On Aug. 31, 2018, Eminem dropped the bomb of a new surprise album titled “Kamikaze.” The 45-year-old rapper feeds into the culture of modern-day hip-hop and rap that he repetitively tears apart within his 13-track album. Eminem features collaborations with Joyner Lucas, Jessie Reyez, Royce da 5’9 and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.

Dedicating nearly the entire album to calling out other artists, Eminem begins the album on a low note with a lazily edited plane crash. “The Ringer” is another example of Marshall Mathers’ odes to true hip-hop. Rightfully so, Eminem begins down his long list of artists who have ever crossed him, poking at the likes of Lil Xan and Lil Pump.

Although it typically appears to be just the lyricist’s startling words and dependency on shock value found in many earlier pieces (“Love The Way You Lie,” featuring Rihanna), Eminem reuses these tactics to show he has yet to change when proclaiming in the beginning of the track: “Cause I feel like I wanna punch the world in the f*****’ face right now, yeah!” and “I’m ‘bout/to rape the alphabet, I may raise some brows.”

Two call-and-response tracks that bookend “Normal,” titled “Paul – Skit” and “Em Calls Paul – Skit,” basically highlight the rapper’s inability to change for the better, yet he acknowledges that he is truly a part of the problem and will continue to blame others. His words do not necessarily come as a surprise in the track “Normal,” and neither does his violent and angry speech in the track “Em Calls Paul – Skit” after the artist’s manager Paul Rosenburg leaves an initial voicemail in “Paul – Skit” stating, “What’s next? Kamikaze 2, the album where you reply to everybody who did not like the album that you made replying to everybody that did not like the previous album? It’s a slippery slope. I-I don’t know if it’s a really good idea. Umm, anyway, hit me back.” 

Eminem uses the spoken section to come off his roots in his albums. Eminem exposes the mockery of what diss tracks have become in modern hip-hop and rap. He states a public rap battle to spark interest from the public and other artists and make them realize that being a part of this industry should only be driving them to make something of worth. So many have strived to be in the position that current artists are in now, and that it is foolish to waste it away by popping pills or partying every day.

Eminem’s album “Kamikaze,” while at face value seems like quite the disappointment, is just the opposite. With songs like “Stepping Stone” and “Good Guy (Featuring Jessie Reyez),” the artist is immersed in an old-school mode that shows all that had been missing in his 2017 flop of “Revival.” The addressing of such a musical failure is appropriate in his most recent album title, as Eminem typically chapters out his life in song. This most recent 2018 release is truly the revival.

3 out of 5 stars

Image from EminemMusic via YouTube.com