Just days after Justin Bieber criticized Eminem for “not understanding” the current generation of rappers, Eminem has linked up with one of the pre-eminent members of the modern crop of hip-hop artists to prove him wrong — sort of. While Logic is probably not the best representative of the so-called “Soundcloud rap” or “mumble rap” Eminem spent much of his 2018 album Kamikaze railing against, he is closer to the average age of the rappers who seemingly dominate the music landscape today. Em and Logic’s collaboration is called “Homicide” and you can check it out below.
It’s probably obvious why the song is called “Homicide” — for around four minutes, the two rappers take turns “killing” the BREGMA and Shroom-produced beat, which includes gothic samples and choral arrangements and a heavy kick-snare pattern that should appeal to fans of both rappers’ usual sonic styles. As expected, both sling entire encyclopedias of high-velocity raps and pun-heavy punchlines, including one where Eminem claims to have “big bills like a platypus.” At the end of the track, they make an effort to deflate some of the anticipated criticisms of their wordy styles by capping the song with a sample of comedian Chris D’Elia’s iconic Eminem impression video, complete with the “you using way too many napkins” line intact.
For what it’s worth, though, there will likely always be a market for complex rhyme schemes and double time cadences in hip-hop, as evidenced by the continued and growing success of rappers like Dreezy, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Uzi Vert, Megan The Stallion, Rapsody, Ski Mask The Slump God, YBN Cordae, and more. The problem with Eminem’s complaints was never that he didn’t understand the new landscape, but that the complaints are based on an incomplete, selective view of modern hip-hop that overlooks the plethora of lyrically-focused rappers who actually tend to outsell many of the “mumble rappers” who Eminem criticizes. Maybe if he did a little more listening he’d see that there are plenty of artists who create the type of music he likes outside of Logic and Joyner Lucas and that intricate rhymes still reign supreme in rap — just with less complaining about the kids who make the other kinds of hip-hop that are also pretty enjoyable in their own way.
