Music: Eminem - Kamikaze

[Incognito]

MGK just took another hard L. He dropped a new album about an hour ago, and honestly, it sounds like a wet fart. This new MGK record makes Revival sound like The Marshall Mathers LP in comparison, and Revival was a terrible album.

 

[RickP]

MGK just took another hard L. He dropped a new album about an hour ago, and honestly, it sounds like a wet fart. This new MGK record makes Revival sound like The Marshall Mathers LP in comparison, and Revival was a terrible album.

Yeah but with the way they count "album sales" nowadays, his album might get to number 1, with all the Eminem fans checking out his album to see how bad it is haha... I think they count 1500 streams as 1 album sale. I guess if a million curious people check out his album, let's say 5 tracks each, that's 5 million streams. That'll count as about 3'000 sales. Not a huge deal I guess... but still. It'll give him a boost.

As for the album, I checked out a review/reaction video to get an idea:



It doesn't sound like my type of music at all... Eminem was right after all, he does sound like a mumble rapper, using autotune haha. It seems like he has 2 or 3 tracks that at least sound decent overall. He just doesn't really rap much. You have to listen to his music for the beat and overall feel I guess. This is not for me...

 

[King Mapes]

I get what you're saying, but regardless of whether Eminem took the bait or not, MGK gets what he wanted.
Eminem doesn't respond - Eminem's scared to go after someone who keeps taking shots at him and has even crossed the line with his girls. Check out [video link] for more details. Etc....
Eminem does respond - What is MGK going to do now? Stay tuned to the next installment of Eminem vs MGK 2018!!!!

The line where you say he's lived his entire career off controversy isn't quite true either.
My first CD was Marshall Mathers LP. I quickly bought the Slim Shady LP and EP.....might have downloaded that EP.
I then downloaded Infinite - an album I don't know if many people know of. There's not a whole lot of controversy there. It's just some guy with so much on his mind putting it all out there in words with a beat and some convoluted rhyming patterns.

8 Mile - the soundtrack not the movie, was yet another one where this guy just oozes talent on the mic with his storytelling.


It's true that Slim Shady is the fun one to listen to when he's angry and has a message for someone. It's also the bats.... crazy guy from Amityville, Kim, 97 Bonnie and Clyde, Kill You, Till I Collapse, etc....

Slim Shady is the alter ego who wants to throw bombs at everyone. He'll say anything at any time and couldn't care less about the repercussions. It's an alter ego, he doesn't exist in the real world.

Eminem is the silly jackass that comes out with stupid songs like Drips, Just Lose it, My Band, Purple Pills, and others that are equally fluff.

Marshall Mathers is that storyteller who has a lot to write about and wants to let the world into his past, present and hopes for the future. This is also the guy that has a political conscience. Infinite, Stan, Marshall Mathers, Drug Ballad, Mosh, Like Toy Soldiers, Mockingbird, etc...

I remember the interview with Anderson Cooper. A relatively shy guy who has an impressive grasp on the language and ways to manipulate words and sounds to create a picture far outside the scope of the written words on the page. He's admitted that had he not been a rapper, he'd have ultimately become an author.

Don't sell the guy's pure talent short. Yes it is true that he's never shied from controversy and has very often chased it. He's also much much more than an attention ..... you know, as opposed to the majority of those same people who stir stuff up constantly to distract from their complete lack of talent.

Agree with the first part. Again it's a win/win, lose/lose. He's getting called out but doesn't want to respond and make him bigger but doesn't want to seem like a coward either, though this album seemed like he wanted to go after a few people.

Look I'm not trying to downplay the pure talent. I suppose I meant the controversy made him bigger. But the guy is a lyrical genius. The rap Olympics proved that and I've watched that many times. He's very good at making words sound like rhymes when taken at face value, do not.

As for infinite, keep in mind that only sold 2000 copies. That was a massive flop and he even said that in "Castle". The reason he came up with Slim Shady was because people called him soft with that album. His logic was he wanted softer rap to try to get on local radio stations to get his name out there and failed.

 

[Mach85]

Agree with the first part. Again it's a win/win, lose/lose. He's getting called out but doesn't want to respond and make him bigger but doesn't want to seem like a coward either, though this album seemed like he wanted to go after a few people.

Look I'm not trying to downplay the pure talent. I suppose I meant the controversy made him bigger. But the guy is a lyrical genius. The rap Olympics proved that and I've watched that many times. He's very good at making words sound like rhymes when taken at face value, do not.

As for infinite, keep in mind that only sold 2000 copies. That was a massive flop and he even said that in "Castle". The reason he came up with Slim Shady was because people called him soft with that album. His logic was he wanted softer rap to try to get on local radio stations to get his name out there and failed.

The thing about Infinite was that it didn't flop because it was bad or soft, it flopped because people said he sounded too much like AZ and Nas. Of course, being a new rapper with no deal selling tapes out of his car, it might've flopped no matter how good it was. It's not like these days when everyone instantly has a worldwide audience. But back in that time, the worst thing that could happen to an up-and-coming MC was to sound too much like someone else and get labelled a biter (unlike nowadays, where so many new artists sound the same, and if one rapper hits it big with a style you get 10 more trying to do the same thing - that's a point Em has been making recently). And that's what happened to Em with Infinite; he got labelled a biter and had to change his style to get noticed. The style he came up with was the Slim Shady alter ego, partly because of his battle rap roots, but also partly because of his anger at being overlooked for his talent.

And he's been vindicated on that front when people went back to Infinite after he hit it big and saw that he brought it on that project. He does sound a lot like AZ and Nas, and I think he benefited from finding his own sound, but I think what ultimately became his sound was a mixture of the two; or the ability to be versatile and rap in a completely technical way with the focus solely on lyrics, or to rap in a way that's hard and in your face but also technically proficient. It's interesting to consider just what Eminem would have become if the response to Infinite would have been different. Would he have fast-forwarded to the super-lyrical Eminem we know today, or would he have still explored his more controversial alter ego?

 

[YNWA14]

Yep...Infinite is an underrated and forgotten album for a lot of people. I have it pretty low on my Eminem list, but it's still a good one. You can see he's oozing with talent in it, but that he hasn't really found himself yet (or what we know as him now).

MGK is looking for his 5 minutes of fame. The tweets that he put out that people are digging up are pretty telling (and even more telling that he's going back now and deleting them). He really is ripping all his posters off the wall. The guy sounded like he was absolutely in love with Em. I hope that Eminem lets this one lie now; give MGK enough rope to hang himself with, and also lyrically destroyed him.

Bizarre out taking shots at Budden and Jay Electronica now (Love Tap).

 

[King Mapes]

The thing about Infinite was that it didn't flop because it was bad or soft, it flopped because people said he sounded too much like AZ and Nas. Of course, being a new rapper with no deal selling tapes out of his car, it might've flopped no matter how good it was. It's not like these days when everyone instantly has a worldwide audience. But back in that time, the worst thing that could happen to an up-and-coming MC was to sound too much like someone else and get labelled a biter (unlike nowadays, where so many new artists sound the same, and if one rapper hits it big with a style you get 10 more trying to do the same thing - that's a point Em has been making recently). And that's what happened to Em with Infinite; he got labelled a biter and had to change his style to get noticed. The style he came up with was the Slim Shady alter ego, partly because of his battle rap roots, but also partly because of his anger at being overlooked for his talent.

And he's been vindicated on that front when people went back to Infinite after he hit it big and saw that he brought it on that project. He does sound a lot like AZ and Nas, and I think he benefited from finding his own sound, but I think what ultimately became his sound was a mixture of the two; or the ability to be versatile and rap in a completely technical way with the focus solely on lyrics, or to rap in a way that's hard and in your face but also technically proficient. It's interesting to consider just what Eminem would have become if the response to Infinite would have been different. Would he have fast-forwarded to the super-lyrical Eminem we know today, or would he have still explored his more controversial alter ego?

It's tough to say. He still might have come up with Slim Shady because, again, another reason it wasn't as aggressive was his attempt to get on local radio stations. Thing was it was his first studio attempt so he's still trying to find his own style. But only selling 2000 copies he knew he definitely had to come up with something.

Also Eminem has said it flopped because of the AZ/Nas and because it was soft so I'd say it's a combination of the two.

 

[BrendanGallagher11]

No rap devil 2

 

[RickP]

No rap devil 2

This video is sad. Everybody's paid by Diddy in that video (he owns Revolt TV and MGK is his artist). I guess Diddy told MGK to stop messing with Eminem, and now he's trying to save face.

I prefer this video, from January 2014, almost 2 years after the infamous tweet from MGK:



I actually feel bad for MGK now. Maybe one day he'll be able to appreciate the fact that he inspired his idol to write an amazing track

 

[tacogeoff]

This video is sad. Everybody's paid by Diddy in that video (he owns Revolt TV and MGK is his artist). I guess Diddy told MGK to stop messing with Eminem, and now he's trying to save face.

Lets be honest. You can say the exact same thing about the sway interview. Both artists are playing this up and its entertaining. Interscope is laughing as they more than likely just played both fan bases if all the rumors about them letting both artists know there where disses coming at each other prior to the releases.

I dont think he needs to save face. Rap devil wasnt that bad at all. Kill shot was a bit better and won the battle but you have to give mgk some props for bringing something back at em after no one did at all. It makes the genre much more exciting.

 

[PK Cronin]

I'll preface this by saying I'm not the biggest rap fan and I'm really selective with who I listen to.

I listened to a little bit of MGK before the recent events. He has a few tracks I enjoy. Eminem hasn't been the same on his solo stuff for a while (Revial was mediocre and when I lost interest), so I haven't really paid much attention to his solo projects in a while. I've enjoyed the other stuff he's been featured on or his Hell the Sequel with Royce.

Anyway, I listened to Kamikaze and my initial reaction was that it was alright, but I didn't enjoy how often he was mocking mumble/contemporary rappers. Not because I like them, but because I find that sound to be annoying. It got better with each subsequent listen. Not every song is good, and truth be told, I'll probably only listen to three or four of them, but they're really good. Overall, I thought it was solid and it demonstrated what makes him great.


When I first heard Rap Devil, I thought it was really catchy (and still do), but subsequent listens just demonstrate the vast ocean between the two. MGK didn't have many great lines and it's kind of flat or surface level.

Killshot was great from the start. He meticulously dissected and tore apart every single line that MGK delivered on Rap Devil, hitting a lot harder while demonstrating more skill. It's not reliant on a catchy hook or beat either. I also got the sense that he took it easy and could absolutely smash MGK if there's ever another track that gets released.

MGK's response, saying it wasn't good, that he won't respond, and the fact that he's performing Rap Devil on tour while opening for Fall Out Boy is all embarrassing to me. Killshot is objectively better from a lyrical standpoint and I don't know how anyone could see it differently. Is performing a diss track standard in the rap world? I can't imagine it is, and it's really sad to me that he is doing that. If it is more popular than I realize, artists should really re-evaluate that. If you don't have enough content without it, you're probably not that good.

I really hope MGK responds, but I'm not sure he ever will. Honestly, I think he realized that he doesn't stand a chance. It's a shame since this has been the most interesting thing to happen in a while when it comes to beefs, at least for me.

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

Lets be honest. You can say the exact same thing about the sway interview. Both artists are playing this up and its entertaining. Interscope is laughing as they more than likely just played both fan bases if all the rumors about them letting both artists know there where disses coming at each other prior to the releases.

I dont think he needs to save face. Rap devil wasnt that bad at all. Kill shot was a bit better and won the battle but you have to give mgk some props for bringing something back at em after no one did at all. It makes the genre much more exciting.

Rap Devil was pretty bad lol

 

[RickP]

Lets be honest. You can say the exact same thing about the sway interview. Both artists are playing this up and its entertaining. Interscope is laughing as they more than likely just played both fan bases if all the rumors about them letting both artists know there where disses coming at each other prior to the releases.

I dont think he needs to save face. Rap devil wasnt that bad at all. Kill shot was a bit better and won the battle but you have to give mgk some props for bringing something back at em after no one did at all. It makes the genre much more exciting.

By "save face", I mean MGK will not respond, so he had to come up with an excuse or something. Saying he had something ready but he decided to not respond because of how weak Killshot was, that's kinda lame to me lol.

And as for the interview, not everybody knows those guys work for Diddy. Eminem's interview was on his personal YT channel, and Sway didn't really give his opinion on the subject. I get what you're saying though. It's just that Charlamagne doesn't have much credibility compared to Sway, IMO.

 

[tacogeoff]

Rap Devil was pretty bad lol

There was some weak bars in it for sure but what made it interesting to me was some of the personal accusations which may or may not be true. Im not an MGK fan at all but do have a guilty pleasure of enjoying Wild Boy from time to time and tried to explore his music since Lace up but its pretty bad. It just comes down to the artist with better lyrical play winning just like pusha vs drake. Em had some great lines in killshot and some that were weak for his standards imo but then again i havnt messed with em since encore so maybe thats the norm now.
Its a win win for the entertainment value though. Crazy to see two diss tracks shoot past 100m views so quickly.

 

[tacogeoff]

By "save face", I mean MGK will not respond, so he had to come up with an excuse or something. Saying he had something ready but he decided to not respond because of how weak Killshot was, that's kinda lame to me lol.

And as for the interview, not everybody knows those guys work for Diddy. Eminem's interview was on his personal YT channel, and Sway didn't really give his opinion on the subject. I get what you're saying though. It's just that Charlamagne doesn't have much credibility compared to Sway, IMO.

Charlamagne sucks balls.

I could also see interscope shutting it down now that mgk album is released (heard its hot tradh autotune). It was a pretty good little staying buzz for both albums. Obviously Em doesnt need the buzz but i found it interesting to see all my friends who dont listen to hip hop that went and tried out the kamakaze album after the mgk diss went viral.

I agree that was lame, dont say you had something to dropand dont do it bc Em called you a mumble rapper. Head games are part of the battle and Em got him mentally with that one. It would of been entertaining to see them keep going though.

 

[hotcarle]

Rap Devil was catchy , and had some good lines. I liked the one about eminem stanning himself . It had a hook, which was an interesting thing to have in a diss track. He obviously can't match the intricate wordplay that eminem formulates in Killshot. But Rap Devil was catchy enough that his disses will stay in your head, and have some staying power.

Binge is bad though. Listened to it because I was curious what he could come up with , with all this attention . It's Rap Devil and 8 whiffs. Nothing I can even remember . I think it's a huge loss for MGK because of Binge. This album hurts more than anything Eminem could do to him.

 

[PK Cronin]

Rap Devil was catchy , and had some good lines. I liked the one about eminem stanning himself . It had a hook, which was an interesting thing to have in a diss track. He obviously can't match the intricate wordplay that eminem formulates in Killshot. But Rap Devil was catchy enough that his disses will stay in your head, and have some staying power.

Binge is bad though. Listened to it because I was curious what he could come up with , with all this attention . It's Rap Devil and 8 whiffs. Nothing I can even remember . I think it's a huge loss for MGK because of Binge. This album hurts more than anything Eminem could do to him.

I also listened to Binge. It wasn't good, at all. With how much hype he was getting, how much chest pounding, and how much he belittled Eminem's track, I was expecting a lot more. He's very bland.

 

[Incognito]

Charlamagne sucks balls.

I could also see interscope shutting it down now that mgk album is released (heard its hot tradh autotune). It was a pretty good little staying buzz for both albums. Obviously Em doesnt need the buzz but i found it interesting to see all my friends who dont listen to hip hop that went and tried out the kamakaze album after the mgk diss went viral.

I agree that was lame, dont say you had something to dropand dont do it bc Em called you a mumble rapper. Head games are part of the battle and Em got him mentally with that one. It would of been entertaining to see them keep going though.

QFT. Charlamagne is a straight hater, and if that wasn't bad enough, he's also a nobody. He runs his mouth a lot for someone who has no discernible talent of his own. Eminem actually hit the nail on the head when he said (on his first track off his new album), "What's your talent? Critiquing my talent?" and, "Charlamagne gonna hate anyways, doesn't matter what I say".

 

[NYRKING30]

Rap Devil was semi enjoyable the first listen simply because prior to that the hardest someone ever went at or said something about Eminem was Ja's one line.

 

[Mach85]

The funny thing is, Bliss has MGK doing some mumble rapping lol. I haven't given the EP a listen so this is secondhand, but I hear it's terrible. He really needed to capitalize on all the eyes he has on him right now.

Also saw this theory about Killshot. Said it before, Em has layers.

- First, keep in mind MGK has Pacman tattoos
- Eminem played Pacman for 7 mins live on his IG on Sept 7th. Tupac has an album called the 7-day theory
-“Killshot” is the name of a movie in where a guy named “Colson” (same name as MGK) gets brutally gunned down - Tupac was shot on September 7th
- Eminem released “Killshot” attacking MGK (Colson) exactly 7 days after Tupac was shot. He also had a line in the diss aimed at Diddy about the latter putting the hit out on Tupac

 

[Mach85]

Dude who produced Killshot said that Eminem wrote it in 13 minutes. That's just disrespect lol.

 

[CreamOfTheCrop]

^Thats just pure insanity.

It takes me 4 hours to write a 800 word essay.

 

[King Mapes]

I'll preface this by saying I'm not the biggest rap fan and I'm really selective with who I listen to.

I listened to a little bit of MGK before the recent events. He has a few tracks I enjoy. Eminem hasn't been the same on his solo stuff for a while (Revial was mediocre and when I lost interest), so I haven't really paid much attention to his solo projects in a while. I've enjoyed the other stuff he's been featured on or his Hell the Sequel with Royce.

Anyway, I listened to Kamikaze and my initial reaction was that it was alright, but I didn't enjoy how often he was mocking mumble/contemporary rappers. Not because I like them, but because I find that sound to be annoying. It got better with each subsequent listen. Not every song is good, and truth be told, I'll probably only listen to three or four of them, but they're really good. Overall, I thought it was solid and it demonstrated what makes him great.


When I first heard Rap Devil, I thought it was really catchy (and still do), but subsequent listens just demonstrate the vast ocean between the two. MGK didn't have many great lines and it's kind of flat or surface level.

Killshot was great from the start. He meticulously dissected and tore apart every single line that MGK delivered on Rap Devil, hitting a lot harder while demonstrating more skill. It's not reliant on a catchy hook or beat either. I also got the sense that he took it easy and could absolutely smash MGK if there's ever another track that gets released.

MGK's response, saying it wasn't good, that he won't respond, and the fact that he's performing Rap Devil on tour while opening for Fall Out Boy is all embarrassing to me. Killshot is objectively better from a lyrical standpoint and I don't know how anyone could see it differently. Is performing a diss track standard in the rap world? I can't imagine it is, and it's really sad to me that he is doing that. If it is more popular than I realize, artists should really re-evaluate that. If you don't have enough content without it, you're probably not that good.

I really hope MGK responds, but I'm not sure he ever will. Honestly, I think he realized that he doesn't stand a chance. It's a shame since this has been the most interesting thing to happen in a while when it comes to beefs, at least for me.

Thing is, I felt Rap Devil was a better song, But Em put out the better diss tracks. There's a difference. MGK had a chorus (yeah I know) and it was catchy but half the time he's complimenting Em. Who does that in a diss track? "You're old but the GOAT!" Meanwhile Em took every line, dissected it and spun it around. That's what good artists do.

Then by seeing his Cd it sounds and looks like he literally threw this together quick in the midst of the rap war to try to get sales and feed off the feud which flopped. You can't do that and that's a rookie mistake. Even if you get sales now, if people listen to it and think it's crap will they buy your next album?

 

[YNWA14]

The thing is that's an argument we've seen all over the place. People are like 'oh Rap Devil is the better song'...but this isn't a 'who makes better music' battle, it's meant to be personal and pointed. Otherwise Em could have just sat back and let his sales speak for themselves and some people would have whined about that. I saw it in a video last week but can't remember where; you can compare The Takeover and Ether in a similar way...one was a better song but guess which one became a verb? Now obviously this won't even come close to that stuff because MGK is nothing but anyway.

 

[Brodeur]

^Thats just pure insanity.

It takes me 4 hours to write a 800 word essay.

I've had HF replies that took me more than 13 minutes to formulate.

 

[RickP]

The thing is that's an argument we've seen all over the place. People are like 'oh Rap Devil is the better song'...but this isn't a 'who makes better music' battle, it's meant to be personal and pointed. Otherwise Em could have just sat back and let his sales speak for themselves and some people would have whined about that. I saw it in a video last week but can't remember where; you can compare The Takeover and Ether in a similar way...one was a better song but guess which one became a verb? Now obviously this won't even come close to that stuff because MGK is nothing but anyway.

Exactly. Plus, judging from the sales numbers, and streaming numbers, it seems like Killshot is a more popular track than Rap Devil. Of course the fact it's an Eminem song helps, but if more people buy it and listen to it, I guess we can say more people think Killshot is a more enjoyable song than Rap Devil.