October 2018 - Music
Album of the Month - Kamikaze by Eminem
Eminem surprise-released his new album Kamikaze last week, seemingly intent on catching the world off-guard. He spends a significant chunk of his tenth album lashing out at people who didn’t like his ninth one, last year’s Revival, which sloppily augmented his multisyllabic verses with hooks and production that aimed for stadium-rock glory. When he’s not going after the critics, he sets his sights on younger, more currently stylish rappers. The album opens with “The Ringer”, a five-minute barrage against both parties. Over a gloomy beat, Em weaves in and out of couplets, mocking Lil Pump’s “Gucci Gang” and calling out Lil Xan, Lil Yachty, Machine Gun Kelly, and Iggy Azalea, though as a music critic he lacks incisiveness. He succeeded by sheer virtuosity and force of personality; maybe he’s angry that the aforementioned rappers don’t have to try as hard as he did.
In the social media era, when new leaders are crowned every day and cultural mores can change at a whim, the best-selling artist of the 2000s sounds hapless and adrift. (Does he know that Iggy isn’t even popular anymore?) It’s true that youth-focused cultures like hip-hop often frown upon elders who continue working past their prime. But Eminem’s defensiveness seems to preclude whatever reckoning he could otherwise have with any creative shortcomings that may have led him here.
His skill is still intact, but his music lacks its former inspiration, and he only digs a deeper hole for himself by taking aim at the youth. If he truly wants to be left alone, maybe he should just ride off into the sunset and leave the thin-skinned antagonism to someone else.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/61096231/Dl5n7CrU0AAytbl.0.jpg)
Eminem surprise-released his new album Kamikaze last week, seemingly intent on catching the world off-guard. He spends a significant chunk of his tenth album lashing out at people who didn’t like his ninth one, last year’s Revival, which sloppily augmented his multisyllabic verses with hooks and production that aimed for stadium-rock glory. When he’s not going after the critics, he sets his sights on younger, more currently stylish rappers. The album opens with “The Ringer”, a five-minute barrage against both parties. Over a gloomy beat, Em weaves in and out of couplets, mocking Lil Pump’s “Gucci Gang” and calling out Lil Xan, Lil Yachty, Machine Gun Kelly, and Iggy Azalea, though as a music critic he lacks incisiveness. He succeeded by sheer virtuosity and force of personality; maybe he’s angry that the aforementioned rappers don’t have to try as hard as he did.
In the social media era, when new leaders are crowned every day and cultural mores can change at a whim, the best-selling artist of the 2000s sounds hapless and adrift. (Does he know that Iggy isn’t even popular anymore?) It’s true that youth-focused cultures like hip-hop often frown upon elders who continue working past their prime. But Eminem’s defensiveness seems to preclude whatever reckoning he could otherwise have with any creative shortcomings that may have led him here.
His skill is still intact, but his music lacks its former inspiration, and he only digs a deeper hole for himself by taking aim at the youth. If he truly wants to be left alone, maybe he should just ride off into the sunset and leave the thin-skinned antagonism to someone else.
Comments
Post a Comment