搬運自：微信公眾號【評論搬一堆】（在原文基礎上添加了英語原文與排版調(diào)整）

翻譯：Lynn Liu/ Yana.Z

校正：Ryan-Chopin

Eminem is not happy. We know because he tells us, in the opening seconds of ‘Kamikaze’, like he’s psyching himself up: “I feel like I want to punch the world in the fucking face right now“.

我們知道，Eminem并不開心。他在《Kamikaze》的開頭幾秒鐘突然興奮起來唱著：“我覺得我現(xiàn)在TMD想要給全世界一拳！”

He’s upset, mostly, about the fact that people didn’t like his last album, the not-particularly-great ‘Revival’, released on December 15, 2017. That LP continued down a course he’d been set on since 2010’s ‘Recovery’, an Eminem that had lost sight of the cartoon devil fans first fell for in the late ’90s. Latter-day Eminem was earnest, goddy, flawed, lacking confidence even, and on ‘Revival’, pointedly political too.

很多時候，Eminem都很喪，因為人們并不喜歡他上一張不夠特別的專輯——發(fā)行于2017年11月15日的《Revival》。這張專輯延續(xù)了2010年《Recovery》的風格，《Recovery》道出了Eminem的自我掙扎，因為他曾深陷90年代后期的第一次低谷期中。當時他試圖更加努力，可性格卻出現(xiàn)了缺陷，甚至缺乏自信，而且我們能看到《Recovery》的矛頭直指政治。

‘Revival’ featured a grab bag of gimme-a-hit-please guests:?Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and the ubiquitous?Ed Sheeran, who co-wrote the sappy ‘River’. It wasn’t a total stinker, but it was just another ‘meh’ release from a once iconoclastic artist who’d slipped into middle age as a Slim Shadow of his former self.

《Revival》由 Beyoncé, Alicia Keys 以及大火的Ed Sheeran（共同創(chuàng)作了“River”）共同助力發(fā)行。這不是一張制作失敗的專輯，而是一位反傳統(tǒng)的音樂人創(chuàng)作了又一張“無聊之作”罷了，這時候的Eminem如他的原身“Slim Shadow ”一樣，已經(jīng)邁入中年。

The criticisms of it clearly stung: “They been pannin’ my album to death/So I been givin’ the media fingers,” he spits on opener ‘The Ringer’, a track which delivers, in jaw-dropping, super-quick flow, more honesty and ire than we’ve seen from Eminem in years, calling out journalists, fellow rappers and fans who’ve turned their back on him.

這次我們在新專中能看到他對其批評言論的反駁：“他們已經(jīng)把我的專輯批判成一文不值/我被媒體針對了，”所以他借“The Ringer”嘲諷那些帶動輿論的人，用令人吃驚的語速表達他的憤怒。我們看到了比原來更加真實和憤慨Eminem，他用音樂喚醒曾經(jīng)背棄他的那些媒體，同行和粉絲。

It should be noted that ‘Revival’ went to Number One on both sides of the Atlantic, and that a significant portion of his missing fans – if indeed there are any – are likely to have jumped ship due to Em’s vehement anti-Trump stance (he refers to the President as “this evil serpent” on title track ‘Kamikaze’, and later dubs him “Agent Orange”).

值得注意的是，《Revival》曾位居眾多歐美國家的專輯榜的榜首，而且之前有很大一部分粉絲很可能因Eminem強烈反對特朗普而脫粉（他在同名曲“Kamikaze”中將總統(tǒng)稱為“一條邪惡的蛇”，后來又稱他為“Agent Orange”）。

And you suspect, partly, it’s the embarrassment of hyping up your own grand return, only to find it wasn’t your?‘68 Comeback Special. Contrast the titles of the two releases – ‘Kamikaze’ is Eminem launching a torpedo at his own career.

大肆宣傳自己回歸后發(fā)現(xiàn)，你根本不能像貓王那般《‘68 Comeback Special（華麗歸來）》（貓王于1968年宣布回歸時發(fā)行的專輯），這可能會讓你很尷尬。 但對比前后兩次發(fā)專回歸，《Kamikaze》更像是Eminem在自己的職業(yè)生涯中發(fā)射的一顆不可小覷的魚雷。

So Eminem’s metric for success is unclear, but perhaps it stings just not being talked about as much. “Revival didn’t go viral”, he says on ‘Greatest’. In a fit of hubris, the nature of this album’s release – dropped with no warning, with a cover art concept pilfered from Beastie Boys’ ‘Licensed To Ill’, is Eminem?trying?to go viral – something that anyone who’s ever tried to create ‘viral content’ will tell you involves a certain amount of alchemy and has nothing to do with how much you want it to happen.

由此看來，我們不得知曉Eminem是如何定義成功的，但他在無形中告知了大眾：成功是經(jīng)得起議論的。他在“Greatest”中唱到：“Revival didn’t go viral（上專并未大火）”。他在一陣狂妄中，這張專輯終于問世——并且是無預警發(fā)專（專輯封面的靈感源于Beastie Boys的“Licensed To Ill”），這一次，他就是奔著大火的目的來的。而任何想要大火的人都能明白這一點，想火得靠真金火煉、經(jīng)驗積累，而不是空想就能成的。

There’s a sense Eminem struggles with the modern world, hitting out at hip hop’s biggest current stars and commentators (Tyler, Drake, Lil Yachty, Lil Xan, Lil Pump, Joe Budden), declaring that “the boom bap is coming back with an axe to mumble rap” and failing to understand what constitutes a hit album nowadays. This year alone, Kanye’s multiple releases and Drake’s streaming-friendly 90-minute ‘Scorpion’ have changed the nature of the form, for better or worse, but despite its delivery, ‘Kamikaze’ is very resolutely an old-fashioned album: 45 minutes and 13 tracks long, including two skits in which Eminem’s manager Paul expresses his concerns over the concept in a phone call (“Are you really just going to reply to everybody who you don’t like what they have to say about you or the stuff you’re working on? I don’t know if that’s really a great idea”) and Eminem’s furious return message (in which he says he’s going to hunt down an online commenter). Really though, who leaves voicemail these days?

（這張專輯）給人感覺Eminem在與現(xiàn)代世界作斗爭，他抨擊嘻哈界的當紅明星和評論員（Tyler, Drake, Lil Yachty, Lil Xan, Lil Pump, Joe Budden），還宣稱“流行的bap正氣勢洶洶地回歸到聲嘶力竭的說唱音樂中”，也不清楚什么樣的專輯才能成為當今熱門。單是今年，侃爺?shù)亩鄰埑凸嗛L達90分鐘的《Scorpion》就已經(jīng)改變了說唱形式的本質(zhì)。但無論好壞，《Kamikaze》仍然堅定地秉承了一個老式的專輯的特點：45分鐘里13首歌，其中有兩個片段透露了Eminem的經(jīng)紀人保羅的擔憂（“你真的打算要回懟那些人的批評看法嗎？我覺得這不是一個好點子?！保┖虴minem的憤怒回懟(他說他會抓住一個網(wǎng)上說風涼話的人)。真的如此的話，誰不想能在網(wǎng)上碰上他呢？

The message, again and again, is that Eminem is butt-hurt. We forgot about Em, and moved on to rappers he considers inferior. “Do you have any idea how much I hate this choppy flow / I can see why people like Lil Yachty but not me though,” he says, in one of his more measured barbs.

這類似的信息一次又一次地出現(xiàn)，都表明了Eminem真的受到了傷害。我們忘記了他，轉(zhuǎn)而去推崇那些他認為不如他的說唱歌手。“你知道我有多討厭這種起伏的狀況/我能理解為什么人們喜歡Lil Yachty而不是我，”他用一種更謹慎的諷刺口吻說道。

For artists like Eminem, born into an industry that little resembles the music scene of today, the ground has shifted underfoot. Celebrated in his early career for his battle-rap hardened flow and for being nasty and dangerous, he now operates in a world where opiate-speed rap dominates and in a genre that is, in some ways, pushing for nuance and tolerance of difference. So when he attacks Tyler, The Creator with the line “Tyler create nothing/I see why you call yourself a [faggot], bitch,” it’s shocking in all the wrong ways, and he knows it – the word is muted out, so why say it at all?

對于Eminem這樣的藝術(shù)家們來說，他們出生在一個相悖于當今音樂界的時代，他們腳下的土地正在發(fā)生變化。在他早期的職業(yè)生涯中，他以他的說唱比賽打響了名頭，并因其思想骯臟且危險而聞名。如今，他用鴉片侵占人體般的速度在說唱音樂世界奪得了主位，在某種程度上，這推動了對差異的容忍性。所以他這樣攻擊Tyler時（“人人稱道的創(chuàng)造者Tyler什么都沒做/我明白你為什么稱自己為同性戀、小婊砸，”），用了這種令人震驚的錯誤方式，他明明知道有些詞被抵制了，但他為什么又要這么說呢？

But there are plenty of moments on ‘Kamikaze’ that remind us of Em’s greatness: the shift in flow on ‘Normal’, the haunted beats and clipped chorus of ‘Greatest’, the Bon Iver-sampling ‘Fall’. Eminem’s always been at his best when he’s pissed off, and for all its ‘poor me’ posturing, ‘Kamikaze’ at least feels honest, something that Taylor Swift’s boo-hoo-Kanye-is-mean album ‘Reputation’ misfired on. The guests here are wiser choices than on ‘Revival’, in that they don’t steal the limelight from Eminem – among them rappers Joyner Lucas and Royce Da 5’9 and?singer Jessie Reyez.?

聽《Kamikaze》時，我們能回想起Eminem的偉大之處。這張專輯里有節(jié)奏變化無窮的“Normal”，旋律抓耳的“Greatest”，還有取樣Bon iver歌曲的“Fall”。Eminem氣憤的時候總是他的最佳狀態(tài)，盡管他的“poor me（可憐的我）”只是故作姿態(tài)，但《Kamikaze》至少讓人感覺很誠實，這恰好是霉霉暗喻diss侃爺?shù)摹禦eputation》缺乏的一點。相比于前段時間發(fā)行《Revival》時，有些人做出了更明智的選擇，因為他們（包括說唱歌手Joyner Lucas和Royce Da 5’9以及歌手Jessie Reyez）沒有搶盡Eminem的風頭。

“Revenge is the best medicine,” Em raps on the title track. His revenge relies on how the rap world will respond to his throwing down of the gauntlet. At this stage, the worst that can happen for him is for nobody to respond at all. Old man shouts at cloud. Will the cloud shout back?

“Revenge is the best medicine。（復仇是最好的救藥）”Eminem在專輯同名曲中唱道。他的報復實際上取決于說唱界會如何回應他的挑戰(zhàn)。但在這個階段，對他來說最糟糕的是根本沒有人回應。試設想：如果一個飽經(jīng)風霜的老人對著浮云大喊大罵，悠哉悠哉的浮云又會不會反擊呢?