Let’s talk about Kamikaze and revival
or the honest opinion of a fan

It’s been couple of days since Eminem dropped his fire album Kamikaze. A lot of people were dissed, one was brave enough to answer with a whole track, but screw all that. I am by no means that much into the music industry or into hip-hop to dissect the album piece by piece and analyze it.
Instead, let’s look at the bigger picture and why this was a very tactical move from Eminem’s side and something that people should have expected from his persona. There are a couple of factors here: timing, beefs & shout-outs, branding.
Before we start, I just want to say that I personally looooooove the album and, even though I am in no position to analyze it, for me it’s divided in two main parts — one where he opens up a bit and has “Freudian slips” as he says, sharing feelings and rapping about personal stuff. The clearest example is “Stepping Stone”, a song dedicated to D12. The other part, of course, is where Em takes on the industry with fiery disses.
Now, as much as the album is tracking, let’s talk about how Eminem literally revived his brand according to the three factors mentioned above.
Timing
It’s been nearly 10 months after Em released Revival, an EP trashed by most. August 31st 2018, end of summer, people are going back to their routines, but not quite yet. More importantly, the industry was somewhat asleep. There was no buzz around the hottest names in the biz, or at least not a worldwide one. The album came as a surprise to all of us, but in my opinion, this was carefully planned. Scorpion and Astroworld enjoyed hype earlier this summer, alongside others, but there was not something huge going on, therefore, nothing to compete and block the buzz Em’s appearance creates usually. This, of course, played right into Eminem’s hands, and contributed to his album and the word about it spreading like a wildfire. On another hand, 10 months is a big amount of time to listen to various people trashing the album you put so much effort into. Yes, it might be trash, but it’s obvious just from how much thought was put into marketing, that Eminem and his crew worked hard on it. Also, in 2018 the type of artists that he disses just reached the top, like it or not. I’m talking about mumblers and whatever type of music Lil Pump does.
Surprise for the audience? Sure it was. Spontaneous decision? More like careful planning in the past couple of months, in my opinion.
Talking about Lil Pump, let’s get to the second point.
Beefs and shout-outs
Okay, so Eminem is indeed a legend. A faded one or not, not as good as before or even better, people have different opinions on that, but the general consensus is that he is a lyrical genius and a legend in his industry. Talking about beefs, he picked the people carefully. For some, like MGK, Eminem actually had a reason to shoot at them, but for other names, they were picked just because they aren’t what rap/hip-hop should be about in Em’s opinion and also, because they are the hottest names right now. Like come on, “Gucci Gang” was playing everywhere and “In My Feelings” broke the internet with the #kekechallenge.
Why pick those guys? As I said, they are the hottest names in the industry as it is right now, and as mentioned above, there was no buzz going around. On top of all, after losing some of his credibility in front of the audience with Revival, what a better way to resurface than diss the most well-known artist of the year when you actually have something to say about them?! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Eminem dissed everyone who dissed, just because they’re famous. What I’m saying is that it was the best option, after hurting his brand and reputation with his last album.
For the shout-outs, he does the same thing. Everyone (almost) who is respected and earned a reputation, be it one of a legend or of an upcoming star, was given a shout-out in his album. I did not expect to see Logic’s name there, and I was pleasantly surprised (just a personal thing, nothing to do with the article).
Branding
Here I’m supposed to wrap it up, so I’ll try to keep it short.
Eminem needed something like this and needed it desperately. More and more people start talking about his age and how he should just quit and with him releasing an album every 2–3 years, he’s not staying relevant while others go way beyond what someone would expect. With this reviving of Shady, he basically shows everyone that he is not done, but quite the opposite.
I mean, yes, Kamikaze is tracking so good that it’s on track to beat records, according to CNN. While Revival reached No1 in Billboard 200, it mainly hurt his reputation and spread the notion of his downfall. Kamikaze does the exact opposite. People are having mainly positive reactions and there’s definitely a reason to.
With this album, Eminem teaches a lesson in rap & hip-hop, but also in marketing. When shit goes south, you need to be able to adjust or lose whatever you have. And in Em’s case, the stakes are high. Not money-wise, he has more than enough to never perform again and still live the way he’s used to. The stake is his reputation. If this album also flopped, he would lose relevance. With the tracks themselves, but also considering the two factors of time and who exactly to shoot at.
— — — — — — — — —
Thanks for reading!
