Kamikaze was released at the very end of this August. It was dropped without any hype or warning, but regardless it has managed to get #1 on the Billboard 200 Chart. Eminem has made this entire album a diss track to the whole rap game and all the people who didn’t like his last album.  

Favorite Tracks:

The Ringer: The opening track on Kamikaze; Em calls out today’s mainstream rappers, rap culture, and the style of rap that’s common now. He even parodies Lil Pump’s flow on Gucci Gang.  Em covers a lot of topics and events, such as meeting with the secret service. Em’s flow, bars, and the production of the beat just stick in my head.

Lucky You: This is the track I was looking forward to most because of the Joyner Lucas feature. He opens up the song slowly and steadily picks up the intensity before breaking into the chorus. This track has an interesting concept, while Joyner talks about not having any awards but gaining respect, Em talks about having plenty of awards, but being overlooked. The feature on this track was great, Em’s bars were good, and the beat was one of my favorites of the album.

Least Favorite Tracks:

Normal: This is a classic Eminem “love song”. He talks about his struggles with romance and his complicated relationships. My problem with this song is that I feel like I’ve heard it before. Em isn’t stepping out of his comfort zone on this track with the subject matter or his flow. I do really like the track’s beat though.

Nice Guy: This is another track about Em being confused about his relationships, and trying to be a Nice Guy despite his confusion. That’s not a strong suit in my book because Em has plenty of those songs, but Jessie Reyez’s feature on the hook just really bugged me.

If it’s any measure of the quality of this album, The Ringer, and Lucky You both made it onto my playlists, and I can see myself coming back to listen to Greatest, Venom, and Not Alike. Compared to how many songs from Revival made it onto a playlist of mine (zero), that’s pretty good. In my opinion, this was a solid project from Em, but also not one to go down in the history books.

Final Score – 7/10