After Eminem surprised the world with his latest album Kamikaze on Friday, (August 31) the release could now be on the way to make UK chart history.
The rap legend announced the drop of his 10th album, just eight months after the release of his previous record, Revival.
The quick turnaround of new music was explained by Eminem when he tweeted a picture of the album artwork with the caption:
Tried not 2 overthink this 1 … enjoy.
Kamikaze seems to have taken the world by storm, and has even been considered Slim’s best album in a decade.
Over the weekend, the album quickly worked its way towards the top of the Official UK Albums Chart, with the midweek update placing the release at number one.
If Kamikaze holds on to the number one spot until the official update on Friday (September 7), the album will make music history.
The surprise album would be Eminem’s ninth consecutive number one album, beating the current record which he currently holds alongside ABBA and Led Zeppelin, who have eight consecutive number one albums each.
According to the Official Charts Company, Marshall Mathers’ 10th album has a substantial lead over the other albums in the race to number one, and it’s not even available in physical form, yet.
Eminem is not only dominating the album chart, but he’s also taking up three of the top 10 spots in the midweek singles chart, with The Ringer at number four, Lucky You at number seven and Greatest at number nine.
With four more days to go until the official chart update, it looks like Kamikaze will be sitting comfortably in top spot. So far, it’s received far more positive comments than Revival, which was described as a dad-rap album.
While Eminem is a father, I think most of us can agree, the sound we consider truly ‘Eminem’ isn’t the kind dads should be ‘rocking out’ to at family parties.
He seems to have found his feet again with the latest release, however, with reviews praising the evidence of the ‘old’ Shady back again.
Esquire wrote:
His beats on this album are the strongest he’s had in a decade. And his flow has never been more unbelievable. That’s not debatable.
While Variety stated:
Eminem is drawing you in with weirdly dippy mimicry so as to slap lazy listeners out of their doldrums (much as he needed to do to his own turgid music post-“Revival”), in hopes that we’ll realise that hip-hop is getting stale in its production and lyrical tropes.
This is where the album gets good and catty. To be sure, Eminem’s voice hasn’t sounded quite so cranky, silly, impassioned or enraged since his early days.
The positive reactions to the new album have also been shared by Em’s fans, with one writing:
Eminem never lost a beat ? waiting on this Kamikaze tour [sic]
Only time will tell whether Kamikaze makes UK chart history, but at the rate the album is going, I think we can be pretty confident Eminem will beat ABBA and Led Zeppelin before long.
If you have a story you want to to tell, send it to stories@unilad.co.uk.
Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.