Kamikaze (Eminem album)

On January 8, 2018, Eminem unexpectedly released a remix to his Revival song "Chloraseptic", featuring 2 Chainz and Phresher. In the song, Eminem mocked critics of Revival, concluding "I just added to the fuel in my rocket pack, till I'm ready to respond then I'ma launch it at 'em... I'll be back..." On January 22, 2018, photos revealed Mike Will Made-It in the studio with Eminem and Dr. Dre. During the Revival sessions, S1 tried to work with Eminem but he refused; the producer kept sending him beats to use on future tracks that the rapper incorporated into Kamikaze songs. The afternoon before Kamikazes release, Eminem posted a 15-second teaser of a new song on social media, featuring the logo for the superhero film Venom, without comment. On August 31, 2018, he released the album to digital music stores and streaming services without any promotion or pre-announcement, unlike the extensive marketing done for Revival; he would repeat the strategy with 2020's Music to Be Murdered By. Billboard credits the success of the surprise release to Beyoncé's self-titled fifth studio album released in December 2013 without any promotion or pre-announcement, which was a critical and commercial success, ultimately changing the global release day for music from Tuesday to Friday. The album was sold on his website in several formats, including bundled with merchandise such as apparel. Eminem used social media services such as Instagram and Twitter to announce the release and has relied on the extensive feedback from diss tracks and Internet hype to spread the word of the album. Several weeks after the album's release and subsequent commercial success, Eminem took out a full-page ad in The Hollywood Reporter mocking negative reviews of Kamikaze, including The Hollywood Reporters review itself. Although he had no marketing prior to the debut, Eminem had previously debuted freestyle rap "The Storm" at the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards using similar lyrics to the eventual title track and he directly referred to his experience performing it on "The Ringer". He debuted a clothing line featuring "The Kamikaze" t-shirt the month prior. Producer Illa da Producer sees the album as similar to The Slim Shady LP in terms of its ferocity, rather than the subdued Revival. American singer Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, whose vocals were uncredited on the song "Fall", disavowed his participation in the album, claiming that he was not in the studio when the recording was made. A music video for "Fall" was released on September 4, 2018, addressing criticism of Revival. The music video was directed by James Larese, who previously directed the music videos of "Framed" and "Caterpillar". A second video was released for "Lucky You" on September 13, 2018, followed by one for "Venom" on October 5, 2018, as well as one for "Good Guy" on December 7, 2018. ==Artwork==

s and a patrol cap; the military imagery is reproduced on the artwork for Kamikaze The full album cover, front to back, features fighter pilot LT. Mathers III intentionally crashing an F-86 Sabre fighter jet into an unknown object. The artwork appropriates the cover design of the 1986 Beastie Boys album, Licensed to Ill; Eminem has cited them as an inspiration for several years but did not give the band any prior consultation for the cover homage. However, despite this, the Beastie Boys themselves seemed to react positively to this, with Mike D saying "We feel flattered." Promotion for the album featured the same artwork in full, including the Eminem logo with added Japanese writing, neither of which was included on the album cover design made by Mike Saputo. Promotion for the second single "Venom" featured the logo from the film of the same name. The "E" in "VENOM" was replaced with the "Ǝ" character Eminem frequently uses on his artwork. ==Critical reception==

In the United States, Kamikaze opened at number one on the Billboard 200 with 434,000 album-equivalent units, consisting of 252,000 traditional album sales as well as 225 million streams, giving Eminem his largest amount of streams within a week. This put him in the top ten for highest first week sales of 2018. It became his ninth consecutive number-one album in the country, tying him with Garth Brooks and The Rolling Stones for fifth-most entries to top the chart, and had the year's fifth-highest first-week sales in the USA. He also topped the Artist 100 chart due to album sales and song streams. The album dropped one place to number two in its second week behind Paul McCartney's Egypt Station, earning an additional 136,000 album-equivalent units. All eleven songs entered the Billboard Hot 100, with "Lucky You" and "The Ringer" reaching numbers six and eight on the chart. He is the fifth artist to debut two songs in its top 10 simultaneously. By October 17, it was the best-selling hip-hop album of the year and a few days later, it was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America with 1 million album-equivalent units in the United States; 415,000 of them being pure sales. The album also entered atop the UK Albums Chart on September 7, with first week sales of 55,000 album equivalent units, including 30,000 album-equivalent streams, making Kamikaze the United Kingdom's fifth-most streamed album in an opening week. As a result, Eminem surpassed Led Zeppelin and ABBA for the most consecutive albums to reach the nation's summit, with nine. It was also the top album in Scotland. The following week, the album retained the top spot, with 51% of its consumption coming from streams and garnered 29,000 units for the third week to stay at number one. It managed to stay atop the charts for four weeks. It was the 10th best-selling album of 2018 in the United Kingdom. It additionally debuted at the top of the ARIA Albums Chart, giving Eminem his ninth number-one album in Australia (where it stayed for four weeks) and the Canadian Albums Chart, becoming Eminem's 10th number-one album in Canada after debuting with 44,000 album-equivalent units. Other international charts that it topped include Austria, Belgium (Flanders only; it reached third in Wallonia), the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland; it retained top spot in Ireland the following two weeks. Kamikaze debuted at sixth in France, fourth in Germany, tenth in Greece, eighth in Hungary, third in Poland, and fifteenth in Spain; after one week, it rose to second in Germany, and twelfth in Spain. On streaming music service Spotify, five tracks from Kamikaze were in the top 10 of the week of September 4, including the top two spots. At the iTunes Store, three songs were in the top ten and Kamikaze topped the album charts in the first week of release. The album had the fifth-strongest opening week for streaming in the United Kingdom with 30,000 equivalent units. "Lucky You" represents the first time that Eminem has topped the Streaming Songs Chart from Billboard. In 2018, Kamikaze was ranked as the 17th most popular album of the year on the Billboard 200 and by the end of the year Kamikaze had sold over 1,014,000 album-equivalent units in the US, with over 457,000 being pure sales. , Kamikaze has sold over 500,000 copies in pure sales, making it the only solo album of 2018 to do so. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, Kamikaze was the ninth best-selling album globally of 2018, with 1 million physical and digital copies sold. ==Controversy==

resulted in the response song "Rap Devil". Throughout the album, lyrics criticize other musicians and several have responded publicly. Eminem and rapper Machine Gun Kelly have had an ongoing feud for several years, and Kelly released a diss track in response to "Not Alike" titled "Rap Devil" on September 3; both songs were produced by Ronny J. Kelly continued the feud at a concert, calling it "a battle between the past and the fucking future". The song's title refers to Eminem's "Rap God" and Eminem went into the studio days later to record his own response, as did former D12 associate Bizarre. Eminem responded with "Killshot" on September 14 and Bizarre's "Love Tap" was released on September 20. "Killshot" garnered 38.1 million streams on YouTube in its first 24 hours and over 80 million views in its first week, making it the most successful debut for a hip-hop song (at the time) and the third-biggest debut in the platform's history. The track also debuted at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Eminem's 20th top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Kelly has continued the feud publicly. Ja Rule responded on social media, re-igniting a feud the two had 15 years prior. 6ix9ine, Iggy Azalea, Joe Budden, Die Antwoord, Lupe Fiasco, and Lord Jamar also made public statements, with the first releasing the skit "Legend" that raps over Eminem's "Lose Yourself". Artists including 50 Cent and Remy Ma have come out in support of Eminem. Critics have objected to Eminem's use of the slur "faggot" to describe rapper Tyler, the Creator on the song "Fall", such as Mikelle Street of Billboard, who wrote, "Eminem needs to be held accountable for using homophobic slurs (again)," further adding, "the idea that listeners are too 'soft' for critiquing the ways in which rappers weaponize the identities of others against them ignores how hip-hop is a reflection and arbiter of culture." Matt Miller of Esquire relates his use of the term to previous homophobic lyrics and calls it the "biggest problem" of the album. The BBC's Jimmy Blake summed up the first week of objections to Eminem's language and questioned if it is time for him to retire. Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons called the rapper's language "hateful" and Troye Sivan also spoke out against the slur. Additionally, guest vocalist Justin Vernon distanced himself from the collaboration due to the message. Eminem later apologized in his "Kamikaze interview" with Sway Calloway posted to his website: "In my quest to hurt him, I realize I was hurting a lot of other people". In response to allegations that "Not Alike" sounds similar to Bhad Bhabie's "Hi Bich", Bhabie has responded that she takes the comparison as a compliment. She revised the lyrics of 15 to pay respect to Eminem. ==Track listing==

Notes • signifies an additional producer. Sample credits • "The Ringer" contains an interpolation from "Ooouuu", written by Matthew Jacobson and Young M.A, as performed by the latter. • "Greatest" contains an interpolation from "Humble" as performed by Kendrick Lamar and "wokeuplikethis*" as performed by Playboi Carti. ft. Lil Uzi Vert. • "Normal" contains a sample from "Seconds", written and performed by Little Dragon. • "Kamikaze" contains a sample from "I'm Bad", written by Bobby Ervin, Dwayne Simon, and LL Cool J, as performed by the latter. • "Good Guy" contains a sample from a cover of "Glassy Sky" from the anime series Tokyo Ghoul, sung by Donna Burke. ==Personnel==

• Eminem – lead vocals, production, mixing Musicians • Scram Jones – scratching on "Kamikaze" • Joyner Lucas – vocals on "Lucky You" • Luis Resto – keyboards on "The Ringer", "Not Alike", and "Kamikaze"; production on "Stepping Stone" and "Venom" • Mario Resto – vocals on "Stepping Stone" • Jessie Reyez – vocals on "Nice Guy" and "Good Guy" • Paul Rosenberg – discussion on "Paul" • Royce da 5'9" – vocals on "Not Alike" • Justin Vernon – vocals on "Fall" Technical personnel • Swish Allnet – production on "Normal" • Fred Ball – production on "Nice Guy" • Boi-1da – production on "Lucky You" • Tony Campagna – recording on all songs • Dr. Dre – executive production • Brian "Big Bass" Gardner – mastering • Illa da Producer – production on "The Ringer", "Lucky You", "Normal", and "Good Guy" • Brian Jones – recording on “Not Alike” • Tay Keith – production on "Not Alike" • LoneStarrMuzik – production on "Normal" • Mike Will Made It – production on "Greatest" and "Fall" • Jeremy Miller – production on "Greatest" • Ronny J – production on "The Ringer" and "Not Alike" • S1 – production on "Normal" and "Nice Guy" • Mike Saputo – art design, art direction, and illustration • Joe Strange – recording on all songs • Mike Strange – recording on all songs, mixing • Tim Suby – production on "Kamikaze" • Jahaan Sweet – production on "Lucky You" ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Decade-end charts ==Certifications and sales==