Eminem’s newly released Kamikaze album was classic Slim Shady. The hard-hitting beats and diss-heavy verses provided a scrappy energy that was noticeably lacking in 2017’s Revival. It’s as if Kamikaze was specifically crafted to backhand everyone who claimed Eminem had lost his touch.
According to Florida-based beatmaker Illadaproducer, Em made his point, and he made it well.
“Right away he comes out just blowing bad, spittin’. This is Eminem! Top five, dead or alive. I want to hear him go bad. And I got what I was looking for,” he told Rolling Stone less than 24 hours after Kamikaze dropped out of nowhere.
Illa was credited on four out of the 13 tracks on Kamikaze. He had previously linked up with Em for the Revival cut “Offended.”
“A lot of Em’s more refined fans, people who wanted to see growth in him, they liked Revival. I liked Revival too. People wanted Slim Shady,” he said. “[…] So he went back in, and that’s why eight months, nine months later, we got Kamikaze.”
Illa went on to talk about each of the tracks he contributed to the project and how they all came together. He provided beats for “Normal,” “Lucky You,” “Good Guy,” and “The Ringer,” Kamikaze’s opening cut that mentions Lil Yachty, Lil Xan, and Illa’s previous collaborator Lil Pump.
Does Illa think the name-drop will upset Pump? Not at all.
“Some cats are gonna be like, fuck that. But look at Lil Yachty: He was like, ‘yo, I don’t take that as a diss. I love Eminem.’ I even think Pump won’t even take it as a diss. To me, Eminem is talking about how everybody’s a carbon copy of everybody. Pump’s one of the originators, so if I’m him, I’m not taking that as a diss.”
You can read Illa's full interview at Rolling Stone's website.
