Eminem NEW ALBUM - Kamikaze

[SoleByThePound]

42 from the Bronx as well and this probably my favorite Joey joint lyrically ... heard everything but this, dude just unzipped on this joint ...

That song, like everything he’s ever released is trash. How this lame has a voice in the culture is an embarrassment all in itself.

 

[masagipatron]

Joe is nice with the pen the problem is that a lot of people don’t care to listen to him. He’s had some great beef records, especially against Saigon, Ransom and Prodigy.

 

[ninjahood]

joe would've been betta off career wise if he would've just stayed in that Fabolous desert storm lane he was originally on.

 

[keko jones]

Heard a few of Joe Mood Muzic and IMHO dude is trash. Regardless of content, his genetic voice abs execution are laughable. I legit couldn't name a Joe budden song except pump it up.

 

[NCtwin]

5.0 from Pitchfork

All across his 10th album, the more things change, the more Eminem stays the same.

Released without prior announcement, only a tweet from the rapper saying that he “tried not 2 overthink this 1,” Kamikazestands in one sense as a no-******** return to basics after the pop-minded bloat of last year’s lackluster Revival. It’s also the endlessly self-mythologizing star’s latest excoriation of journalists, perceived rivals, and just about anyone else who thinks his music sucks now. His career has become an exhausting feedback loop, and Kamikaze flies straight into that downward spiral.

Ever since his bedrock trilogy of albums—1999’s The Slim Shady LP, 2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP and 2002’s The Eminem Show—vaulted the battle-tested Detroit MC to a Grammy-winning commercial juggernaut, Eminem has alternated between gritty boom-bap reboots and slick crossover plays as his cultural impact has waned. Like 2009’s grisly Relapse after 2004’s solipsistic Encore, or 2013’s violently recidivistic The Marshall Mathers LP 2after 2010’s clumsily motivational Recovery, Kamikaze is Eminem’s latest act of stubbornness in the face of change. Though Kamikaze might part ways with the polish and Beyoncé-grade guests of Revival, it’s yet another empty, intermittently tone-deaf onslaught of technical rap prowess and humorless juvenilia from an artist who once controlled the zeitgeist with ease.

If rap more closely resembled a purely athletic contest, Eminem would still be an Olympian. As a deployer of internal rhyme schemes and sly vocal deliveries, he continues to operate on a rarefied plane, whether spitting in frenetic double-time or sending up today’s sing-songy approaches. “Get this ****in’ audio out my Audi yo, adios,” he declares on opener “The Ringer,” stringing together something textually clever but utterly meaningless. And when Eminem repeatedly insists he writes his own lyrics, well, what an accomplishment. If what happened with JAY-Z’s likewise-crotchety “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)” back in 2009 is any guide, Eminem’s hyper-articulate attacks on mumble-rap might mark not the death of a trendy style as much as its inescapable takeover. When Eminem compares himself to Muhammad Ali, on a joylessly bludgeoning track titled, yes, “Greatest,” the breathless wordplay sounds like it would be a lot of work to duplicate, but he seems to miss out on what’s remarkable about both Ali and, at its best, music. Eminem doesn’t do transcendence.

While Eminem’s verbal dexterity has remained intact, his shortcomings have grown more glaring with the passage of time. When he isn’t unleashing his id, he has, at times, veered toward power-ballad treacle, and “Stepping Stone,” a maudlin tribute to his former group D12, is the prime offender here. When the demons do emerge, the songs aren’t memorable enough to overcome the latest tinges of homophobia and misogyny from a 45-year-old who either knows better or is outrage-trolling for the attention he doesn’t need. Instead of trying to evolve with the culture, he’d rather Make Rap Great Again. On the execrable “Fall,” which has already been disowned by guest vocalist Justin Vernon, Eminem carelessly lobs an anti-gay slur at Tyler, the Creator. Multiple references to domestic violence, on two separate tracks, fail to earn their jokey presence. And while Eminem has long delighted in being impish, the many times Kamikaze presents the idea of someone having a **** in their mouth as the ultimate insult is not only socially dubious but artistically bankrupt and above all: boring. No-holds-barred wordplay is part of hip-hop’s DNA, but this isn’t a reissue from another era or grassroots subcultural expression; it’s a rich and famous and not coincidentally white, straight man in 2018, asserting that he’s about to “rape the alphabet.”

When Eminem complains in one breath about how he wasn’t duly rewarded for an anti-Trump freestyle he did last year, and in the next takes the Trump-like step of labeling the media as his enemy, it’s hard to tell whether his obtuseness is willful or just clueless. In one skit, he goes so far as to intimate that he’s driving to a critic’s house, which isn’t really funnyanymore, either. For all of Marshall Mathers’ perpetual outsider posturing, Kamikaze is a tie-in with the upcoming movie Venom, an offshoot of the multibillion-dollar Spider-Man franchise. “Venom,” the closing track, is a rousing-enough recap of Eminem’s career arc, with appropriately slithery rhyme patterns, told through the Marvel story’s device of an alien entity that can enter someone’s bloodstream and become a part of them forever. It hints at how much Eminem might have to gain if he could stop being defensive about his legacy and settle into becoming a legacy act. Ditch the new songs with their schtick and it’d be a perfect late-career highlight to include in a Super Bowl halftime show we might one day endure or a Las Vegas residency he might one day settle for.

 

[harlemtothebronx]

Heard a few of Joe Mood Muzic and IMHO dude is trash. Regardless of content, his genetic voice abs execution are laughable. I legit couldn't name a Joe budden song except pump it up.

 

[theregothatman]

So no body has a problem with Em trying to call out the mumble rappers, but slurping up Nicki Minaj trash *** basic bubble gum lyrics? He ain't one bit sincere about the restoring hip hop

 

[keko jones]

LoL

Damn Gina!

 

[harlemtothebronx]

No disrespect. Just couldn't help it.

 

[tdogg2k]

Nicki album is fire tho..

 

[Remy LeBeau]

Joe's biggest issue as far as the group wasn't just em not doing enough but em also holding them back. Having them use his formula which anyone could tell it wasn't going to work. That shows just how out of touch em was with the group he signed.

Tbh, I don't wanna hear 47 year old Em crying about the "lil's" rapping when there's so many talented artist still spitting (he named a bunch). It's 2018, it's too easy to ignore what you think isn't good and give acclaim to the other talent. Hell, how many artist has Em had that have road the bench? Stop complaining and develop/support your own artist. I like joyner and I think he did his thing but why didn't Em feature any of HIS young artist on this project instead?

 

[Zainjal26]

Em spits 30 bars directed at MGK and it isn’t a diss?

All 30 bars weren’t to mgk, there were like 2 maybe 3 verses about mgk

 

[nflowshoe]

So no body has a problem with Em trying to call out the mumble rappers, but slurping up Nicki Minaj trash *** basic bubble gum lyrics? He ain't one bit sincere about the restoring hip hop

I can’t fault Em for trying to smash. He probably did smash

 

[tero]

Eminem should've recycled his verse from "We All Die One Day" for that venom song......

 

[W)taps]

Slaughterhouse's debut album came out in 09... the same year as "so far gone"... that was just the start for YMCMB/Drake's era.

cant blame Em for slaughterhouse not being huge.

 

[Remy LeBeau]

Slaughterhouse's debut album came out in 09... the same year as "so far gone"... that was just the start for YMCMB/Drake's era.

cant blame Em for slaughterhouse not being huge.

I don't think that was the goal.

 

[W)taps]

I don't think that was the goal.

then what was their goal?

 

[tdogg2k]

All these rappers starting to come out saying theyll smoke joe and em....
Is joe really still signed with em...is this strategic marketing to bring the rap game back....
Did pusha vs drake spark this beef wave back up?

 

[Remy LeBeau]

then what was their goal?

IMO to gain more exposure than they did as an independent group through marketing that would work for them considering that they were signed to an artist that could understand that. They got the opposite. Joe mentions that after these things started to be revealed to him, they were better off doing festivals like they did before (could've made more too).

 

[W)taps]

IMO to gain more exposure than they did as an independent group through marketing that would work for them considering that they were signed to an artist that could understand that. They got the opposite. Joe mentions that after these things started to be revealed to him, they were better off doing festivals like they did before (could've made more too).

that goes back to my original comment. they did get more exposure, but they got outshined by the YMCMB era. Joe is a fool for saying they got the opposite. they formed the group in 08 aint no one know about them till they signed with shady records in 09 lol

 

[Hahahaha]

I remember when Welcome to Our House dropped. I was confused why Em wasn't on the single. Why Em wasn't in any videos. Why Joe Budden was taking off one of the hardest songs on the album. Hammer Dance was dope, overall it was a cool album but it was weird. It didn't sell well so I was shocked when they were talking about another album coming out the next year.

 

[Remy LeBeau]

that goes back to my original comment. they did get more exposure, but they got outshined by the YMCMB era. Joe is a fool for saying they got the opposite. they formed the group in 08 aint no one know about them till they signed with shady records in 09 lol

You read "exposure" and stopped reading my comment lol they got exposure through that goofy Eminem formula that had no chance of working for them from the start and em didn't understand that. That album on Shady was pure garbage compared to their first album. YM had nothing to do with it. SH could've been that niche act with a decent following but were marketed as a goofy d12-like band which was completely different than what they were.

 

[W)taps]

You read "exposure" and stopped reading my comment lol they got exposure through that goofy Eminem formula that had no chance of working for them from the start and em didn't understand that. That album on Shady was pure garbage compared to their first album. YM had nothing to do with it. SH could've been that niche act with a decent following but were marketed as a goofy d12-like band which was completely different than what they were.

I read your comment and subject of the comment was all about exposure. They got exposure by signing with shady. And claiming they got the opposite is just false information. you saying "SH could've been that niche act.." is just proof of that.

Whether the music was good or not is a different story after signing with shady is a different story.

 

[masagipatron]

Welcome To Our House was wild trash. That’s why they released the On The House mixtape. That was their way of trying to appeal to their old fans as well as the commercial crowd. Slaughterhouse’s best tracks are the lyrical, least commercial ones. Wack MCs, Sound Off, Microphone, Move On, Onslaught, etc

 

[Remy LeBeau]

I don't take "signing" to a label as exposure. There's more to it than that when it comes to your acts. Not to mention changing the complete creative integrity of said acts. Name 5 acts who only needed to "sign" and were successful?