I KNOW I KNOW, I’m late, I was doing some things at the weekend and I just needed some
time to plan this video out. But here we are. Eminem’s surprise Kamikaze album dropped
on Friday, and today I’m gonna be telling you what I think the best songs are from the
project. My twin’s first reaction to the album will be linked below, my social media
accounts will be on the screen right now, and with that being said this is CDTVProductions,
and let’s look at the best songs from Eminem’s Kamikaze.
5 - Stepping Stone
Here we have one of the few emotionally charged tracks on Kamikaze, where Eminem talks about
the disbanding of D12, the rap group which he used to be a a part of. Eminem shows here
that he’s really of two minds about the whole situation, one half of him is sorry
that he essentially used the group to propel himself further into fame, but he also feels
some sort of anger at the fact that he was expected to carry the careers of 5 other rappers.
The song ends with Eminem confirming something that has been clear for a while now, and that
is that D12 is officially over. As for how it sounds, this song also has such a throwback
feeling to it, which is fitting as Eminem’s first words are “it’s 2002”, and this
indeed sounds like a 2002 Eminem Show style track. I’ll take this type of emotional
Eminem track over another dysfunctional relationship song any day of the week.
4 - The Fall
This was easily the most controversial track from the entire Kamikaze album, primarily
due to the shots thrown at Tyler the Creator where Eminem dropped that specific F word
that he quite likes to use. I didn’t really like the diss, I honestly thought it was unnecessary
and the same can be said for the Earl the Hooded Sweater shot, but I can’t deny that
the track sounds really damn good. Justin Vernon’s vocals are absolutely beautiful,
and Eminem comes out with great wordplay and steadier flows to really get his message across.
As with many tracks on Kamikaze, he targets multiple people on here, such as Charlemagne,
DJ Akademiks, and some cutting shots at Joe Budden. Eminem basically establishes on this
track that he’s been one of the biggest influencers in hip hop, and he wants people
to respect that.
3 - Not Alike (feat. Royce Da 5’9”)
Now in my twin’s reaction to this song, he did say that he was kinda tired of Eminem
and similar rappers dissing mumble rap because ironically it’s so repetitive at this point.
I agreed, but after some more listens to this track, which basically is a big mumble rap
diss with even the chorus imitating Migos’ Bad & Boujee, we accepted it a bit more because
this track goes so damn hard. First of all, I think Royce Da 5’9” slaughtered this
track, he delivered his lines with so much confidence, and even occasionally used these
slightly offbeat flows that still sounded fantastic to me. And I don’t know why, but
I always crack up when Royce refers to G-Eazy as “white and cool”. Then Eminem comes
in with a ridiculous verse, switching his flows too many times to count, and there’s
even a beat switch in the middle of his verse from the Tay Keith Look Alive-like beat to
a Ronny J instrumental with brutal 808s. It’s a verse that remains exciting from start to
finish, and of course Eminem takes more shots here, most notably at Machine Gun Kelly. It’s
a mind blowing display of talent and lyricism, and honestly I think Eminem sounds great over
production like this.
2 - The Ringer
Eminem made sure he opened up the album strong with this one. You don’t see many artists
go for a 5 minute long Intro track, but for the most part, Em manages to keep it captivating
throughout. One of my favourite things about this track is how Eminem sounds a lot more
focussed than he has on a lot of his recent music. His voice has that sharp feeling to
it again, the majority of the flows are perfectly executed, and it’s packed full of content,
even if I disagree with what he had to say about the criticisms of Revival and some of
his mumble rap disses. For example, I don’t think people disliked Revival just because
they didn’t get it. Even though I’m not a huge fan of those parts, the track is still
impressive enough that I can’t help but repeatedly listen to it. Eminem sounded like
himself again on here, and this track is exemplary of the fact that criticism makes Eminem put
out some of his hardest tracks.
1 - Lucky You (feat. Joyner Lucas)
Eminem. Joyner Lucas. Does much more really need to be said? It’s a combination made
in my wettest of dreams, and the song couldn’t have lived up to my expectations more. There
really is a nice bit of chemistry between Joyner and Eminem too, with them basically
handling opposite angles of the same story whilst displaying their insane technical rapping
talent. Joyner talks about starting to gain recognition in hip hop, but still feeling
like he’s one of the most underrated artists in the game, mentioning how he’s probably
always gonna be under-appreciated when it comes to music awards. Eminem on the other
hand flips the start of Joyner’s verse around to talk about his success and the fact that
he has a lot to lose now. Seeing Eminem and Joyner work off of each other like this is
just incredible, and it honestly makes for the most perfect song on the album. The flows
are deadly, the beat bumps and both men bring the aggression that you’d expect. Really,
I couldn’t have gotten more out of this Eminem and Joyner collab, it is easily my
favourite track from Kamikaze.
(Outro)