Off The Record goes Kamikaze with Eminem [Album Review]
16th Edition
September 11th 2018
Eminem
"Kamikaze"
True to the name of the album, Eminem has targeted just about every mumble rapper on this album specifically targeting all the people who talked shit about his previous album ‘Revival’. In true kamikaze fashion he was prepared to have a dive bombing, and thus, retaliation from said rappers. He knew it was going to happen, and this isn’t the first time in his career that he’s been pushing the buttons of artists which are popular at the time. Remember in the early 2000’s when he was dissing Limp Bizkit, Mariah Carrey, Spice Girls, and wrestlers-turned-Horror rappers who started the Juggalo movement, Insane Clown Posse.
What can I say about Eminem? His birth name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III (or just Marshall Mathers), but he has an alter-ego persona known as Slim Shady. His alter ego is his crazier, more cartoonish rapping character which was displayed in songs such as ‘The Real Slim Shady’ and ‘My Name Is’. He was born in St. Joseph, Missouri on October 17, 1972 and he would shuttle between Missouri and Michigan often as a child. He grew up in the working class neighborhoods of Detroit, Michigan where he would start battle-rapping. The rest of the story, you already know, he was eventually discovered by Dr. Dre, and the rest of the story was lightly portrayed in the movie he starred in, 8 Mile, so I won’t need to go much into his history.
In fact, on the back of this album, it is stated that this album was exclusively produced by both Dr. Dre and Slim Shady. ‘Kamikaze’ was dropped as a surprise album. In fact, I had no idea that this album was dropping until I had already written the previous review of Bun B’s ‘Return of the Trill. I noticed a repost on Facebook from Eminem’s own page showing a picture of the back of the album with the track list, which heavily resembled Beastie Boy’s album ‘License to Ill’. I was hyped! Especially seeing the production credits coming from Dr. Dre and Slim Shady and that there would be a ‘Paul Skit’ (Paul Rosenburg is Eminem’s long time manager) which was on Eminem’s older albums such as ‘Marshall Mathers LP’.
‘Kamikaze’ was released on August 31, 2018 and holds thirteen tracks with a run a run time of about forty-five minutes. This album has Eminem collaborating with a few yet valuable artists, Royce Da 5’9”, Joyner Lucas and Jessie Reyes. To be honest, I hadn’t known about his previous album, ‘Revival’ which received a lot of negative reviews, thus getting the disses he got which influenced him to write this album. ‘Kamikaze’ is sprinkled with sarcastically implanted trap beats and mumble rap flows, just to make fun of all the rappers he’s targeting. So far he’s received disses back from Machine Gun Kelly, Die Antwoord, and Tekashi 6ix9ine that I know of, he might have received more by now. Anyway, This is an enjoyable album all the way through. I haven’t heard anything that I didn’t like in the few times that I’ve heard it since last week.
Eminem - Fall (Music Video)
In my opinion, this is just a publicity stunt to get attention for himself (and also for the people he’s talking shit about?) but he has decent arguments, regardless. I forgot to mention that the final track on this album is the theme song for the upcoming ‘Venom’ movie. What do you think? Did he make this album as a publicity stunt? Or is he really this pissed off and sensitive at his age and the legacy he’s proven for himself? Let us know in the comments below!
Stay tuned for the next edition and be sure to follow me at @stickykeys! Also if there are any albums you would like me to review, drop a comment below.
