Eminem – Revival

Eminem: Revival

Album Review

By Kyle Gambla

Eminem returns to hip-hop with his album ‘Revival’ in 2017 was long awaited by fans all over the world. Throughout his career, he has had 10 number-one albums on the Billboard 200 and five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. He ruled the early 2000’s with his clever and graphic word play that had fans begging for more. With 47.4 million albums sold in the U.S and 220 million records globally, he is among the world’s best-selling artists of all time. Eminem has made a huge return to the scene with this album with features from  Beyoncé, Phresher, Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keys, X Ambassadors, Skylar Grey, Kehlani, Pink, and producer Dr. Dre.

Going into this album I did not know what to expect considering its been a while since Eminem has been on the scene. Having listed to a great deal of Eminem’s music from his past, I knew his style and what he made music about which included personal struggles with family, drugs, and violence. This album, on the other hand, was a different side of the Slim Shady rapper. He brought the profanity and graphic depictions down a few levels which was a big change for him. Its also obvious that his style has changed and not necessarily for the better, but thats a subjective opinion.

I particularly liked the song ‘Bad Husband’ featuring X Ambassadors. This song has similar themes to his old music, but goes about it in a softer fashion. Also, the beats are classic Eminem and are very similar to some of the songs that made him the artist he is today. Another song I enjoyed a lot is ‘Like Home’ featuring Alecia Keys, where he talks about his passion for the United States and living here which has brought him many opportunities and good fortunes. Considering Eminem was born and raised in Detroit in a very poor area which was also high in crime and violence; he has a lot to be grateful for and expresses that though this song. As many fans know Eminem is very political and this album is full of political references including a few directed towards Donald Trump. He does this in the song ‘Heat’, which also had a change up from his normal trap beats to a rock genre type beat with electric guitar and drums. Overall this album was entertaining and I enjoyed getting to hear new music from a legend like Eminem.

Top 3 songs: Bad Husband, Like Home, Heat (in that order)

Rating: 6.5/10