Last year in December 2017, famed influential rapper Eminem released his ninth studio album Revival.
While the record was Eminem’s eighth consecutive Number 1 album on the Billboard 200 list, the album received mixed reviews from critics and a strong negative reaction from music fans on social media.
The response was strong enough that Eminem, being the extreme reactionist that he has always been, released this unannounced surprise tenth album with no advertising behind it whatsoever on Aug 31. Many of the songs mention, discuss and even diss the many critics of his previous album.
Eminem returns to his roots with Kamikaze. Gone are the pop-star hooks and overly sad crooning of the previous album. Instead, he goes for the fast, hard hitting, often offensive bars for which Eminem is known.
Tracks such as “Not Alike,” featuring Eminem’s Bad Meets Evil partner Royce Da 5’9”, or “Lucky You,” featuring up and coming rapper Joyner Lucas, show that Eminem still has a knack for constructing fast flows and clever wordplay when dissing other rappers.
Unfortunately, while Eminem’s performance is better than he’s been in awhile, that isn’t enough to save Kamikaze from being an irritating listen. It shows that while Eminem still has the talent, he still lacks taste and struggles to evolve as an artist.
The return to his roots is both a blessing and a curse. While it makes the songs more listenable, the fact that he’s still using homophobic slurs and inciting violence is unbelievable at Eminem’s age.
Now that Eminem is 45 years old, he is a much older and a rich father of three kids. It’s just silly to think that Eminem is the same person that he was all those years ago when he first hit the scene and screamed angrily against the world.
Doing this and occasionally throwing decent shade at popular young rappers comes off as him blaming everyone but himself for his failures, giving attention to all the critics who he claims that he doesn’t care about.
Even if you ignored the childish content, musically, the album is less than impressive.
Bringing back Dr. Dre as an executive producer and having talented producers like Ronny J, Boi-da and Mike WILL Made-It, you would expect the beats to be hot and fun.
Some are, but none of it really matches the other work of these producers. No beat is particularly memorable, some being excruciating like the annoying clattering nonsense of the title track.
Also, Eminem has never been good at constructing catchy hooks, but they have never been worse than they have been on Kamikaze.
From the clunky structure of the hook on “Greatest,” or the corny melodramatic bad singing on “Stepping Stone,” to the horrible performance from feature Jessie Reyes on “Nice Guys,” they are unlistenable.
The hooks that are listenable are lifted straight from other songs, copping the flow from Lil Pump’s “Gucci Gang” and Migos’ “Bad & Boujee.”
The point is supposed to be that he can be inspired by these flows and use them better than his contemporaries, however the other choruses in the album are so bad that it comes off more as desperately needing something to be catchy and an ear worm.
Altogether, Kamikaze is a frustrating listen. Strong flows and a return to form in some areas is not enough to save the overly childish tantrums, unmemorable production, and some of the worst choruses in his entire career. I advise that unless you’re a super fan, this is not worth a listen.
