Marshall Lays Down the Law: Eminem ‘Kamikaze’ Review
By Marcos Léon and Matt Ford
SCORE: 6
Prefer to listen? You can hear the review, or read it below:
Marcos: Eminem is a rapper from Detroit.
Matt: Yes, my hometown, and this is his tenth — I repeat, his tenth — studio album and it’s already №1 on the Billboard album chart.
Marcos: The surprising part is this album sold almost 200,000 more than his album, Revival, that just came out last year. That’s a huge jump for an artist this late in his career to drop an album that people mostly thought was mediocre and come back the next year, and his fans were kind of revitalized with it.
Matt: I did hear that Pitchfork gave it a 5 and, honestly, my rating isn’t that far from it but I am really proud of Eminem and what he was able to accomplish this late in the game. He’s 45 years old — that’s pretty aged in the music industry and for him to still come out with №1 albums a year after dropping a mediocre one is definitely something to be proud of.
Marcos: I was happy with what he was giving us. “The Ringer” was tons of bars. He came out swinging in his “Rap God” style. “Greatest” was a good song. I didn’t necessarily like the hook but the bars were still really impressive. And then, “Lucky You” hits and Joyner Lucas hit that shit out of the park. That song — oof! It was a lot more into this trap style and Joyner Lucas wrote that shit like a g*ddamn pro. The flow was impeccable, some of the lines he dropped. At the same time, Eminem didn’t make any mistakes with it. Joyner was so impressive that Eminem had to work a little bit harder to keep up.
Matt: “The Ringer,” “Greatest” and “Lucky You” set a powerful tone for the album. I was not quite surprised because Eminem has always been very good at starting albums very strongly but I was surprised by the kind of flow that he went with — this trap sound. I didn’t like the trap flow as much because it’s so different from what he’s used to doing. He’s also calling out artists who do the same thing so I thought it was kind of hypocritical. But he definitely came out swinging for five-and-a-half minutes and every minute was worth it. He did what he had to do.
Marcos: I don’t necessarily hate it because he incorporated it into his own style. Joyner definitely did it better than he did but my complaints come after that. “Normal” had a really weird fucking hook. Like, Eminem’s using his technical fast raps and he starts using the sing-songing and maybe after the beat switch-up, it works a little better but you listen to what he’s saying and it’s like, Em, Alright dude, I’m impressed by the technical skill but you’re still talking about these manipulative-ass relationships. I like you being angry, I like you coming at critics because it’s what you do well. But there was no humor in “Normal.” It was just creepy and over-the-top.
Matt: Paul Rosenberg is a bigtime music manager and he’s been with Eminem since, I believe, the very start. Eminem used to have all sorts of skits with Paul across several of his first few albums and Paul is a sounding board and a source of musical critique to keep Eminem grounded and on-track but Paul was right. So, you’re gonna make an album calling out all these people and shitting on your critics again and it was pretty lackluster. After a while, it got old. On [the first three tracks], it worked well because the sonics of the song matched his flow and it felt necessary. Even his self-awareness and self-deprecation and acknowledging that his recent music hasn’t been the best — he mentioned his BET Hip Hop Awards cipher — was all very necessary. But in the second half of the album, it started to feel long, drawn-out, unnecessary and ultimately not very memorable. What he’s saying on “Normal,” for example, is important for him to paint a portrait of himself as an artist at a crossroads with his artistry and personhood but it came across as, Okay, we get it. What else do you have to say?
Marcos: On The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show, there were really aggressive, fucked up songs but at the time, Em was in his 20s. To some extent, he was supposed to be angry and young and that’s what we wanted. Looking at a song like “Normal,” I want to see what his relationships are, like, Yeah, give me that song but not this… You are self-conscious enough to understand that this shit is kind of fucked up and maybe you should talk about [the relationships]. And maybe it does go on with women treating you like shit. That could be a great song and you could do something like that instead of making it into this stalker bullshit. It just doesn’t feel genuine, especially once you go into “Stepping Stone,” which is supposed to be an apology. It doesn’t feel like a fucking apology. Em has had a whole career to really apologize to these people and maybe you could say the years after Proof died, it makes sense. That dude was his best friend. He’s the one who kind of tied him to D12. You could’ve had D12 on this album and tried to give them a chance to jump in with you and you didn’t. This is a half-assed apology and doesn’t feel genuine or real.
Matt: When I was listening to this song, I was thinking, Okay, this is an open letter to D12 and the most heartfelt song on the album, but it just comes off as sounding like, Sorry I was so successful. I know how it feels now, not topping the charts.
Marcos: I don’t understand it. They’re dishonest, to say the least. Moving on — “Not Alike.” Have you heard the song “Look Alive” by Drake and BlocBoy JB?
Matt: I’m so glad you mentioned this because I thought it was wildly ironic that he disses Drake [which he later denies in a Complex interview with Sway] and he talks about this new sound with these rappers and what they’re producing then he records a song that sounds just like “Look Alive” but with the flow of “Bad and Boujee.”
Marcos: They’re both produced by Tay Keith. So whatever, he made two instrumentals that sound very similar. Sold one to Drake, sold the other one to Eminem. That’s partially on the producer. But Eminem, if you’re gonna take shots at Drake, you should know the type of shit he’s been putting out. You should be able to identify, oh shit, Drake dropped a hit that sounds just like this, and know that you’re gonna sound worse on this. I love me some Bad Meets Evil. I think Royce and Eminem bring out the best in each other lyrically but this is a “Look Alive” clone and they don’t sound better than Drake does. Drake sounds phenomenal on “Look Alive” and Eminem and Royce just do not bring the same level of energy.
Matt: They don’t. I think that Eminem, at this stage in his career with him trying to stay relevant, you end up getting an album where a third of it sounds like “Not Alike” where he’s trying to stay current and he’s trying to match the lyrical flow and sound of modern rap. But what I would’ve appreciated more is if he was maybe a bit more like Kanye or Nas or JAY who really stay true to their form and you never come to a point where you’re like, This sounds like everything else that’s happening right now. And especially with Eminem trying to reclaim his throne, he doesn’t really do that by that copying new sounds.
Marcos: I don’t hate that he’s trying to incorporate modern styles. Like I said, “Lucky You” is a song that does that well but he did it by bringing in young blood to balance out his style with this new style. When he tries to do this same trap style with an old head like Royce, it just doesn’t work.
Matt: I would’ve liked two very seasoned guys in the rap game to make a song that sounds well-seasoned. Maybe they could’ve tried something different that made it apparent that these are two guys who are older in the game but they are not only extremely relevant but they still got it, and I didn’t get that with “Not Alike” — and, quite honestly, with the rest of the album.
Marcos: I kind of disagree. “Kamikaze” had great wordplay. I loved him over the production. I still don’t fuck with the hooks — I think the hooks were the some of the weakest parts of this album, all the way through — but the wordplay, lyricism, technical skills still shine through for me. “Fall” had a hook feature from Justin Vernon that was absolutely amazing. The bars here were still great. I really enjoyed the way that Eminem sounded over this and he kept going, threw out some more disses, but the part that doesn’t sit with me is that he threw out disses at people who fucking love him. There is absolutely no reason for him to diss Tyler or Earl. Ignoring the whole homophobic slur — and then bleeped it out himself — why would you knock Tyler or Earl to begin with? These are two kids who from the beginning have worshipped your ass and he makes jokes about that shit, too! Like, “You are sack-religious?” Bruh, yeah, they fucking love you, why are you coming at people who have seen you as one of their idols, one of their gods, one of their aspirations, and they just didn’t like [“Walk on Water”] — which you admit yourself is trash — and you’re going to take offense and come at guys who have love for you. Tyler dropped one of the best albums in hip-hop last year and Earl is consistently [named] one of the top lyricists.
Matt: Right, like you said, Eminem said that his recent music sucked. So, if people are agreeing with you and are saying that your recent music sucked, what, only you can be your own critic? I feel like that’s why the rest of the album kind of annoyed me. He said in “Kamikaze” that he started rapping because it made him strong and it reminded me of his childhood in Detroit, trying to survive. And then with “Fall,” it was an absolutely brilliant song and that hooked killed. But even “Nice Guy” and “Good Guy,” also good songs, he was still taking shots at people.
Marcos: I come to Eminem for anger and shots at people. It’s definitely part of what drew us to him and I’m not going to hate him for that. He has a line, like, I used to be that guy who came at y’all hard, where is that guy now? I like that he’s bringing that energy back and I wish he didn’t have to be angry to rap well and make good music but it seems like he has to be angry to rap well and make good music. Whatever, fuck it! I like these songs. The homophobic shit, come on, you’re a better rapper than that. You can insult somebody without having it be a homophobic slur. The rest of those lines were funny. The rest of this album I didn’t think was that bad. And that’s comparing it to Revival but I can rock with some of this and I think “Nice Guy” and “Good Guy” were decent songs to close out the album. Jessie brought her shit and “Nice Guy” was a great play between Em’s style and Jessie’s style. On “Good Guy,” I liked Jessie’s part a lot more than I did Em’s part but those are small changes to make. Overall, I’m kind of happy with this. It’s not an amazing Eminem album but at this point in his career, I think this is a good thing to get from him.
Matt: I really love Jessie Reyes and what she’s bringing to music right now. Her vocals and her flow on “Nice Guy” were so smooth and confident and she used her unique voice to surprising and very stellar effect. The old school beat on “Good Guy” and this switch-up on the beat were reminiscent of some of his older songs. It reminded me of “Cleaning Out My Closet” and “When I’m Gone,” the style and sense of emotionality that went with it was a great way to close out the album. And I’m really happy to have discovered Jessie’s rap prowess. Overall, there’s no denying that Kamikaze is awesomely produced. Even the songs that I got annoyed with and was losing patience, most of them were very well-produced and Kamikaze is a good comeback for Eminem.
