In a welcome surprise to fans, Eminem late last night released a new studio album, Kamikaze, via Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Records. You can stream the album here on Spotify and Apple Music, and download it from iTunes and Google Play Music. Kamikaze is also available on CD, cassette and 12″ red camouflage vinyl on Eminem’s site.

Kamikaze – out now

The album’s artwork is also a neat reference to The Beastie Boys’ 1986 album Licensed To Ill. See the tracklist below:

1.The Ringer
2.Greatest
3. Lucky You (feat. Joyner Lucas)
4. Paul – Skit
5. Normal
6. Em Calls Paul – Skit
7. Stepping Stone
8. Not Alike (feat. Royce Da 5’9′)
9. Fall
10. Kamikaze
11. Nice Guy (feat. Jessie Reyez)
12. Good Guy (feat. Jessie Reyez)
13. Venom – Music from the Motion Picture

While executive production was handled by Eminem and Dr. Dre, a load of other artists were involved, too: fellow Detroit rapper Royce Da 5’9″ features on ‘Not Alike’, rapper-poet Joyner Lucas guests on ‘Lucky You’, and Canadian singer Jessie Rayez appears on ‘Nice Guy’ and ‘Good Guy’, with Mike WiLL Made-It, Boi-1da, Ronny J and Tay Keith also listed as producers.

Kamikaze is Eminem’s first release since Revival, which came out late last year to mixed reviews. In the Editors’ Notes on the Apple Music release, more detail is uncovered about the thoughts behind the new record. Having ‘heard the doubts about his relevance’, in Kamikaze he ‘issues [his] brutal rebuttal': ‘Kamikaze feels like 2002 again—Eminem blowing off steam and blowing up the high road, rapping angry, yet in total control’.

Amongst Eminem’s lyrical victims are ‘Auto-Tune rappers’ in ‘Not Alike’, South-African hip-hop group Die Antwoord in ‘Greatest’, and Donald Trump, for whom he reserves a special contempt in ‘The Ringer’. Balanced against his attacks, though, are lyrics of concern and possible regret, as Eminem traces his diminishing fanbase to his explicit anti-Trump activism. In a strange turn on ‘The Ringer’, Slim even claims that he was approached by secret service agents for possible terrorist links:

‘Cause Agent Orange just sent the Secret Service
To meet in person to see if I really think of hurtin’ him
Or ask if I’m linked to terrorists
I said, “Only when it comes to ink and lyricists.”

But Justin Vernon, Eminem’s collaborator on ‘Fall’, thinks the song went too far. Featuring some of Kamikaze‘s harshest and most offensive lyrics, in ‘Fall’ the rapper takes shots against young rappers like Tyler, The Creator.  In a series of posts yesterday on his Twitter page, the Bon Iver frontman expressed regret at the appearance:

Eminem is one of the best rappers of all time , there is no doubt. I have and will respect that. Tho, this is not the time to criticize Youth, it’s the time to listen. To act. It is certainly not the time for slurs. Wish they would have listened when we asked them to change it

— blobtower (@blobtower) August 31, 2018