Eminem – “KAMIKAZƎ” review

It’s been merely 8 months since the critically panned RƎVIVAL was released but earlier this weekend out of nowhere, Detroit hip hop icon Eminem is returning with his 10th full-length album.

The album begins “The Ringer”, where he says “fuck you” to everyone who trashed his last album over a gloomy beat. He also takes shots at Lil Yachty, Lil Pump, Lil Xan & Vince Staples. I found the disses at all 3 Lil’s to be pretty funny, but I can’t say the same for the one about Vince. The next song “Greatest” serves as a sequel to “Rap God” with a Mike WiLL-Made It instrumental while the track “Lucky You” with Joyner Lucas sees the 2 talking about being underlooked & overlooked despite their success over a trap beat with some chimes. After the Paul skit, we go into the song “Normal”. Em on here talks about an ex over a instrumental that starts off grimy, but switches into a trap beat with plinky keys. However, the hook & the delivery when the beat switches is trash. After the “Em Calls Paul” skit, we go into the song “Stepping Stone”. Here, Em pretty much confirms that D12 is done over a punchy instrumental. The song “Not Alike” by Bad Meets Ǝvil literally starts off as a parody of “Look Alive” by BlocBoy JB & Drake down to the Tay Keith instrumental, but it does a complete 180 as an original instrumental with a futuristic bass-heavy vibe comes in halfway through the track. I also liked the MGK diss at the halfway point of Em’s verse.

The title track sees Em pretty much calling RƎVIVAL the “FACK” of his albums over a Mike WiLL-Made It instrumental kin to ƎNCORE & while I don’t care for the instrumental or the hook on “Fall”, Eminem responds to his critics very well. I also found the one line at the beginning of the 2nd verse dissing Everyday Struggle creators DJ Akademiks & Joe Budden (the latter of whom was once signed to Shady Records as 1/4 of the now defunct supergroup Slaughterhouse) to be pretty unapologetically lethal. However, the jab at Charlemagne Tha God was just ok & the ones towards both Tyler, The Creator & Earl Sweatshirt were my least favorites on the entire album. It’s not even because he called Tyler a “faggot”, because Eminem has literally calling people that throughout his entire career. It’s because I found it to be unnecessary. However, I did find it interesting that he ends the final verse by taking a jab at Lord Jamar as well as owning up to influencing Hopsin & Logic, both of whom’s latest material has been pretty awful in my personal opinion. The next 2 songs “Nice Guy” & “Good Guy” with Jessie Reyez on both tracks Segway into each other very well sonically & lyrically, as they each talk about a failing relationship. The instrumental on “Nice Guy” has some pretty piano chords during the awkward Melanie Martinez sounding hook, but during the verses it switches into a gritty baseline. As for the beat on “Good Guy”, it has a WAY more classier tone to it. Both of them are just ok, but I just wish they were fused into 1 single track. The album ends oddly with “Venom”, which is commissioned for the upcoming Marvel movie with the same name. It’s a good theme song for it, but the hook is hilariously awful.

To be quite honest, I enjoyed this album quite a bit. A couple of the beats & hooks are weak but for the most part, Eminem manages to come out of the dark with a vengeance. The production is much better than RƎVIVAL’s down to the mixing & Em lights a fire under his ass, both lyrically & delivery-wise.

Score: 3.5/5

Various Artists – “Black Panther: The Album” review

With the Black Panther coming out a week from today, Top Dawg Entertainment is giving us the soundtrack alongside Aftermath Entertainment & Interscope Records. The opener “Black Panther” by Kendrick Lamar (who curated the whole soundtrack) talks about being a king over a gloomy piano instrumental. However, there’s one point where it gets abrasive. The song “All the Stars” is a spacey love duet with Kendrick & SZA that’s just ok. The track “X” by ScHoolboy Q, 2 Chainz & Saudi gets celebratory over a decent trap beat while the song “The Ways” by Khalid & Swae Lee is a duet about this attractive woman over a moody trap beat. The track “Opps” by Kendrick, Vince Staples & Yugen Blakrok gets into the mind of criminals over a hip house beat while the song “I Am” by Jorja Smith gets insightful about change & how we aren’t meant to be free over a funk rock beat.

The track “Parademic!” by SOB x RBE is an eerie gangsta rap tune while the song “Bloody Waters” by Ab-Soul vividly talks from the point of view from an organized criminal over a kick-back beat. The track “King’s Dead” starts off with a eerie beat & while Jay Rock’s flow is absolutely deadly, but the Future bridge is so hilariously bad. However, they make up for it during the 2nd half when the beat switches into something more hard hitting & Kendrick comes in with an angry verse filled with references to the film’s antagonist Erik Killmonger.

After the “Redemption Interlude”, we then go into the actual song “Redemption” by Zacari & Babes Wudomo. Here, they get sexual albeit in an underwritten & generic fashion. The following song “Seasons Change” by Mozzy, Sjava & Reason talks about escape the ghetto over a somber yet reggae-infused instrumental. The penultimate track “Big Shot” by Kendrick & Travi$ Scott talks about the celebrity lifestyle & the flute sample that Cardo uses on here is absolutely beautiful. Also, I love how Kendrick reuses the first couple lines from his “New Freezer” verse for the hook. The soundtrack then finishes off with “Pray for Me, where The Weeknd & Kendrick talk about heroes burden over an electropop beat.

While I wouldn’t call this a future classic by any means, this is still a solid soundtrack album. It’s not too overproduced like many soundtrack albums nowadays, it’s well written & most of the performers do their thing

Score: 3.5/5

Eminem – “RƎVIVAL” review

After cleverly promoting it for the past month or so with the fake-drug ads, renown Detroit hip hop superstar Eminem is finally giving fans with his 9th full-length album. The opener “Walk on Water” vents about the struggles he’s had for the best decade or so over a gospel like-piano instrumental from Rick Rubin. The song “Believe” pretty much asks the listeners if they would turn their backs on him over a piano & some awkward snares. The flow is pretty uninteresting as well.

The track “Chloraspetic” gets braggadocious about his rapping prowess over a trap beat from mR. pOrTeR, but the parts where he bites Migos flow is absolutely embarrassing. The song “Untouchable” intelligently talks about racial injustice, but the production on here was just ok & it didn’t need to be 6 minutes long. And on top of that, the “white boy white boy, you’re a rock star” hook is God awful. However, the second half of this is much better than the rap rock-tinged first half. The track “River” talks about a failing relationship over a guitar & after an unnecessary skit preluding the next song “Remind Me”, we get the actual song & it’s sickeningly lovey dovey. Especially with the cheesy “I Love Rock & Roll” sample that’s used throughout a bulk of the track & the corny ass lines like “Your booty is heavy duty like diarrhea” & “you’re smoking like Snoop Dogg”.

After the “Revival” interlude, we then go into the next song “Like Home”. Here, Eminem is dissing Donald Trump over an uplifting instrumental & the Alicia Keys hook is just ok. The track “Bad Husband” is an open apology letter to Em’s ex-wife Kim Mathers over a somber beat & the X Ambasadors hook is mediocre. The track “Tragic Endings” sees Em being pushed around by a manipulative lover over an abrasive beat & while “Framed” goes back to his horrorcore roots with an eerie beat, the hook is annoying.

The song “Nowhere Fast” gets reflective about the younger days over string-induced trap beat & the Kehlani hook doesn’t help at all. The track “Heat” talks about this chick who he thinks is as vile as his RELAPSƎ album from 2009 & the beat is almost the same as “So Far…” off his last album The Marshall Mathers LP 2. The song “Offended” takes a jab at all the naysayers & while the verses & the beat aren’t too bad, the interpolation of “The Knife Game Song” is drab. The track “Need Me” feels more like a P!nk song than an Eminem song given that Em only appears at the end & almost as unbearably sappy as “Revenge” off of P!nk’s latest album Beautiful Drama.

The song “In Your Head” talks about his famous alter ego Slim Shady & The Cranberries sample actually works well. The penultimate track “Castle” sees Em writing 3 different letters to his daughter Hailie in 1995, 1996 & 2007 respectively & it’s absolutely touching. The closer “Arose” talks about his overdose in 2008 & his output since then over an ambitious instrumental, but he literally “rewinds it” to the final verse from the previous song “Castle” during the last minute & a half & it ruins the vibe.

Overall, this is Eminem’s worst album yet. He still has it lyrically, but he needs better features. He needs better production. He needs to stop making some tracks drag on longer than they should’ve. I really had hope that this would be a consistently great album, but I‘m gonna have to accept that poppy Eminem is here to stay forever

Score: 1/5

Kendrick Lamar – “DAMN.” review

With his magnum opus To Pimp a Butterfly celebrating it’s 2 year anniversary last month, Black Hippy member Kendrick Lamar has now delivered his 4th full-length album with the whole world watching. The opening track “BLOOD.” starts off with some harmonious choir vocals, but then we hear some dramatic strings & Kendrick recalling a story of a blind woman shooting him after trying to help her. The second track “DNA.” talks about his heritage & while the Mike WiLL Made-It beat starts off with some heavy bass & a guitar that’s somewhat buried in the mix, it then changes to some hard hitting drums & a vocal sample. Seriously, hearing this will make you get wild.

The track “YAH.” has a mellow instrumental from Sounwave & DJ Dahi seeing Kendrick melodically talking about following his intuition. The blatant jab at FOX News reporter Geraldo Rivera at the beginning of the 2nd & final verse of the song was well deserved, too. The song “ELEMENT.” is basically about how he’ll always stand strong at what he does & the vocal sample on here is haunting as Hell. The track “FEEL.” vents about a number of different emotions over a wavy vocal sample & some keyboards. The song “LOYALTY.” is a duet with Rihanna about just that & the reversed, sped-up Bruno Mars sample that can be heard from start to finish was really cool. The track “PRIDE.” is Kendrick talking about what he would probably be like in a perfect world over a psychedelic instrumental from Internet guitarist Steve Lacy. We get some constant voice pitch changing during the first verse, but then second verse is just monotoned. The album’s lead single “HUMBLE.” sees Kendrick telling everyone to be humble to him over some ominous keys & even though I wasn’t all too crazy about it when it first came out a couple weeks ago like quite a few people were, I will admit that it has grown on me.

The song “LUST.” has a melancholy beat from DJ Dahi, Sounwave & BADBADNOTGOOD and while it starts off by going into the mind of a woman living in the hood, Kendrick then gets introspective about post-fame life as well as how Americans protested & eventually went back to living their regular lives as a result of Donald Trump being elected our current president back in November. I can absolutely appreciate Kendrick dedicating the track “LOVE.” to his fiancé Whitney Alford, but the hook from Zacari sounds exactly like The Weeknd & it just comes off as very annoying.

The song “XXX.” with U2 (albeit minus The Edge) starts off Kendrick aggressively going in while on the phone with a friend coming to him after his son died, but then he somberly talks about never doubting Barack ever again now that we have Donald Trump as our current president. I also really love how the beat during the first verse has some explosive bass as well as police sirens, but then it transitions into some drumming provided by Larry Mullen Jr. as well as some relaxing piano keys. Also, can’t forget about the beautiful Bono hook on here either. I’m not gonna lie, this song really makes me want U2 to drop Songs of Experience later this year.

The track “FEAR.” vividly recalls 3 fearful moments when Kendrick was 3, 17 & 27 over a gloomy beat from The Alchemist enhanced by a soul sample. The penultimate track “GOD.” is basically Kendrick saying he feels like God with all the success he has seen over the years over some spacey Cardo production, but the delivery during the hook & the first verse was just alright. The album closes out with “DUCKWORTH.”, where Kendrick tells a story about Top Dawg Entertainment founder Anthony Tiffith almost killed Kendrick’s father over a soulful instrumental from 9th Wonder & the beat change about halfway through the track is NASTY!

While I’ve been hearing some people saying they were expecting this to better or worse than To Pimp a Butterfly, all I wanted from him was to put out a good album & that’s EXACTLY what I got on here. The Kid Capri intros that you’ll hear on a few tracks give me a nice throwback feeling & while I’m not gonna deny that it’s more commercial than his last 2 albums, but there are only a few moments on the album where it actually bugs me. Despite these few weak moments, Kendrick has shown once again why he’s my favorite MC in this current generation

Score: 4/5