to Trump as “Agent Orange” and a quick dig at Mike Pence.<doc-sep>Photo Credit: Shady Records Eminem needs no introduction. He hasn’t needed one in over 20 years. Taking the world by storm at the end of the '90s, few artists in history have stretched their popularity as successfully over the span of two decades. Maintaining public interest is equally as difficult as making people care in the first place. The public, to some degree, still has interest in Marshall Mathers. On the short list of rappers who can stop social media with a surprise album release, Em is near the top. Last night, without any warning, Eminem released Kamikaze. The 13-track album comes just eight months after Revival, the artist's tragic ninth studio album that was rightfully panned by critics and fans alike. Did the reaction to Revival inspire a return to the drawing board? Kamikaze is an unusually quick return for Em at this stage in his career, but is he doing so with self-awareness? Did he read the criticism of what made his prior work such a musical chore to complete? Will this be Eminem’s redemption release? It's the most important question that comes to mind before pressing play. To retain public interest requires being interesting. Sadly, that’s something Eminem hasn’t been in years. If nothing else, I’m going into Kamikaze looking for music and an artist worth getting excited for. In usual 1-Listen fashion, the rules are the same: no skipping, no fast-forwarding, no rewinding, and no stopping. Each song will receive my gut reaction from start to finish. Godspeed. 1. “The Ringer” Three seconds into the album and there’s an explosion. That’s one way to begin, with a bang. Em’s speaking, says he wants to punch the world in the mouth. Did he just say he wanted to ra… Shock value is the most boring tool in his hip-hop utility belt. 21 Savage has to be the most referenced new rapper. Frank, JAY-Z, Eminem, the list goes on. He’s doing the Migos flow. It’s awkward but not terrible. Eminem is going through an existential crisis. With hip-hop getting older, mid-life crisis music should become more common. In a sense, Em’s a pioneer for that brand of rap. Why is he doing this? I understand lyrical exercises but Em is becoming a treadmill that’s juiced up to a frantic speed. There are some good ideas here, though. Just mentioned the BET cypher and shouted out the colorblind people. Was that a Joe Budden shot? Shooting at Trump. He’s really bothered Trump didn’t try to box in public. Beef with journalists. Meh, meh, meh. 2. “Greatest” Eminem and Mike Will! Wow. Uh, I didn’t see this coming. Sounds like Eminem asked Mike to make a version of Galaga background music with bombastic drums. I can’t believe I’m listening to Eminem make a subpar song about being a GOAT. I’m trying to imagine Em playing Playboi Carti’s “Wokeuplikethis*” and I can’t fathom it. This hook is horrendous. Muhammad Ali spent a majority of his life teaching us how to brag just for Eminem to make a sauceless anthem that sounds as if he’s trying to convince himself more than the general public. I can’t consider him a shell of his former self when he sounds so removed from what made him captivating. I do like the riffs that are bringing life to the bass line. I’m pretty sure Eminem is now a parody of artificial intelligence hip-hop. Did he just mimic Kendrick’s "HUMBLE." flow? Okay, I laughed. That was mildly entertaining. He just mentioned Ali. How dare you speak of the champ and not do a song called "Greatest" justice? 3. “Lucky You” ft. Joyner Lucas Joyner Lucas and Eminem. If the remix of “Lucky You” features Kendall Jenner and Pepsi then racism in America will spontaneously end. Joyner is starting this one. No drums, I like the slow buildup. Joyner doesn’t sound bad. I’m into his energy. An interesting trap banger. Starting to think Kamikaze is Eminem’s KOD. Lot of shots at fellow rappers on this album. He is rapping, and I’m pretty into his tongue-twisting flow. I really hope Em can match the energy. Okay, he doesn’t sound so bad. Said he sold his soul for some GRAMMYs. I’m not mad at this one thus far. This is definitely his KOD. I can do without the mumble rap slander. He could actually learn a lot from them if he listened. I can see the Mountain Dew rap community being very much into this. Has Eminem been so legacy-focused before? Seems like the Revival criticism has Em bringing out his trophies and putting them on display. Interesting. 4. “Paul (Skit)” Throwback Shady move. Paul is asking about Em replying to everyone. Ha. The concept of Kamikaze 2 reacting to the critics of Kamikaze is a hilarious slippery slope that I pray does not happen. 5. “Normal” Eminem is everything but normal. A relationship song? Man, how did he not put Drake on this. Did he rip this beat off YouTube? It sounds like he downloaded the 128 kbps version. What is he talking about? Eminem thought it was a good idea to make a song about a toxic, abusive relationship in 2018. Wow. I mean this is the guy who killed his wife on wax. I guess what they say is true: if you give a man an inch he will never stop walking on your patience. I like this third verse flow. “Let's sleep on it like they did Revival,” this man is hurt. I pray by the time I reach 40 the last thing I care about is critics. 6. “Em Calls Paul (Skit)” Em called back Paul. Honestly, this is a skit that should be on your first album, not your 10th. I guess you never stop caring. We went from Stan stalking Eminem to Eminem pulling up on critics. Including, I think, our own Andy James haha. This is the worst timeline. 7. “Stepping Stone” One thing Em can learn from the mumble rap period of rap is shorter records. Wait, this sounds good. Reflecting back on 2012. Mentioned the death of Proof.<doc-sep>Sometimes you sense that change is coming, and can only hope it’s for the best. Two recent incidents in the creative life of Eminem signaled that the usually crabby, occasionally comedic, and always confrontational Caucasian rapper might be moving beyond the dull, drama-less rut that was 2017’s “Revival,” and into the fresher, freakier waters of ‘Kamikaze,” his surprise album drop at August’s end. The first came with his hard-edged, freestyle cypher at the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards. Em had ripped into President Donald Trump before — repeatedly on “Revival” — and the rapper may have looked, uh, shadier than usual, hooded and barking in an underground parking lot (to which Stephen Colbert made the best jokes, here). Yet, that caustic, rapid-fire charge was more alive, lyrically and verbally, than Marshall Mathers has been since the start of the 21st Century. Another example of his speedy, gutsy, accusatory and/or salacious rhymes came through his featured guest verses on “Majesty,” from Nicki Minaj’s “Queen” album. Here, in a heated, sing-song-y tone faster than the syllables-per-second of his famed “Rap God,” Eminem cut down the lameness of new-fangled hip-hop and the young MCs who dared to follow in his footsteps. “Don’t tell me about the culture,” he spits on “Fall,” from “Kamikaze.” “I inspired the Hopsins, the Logics, the Coles, the Seans, the K-Dots, the 5’9s, and, oh, brought the world 50 Cent.” Boastful, yes. But Eminem sounds like he’s prepared to prove why he is his own GOAT. With the whole of “Kamikaze,” Eminem is wagering that he can’t be beat. So he sharpens his knives, refuses to “overthink this one” (so says his Tweet announcing the surprise drop) and wears his most prominent influences, old and new, on his sleeve. He throws shade and hedges his bets. At the very least, he’s putting the sense of inspiration and wonder to good use on the cover of his 10th album, which borrows liberally from the sleeve of Beastie Boys’ 1986 LP, “Licensed to Ill.” With the fighter plane’s burning nose and its tail initialed “FU-2,” it’s fun seeing Eminem pay tribute to the goofy poetry and the off-putting misogyny of the other white meat. Along with that nod to old school hip-hop, and another by way of the aged Def Jam snag from LL Cool J’s “I’m Bad,” Em and his executive co-producer Dr. Dre also pull from more contemporary fare, Playboi Carti’s “Woke Up Like This,” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble,” the latter of which anchors the pulpy “Kamikaze” cut, “Greatest.” Like the trap beats-filled “Not Alike,” the dense sonics of these two tracks feel modernist, cold, and overly reliant on newly familiar tropes. Eminem even goes as far as to shout “Tay Keith,” on the chilly theatrical “Not Alike,” in a sound-a-like Drake/”Scorpion” moment (listen to Drizzy’s recent “Nonstop” for that reference). Copycat? Hardly. Like Muhammad Ali throwing a rope-a-dope, Eminem is drawing you in with weirdly dippy mimicry so as to slap lazy listeners out of their doldrums (much as he needed to do to his own turgid music post-“Revival”), in hopes that we’ll realize that hip-hop is getting stale in its production and lyrical tropes. This is where the album gets good and catty. To be sure, Eminem’s voice hasn’t sounded quite so cranky, silly, impassioned or enraged since his early days. Bypassing most of his famed loathing of Trump (on “The Ringer,” Em even sounds regretful that his BET cypher was bitchy to The Donald’s constituency, rapping, “If I could go back, I’d at least reword it / And say I empathize with the people this evil serpent sold the dream to that he’s deserted”), “Kamikaze” focuses most of Eminem’s racing caustic disgust with his own trade. Starting with “The Ringer,” he takes no prisoners when it comes to the Lil likes of Lil Xan and Lil Pump. He imitates Lil Wayne and rips “Gucci Gang” for having subpar bars. Em also unleashes savage vitriol on Lil Yachty by shrieking, “Do you have any idea how much I hate this choppy flow everyone copies?” So who does Eminem save deep and abiding respect for? Women. Trump-dissing comedian Kathy Griffin gets a shout-out on the title track with “Kathy Griffin, stackin’ ammunition / Slap the clip and cock it back on competition.” Soulful flavor-of-the-moment (deserved) Canadian Jessie Reyez gets a back-to-back crack at Skylar Grey glory on two tracks themed around toxic masculinity, “Nice Guy,” then “Good Guy.” Em then goes in for the meta self-commentary of “Normal.” As he has been insistently accused of deeply vicious misogyny in his lyrics, the jaw-dropping mea culpa of “I slipped up and busted her jaw with a Louisville Slugger,” and its squirrelly rationalization (“it really does make our love for each other grow stronger”) may not allow you to see him as any less vile. Yet, when coupled with the aforementioned “Guy” tracks, you sense that Eminem has grown into an ominously social-satirical critic (or critique) of the misogyny for which he’s been deservedly accused. He’s not exactly woke, but Eminem is waking up. “What I’ll never be is flawless… all I’ll ever be is honest,” Eminem rap-sings in his usual flinty cackle, heading into the sunset of self-deprecation and generational disgust. “Kamikaze” may not be flawless, but it comes closer than he has in years.<doc-sep>
At 12:00 am on Friday morning, Eminem casually tweeted out a link to a surprise new album, Kamikaze, and set the late-night internet on fire. The 13-track album, streamable on Apple and Spotify, is the rapper’s first release since his 2017 LP Revival. Produced by Eminem and Dr. Dre, it pays homage to the classic Beastie Boys album License to Ill and features collaborations with Joyner Lucas, Jessie Reyez, Royce da 5’9, and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. More importantly, it features Eminem in full-on old-school mode, dropping a litany of classic Marshall Mathers verses. It’s an occasionally uneven album, but it’s full of fire and full of Eminem’s always-impressive skill. It also reminds us, as few Eminem moments have lately, why so many hip-hop fans believe he’s the GOAT. This might sound surprising after the negative reception to Revival, which drew the worst critical response of Eminem’s career despite sporting flashy collabs with the likes of Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran. But on Kamikaze, Eminem is clearly back on his bullshit, and so much better for it. Kamikaze takes aim at the unoriginality of recent rap — and it has plenty to say Throughout Kamikaze, Eminem takes aim at the stagnant feel of recent rap and its purveyors. From the very first track, “The Ringer” — which opens with a brutal litany of rap disses before seamlessly shifting to the rapper’s well-established anti-Trump rage — we get Eminem at his self-aggrandizing, self-deprecating, dizzyingly self-assured best. Along with savaging a bunch of people (“Lil Pump, Lil Xan, imitate Lil Wayne,”) he devotes a whole verse to professing himself mystified by recent rap trends, à la “Gucci Gang,” with their “subpar bars” and “choppy flow.” Em makes the point again and again that he’ll never stint us of a good rhyme or a well-crafted run-on lyric. In stellar tracks like “Lucky You” (his utterly fire collab with Joyner), “Not Alike,” and “Fall,” he asserts his confidence that he still has a place in rap — and that rap desperately needs him. He does this musically, especially through the use of trap beats (“Not Alike”) and musical references to other artists. By using duplicated clips and structural mimicry, he summons musical memories of Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and Migos to ironically illustrate how overly copied their work has become, and how lazy it is to simply lay down a weak verse over someone else’s song structure. Lyrically, so many people get dissed on Kamikaze that it’s easier to talk about who doesn’t. Naturally, Em’s longtime mentor Dr. Dre, who co-produced, is safe, as are his album collaborators. But “if you ain’t Joyner, Kendrick or [J.] Cole or Sean then you’re a goner,” he promises. By the time the album ends, pretty much everyone is dead: Eminem just dissed: Tommy from Rugrats John Wick Lil Yachty Eddie Murphy MGK Tyler, The Creator Drake Charlamagne Bill Gates Joe Budden Trump Mike Pence Ellen Ohio Chicago Bears My moms spaghetti And he ain't done yet — Kraken (@SinktheKraken) August 31, 2018 Eminem went in on Tyler, Budden, Hopsin, Logic, Drake, MGK, Tech, Xan, Yachty, me, my dog, my 6th grade teacher, the state of Delaware, an entire school of goldfish, the aurora borealis, industrial microwaves, semen, ewoks, fishing lines... — KS3T (@sIipspace) August 31, 2018 He’s also good to the likes of Hopsin, Cypress Hill, and Travis Scott. (Kathy Griffin also gets a shoutout on the title track: “Kathy Griffin, stackin’ ammunition / Slap the clip and cock it back on competition.” She has already tweeted her delight over the reference.) But there’s narcissism in Eminem’s benevolence, too. “Don’t tell me ’bout the culture,” he sings in “Fall.” “I inspired the Hopsins, the Logics, the Coles, the Seans, the K-Dots, the 5’9s, and, oh, brought the world 50 Cent” — the latter a reference to Eminem signing Fiddy onto his label and jumpstarting his career. “Tay Keith, fuck these ni**as up,” explained Notably, there’s one artist who briefly shared Em’s Kamikaze spotlight, despite not performing on the album: Tay Keith, who produced “Not Alike,” Eminem’s collaboration with Royce da 5’9. Keith is a wunderkind, a 21-year-old producer from Memphis who just graduated college but who’s already worked with major artists — including Drake. That’s why Drake’s song “Nonstop,” from his recent album Scorpion, begins with the low-level introduction, “Tay Keith, fuck these ni**as up.” This line is Keith’s producer tag — the verbal equivalent of an artist’s signature.