The response to Eminem’s Revival album and Donald Trump-excoriating freestyle last year was all over the map. Some felt the rap icon was too focused on the consumerist aspect of hip-hop, while others were simply tired of his punishing delivery style. To address all these criticisms, he’s dropped a 13-track album entitled Kamikaze completely out of the blue. With relatively few features, it looks like Eminem is taking another shot at reclaiming his status in rap’s upper echelon. He rhymes with old friend Royce Da 5’9 on the trap-leaning “Not Alike,” which is an interesting change of pace in the vein of his “Chloraseptic” track with 2 Chainz and Phresher.
Kamikaze also features “Lucky You” with controversial artist Joyner Lucas. Lucas is probably somewhere telling himself how lucky he is to be on an album that will be consumed by many. It’s telling that Lucas is one of the few features on the album, as his “I’m Not A Racist” track was also polarizing like Marshall’s last album cycle around the same time frame.
Eminem had hinted at his “Venom” track earlier in the day, which had his fans looking out for a full version of the track accompanying the action film. Instead, they got “Venom” plus 12 other tracks to cull through tonight. Just when you thought it was a quiet night for rap releases, one of the biggest names in the genre comes through on his Kamikaze wave. You can stream the album below:
