Rap legend Eminem released his new album, Kamikaze, on August 31, 2018. Since then, it has topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden,

Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. However, it has not achieved this without controversy.

 

Throughout this album, Eminem lyrically criticizes musicians such as fellow rapper Machine Gun Kelly. In

response to the track “Not Alike”, Kelly released the song “Rap Devil”, a play on the title of “Rap God” by Eminem.

 

Kamikaze has also sparked controversy through the use of homophobic slurs. Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons has called the rapper’s language “hateful”. Matt Miller of Esquire relates his use of the term to previous homophobic lyrics and calls it the “biggest problem” of the album.

 

Despite the controversies associated with the album, it has still received mixed to positive reviews. Metacritic scores were generally favorable for the album, receiving an average score of 62 out of 100, based on 16 reviews. Rolling Stone, however, rated the album a 2.5 out of 5 stars, with critic Stephen Kearse writing, “Eminem has no insights or ideas about the state of rap, nor does he have meaningful thoughts about his place within the genre. He probably doesn’t even have a Spotify account. He raps only for the sheer thrill of hearing himself rap.” XXL critic Scott Glaysher calls the album a revisit of the Slim Shady persona.