"Houdini" is a song by American rapper Eminem, and is the lead single from his twelfth studio album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce).

[10] The lyrics reference Harry Houdini, after whom the song is named,[11] as well as the Sherri Papini kidnapping hoax,[12] RuPaul's testicles, and the Black Eyed Peas in a pun on R. Kelly's urolagnia.

[14] Eminem also calls his manager Paul Rosenberg a "male cross-dresser" and a "fake ass bitch", before saying "fuck" those giving him "shit" for that, Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine, himself, "you", and his own children.

[9] Stereogum's Tom Breihan was not impressed with "Houdini", writing that it was "truly amazing" that Eminem had continued "to find new ways to get even shittier" and opined that he and Luis Resto had managed to make "Abracadabra" "sound even more like circus music".

He also described the lyrics as "full of hack-ass jokes about how everything is too woke now" and Eminem's cadences as "cluttered and unpleasant", and wrote that listeners could "make a fucking bingo card" out of the song.

[16] Eddie Fu of Consequence wrote that Eminem "sounds like ass" on the track, opined that his customary potshots at celebrities were "more predictable and boring than shocking and clever", and stated that his publication "could also do without his complaining about being 'targeted' by the TikTok backlash" given that "leaning into controversy" had been his strategy throughout his entire career.

[19] Robin Murray of Clash described the song as a "perfectly timed dose of cartoonish fan service, a colorful, occasionally shocking (and occasionally boring) dose of ultra-colorful chart rap", though felt the use of "gay" as a slur rankled and that the verse about Eminem's "transgender cat" was "corny as hell", and wrote that "Houdini" failed to "escape the lingering stench of the era it embodies".

[7] In addition, Lindsay Zoladz of The New York Times felt that the track's "garish, carnivalesque beat", over which Eminem "surveys the current cultural moment and strings together some stiltedly rapped jokes [while] desperate to offend at every turn", was "exhausting".