On August 31, 2018, Eminem unexpectedly dropped an album titled “Kamikaze,” his 10th studio album. The successful Eminem became a major hit in 2000, when he released “The Marshall Mathers LP,” followed by “The Eminem Show” in 2002, and “Encore” in 2004. Once he became a big hit, Eminem continued to release albums up through 2018. His previous 2017 album, “Revival,” received a ton of backlash from fans and critics who did not enjoy it. Other rappers called him out, saying that he had lost his rapping talent. Fortunately, Eminem responded to his doubters with “Kamikaze.”

Once the album dropped, the song “The Ringer” got a lot of attention. In the song, Eminem addresses everybody who called him out for “Revival.” He criticizes what rap has become in today’s age, stating that the new style – “Mumble rap” – is no good. “The Ringer” is a great song; it shows that Eminem doesn’t back down from other rappers and critics. As he raps in the first verse, “I’m sorry, wait, what’s your talent? Oh, critiquing.’” He also calls them out for using him, saying, “You mention me, millions of views, attention in news, I mention you, lose-lose for me, win-win for you, Billions of views, your ten cents are two Skim through the music to give awful reviews, To get clicks, but hater, you just lit the fuse.” Clearly, Eminem is saying that when critics and other artists use his name in their songs or their articles, they get more people listening and they become more popular. Furthermore, Eminem talks about who he respects in today’s genre of rap, and who his favorites are: “And dump on you, if you ain’t Joyner if you ain’t Kendrick or Cole or Sean then you’re a goner.” In this line, he refers to Joyner Lucas, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Big Sean. He has collaborated with everybody in that list except for J. Cole, and has publicly respected all of those rappers.

Another song that stands out is “Lucky You” featuring Joyner Lucas. In this song, Eminem again calls out other rappers in today’s game, stating that ghost writing is getting out of hand: ”You got a couple of ghost writers/But to these kids it don’t actually matter.” Ghost writers are people who write part of the song for rappers, and they aren’t really given any credit at all. These writers do get paid, but they are not given the recognition of someone who sings it. In this song, Eminem actually admits that his last album was not the greatest, and he realized it was a failure. Although I believe it was not a terrible album, he states, “‘Cause I took an L when I dropped my last album/ It hurt me like hell but I’m back on these rappers.” Eminem may not have released his best album in 2017, but he should be respected for coming back and not giving up.

“Kamikaze” proves he is back to his old self.