Some praised it as an improvement over Revival and a welcome return to his more aggressive persona, while others criticized him for failing to adapt to the current sound of hip hop, and found the album outdated as a result.

The album was promoted with three singles: "Fall", "Venom" (from the 2018 film of the same name), and "Lucky You", and a music video for "Good Guy", along with a supporting tour.

In the song, Eminem mocked critics of Revival, concluding "I just added to the fuel in my rocket pack, till I'm ready to respond then I'ma launch it at 'em...

[5] During the Revival sessions, S1 tried to work with Eminem but he refused; the producer kept sending him beats to use on future tracks that the rapper incorporated into Kamikaze songs.

[6] The afternoon before Kamikaze's release, Eminem posted a 15-second teaser of a new song on social media, featuring the logo for the superhero film Venom,[7] without comment.

[10] Eminem used social media services such as Instagram and Twitter to announce the release[11] and has relied on the extensive feedback from diss tracks and Internet hype to spread the word of the album.

[19] American singer Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, whose vocals were uncredited on the song "Fall", disavowed his participation in the album, claiming that he was not in the studio when the recording was made.

[43] Aja Romano of Vox called the album Eminem's best in years, citing a return to the rapper's old school sound after deviating with Revival.

[44] Ed Power of The Daily Telegraph also compared this album to Revival, calling Kamikaze a "high-kicking, low-punching riposte", indicating it is a better release.

"[34] M. Oliver of PopMatters summed up his review, "Kamikaze is Slim Shady at his midlife best; slightly less deviant, not quite as funny—but revived, nonetheless" and gave the album seven out of 10.

[39] Kitty Empire wrote for The Observer that Eminem is in "full rabid underdog mode" at a time when hip hop MCs are more relaxed, giving the album three out of five stars.

[47] At HipHopDX, Trent Clark gave the album a 3.9 out of five, contrasting the work with Revival and denying this is a return to form, summing up, "After being faced with nothing to prove as the highest-selling rapper of all-time, Eminem’s found another challenge in perfecting the new style he’s put on display".

[36] Writing for Vice, Robert Christgau regarded the album as being "about hip-hop, his truest passion and sole area of undeniable expertise, rather than the larger emotional and political themes of what he conceived as a groundbreaking statement of principle [with Revival]".

"[48] For Uproxx, Aaron Williams also praised the rapper's technical abilities and also pointed out the function of engage with his critics that this music performs.

"[51] In The New Zealand Herald, Siena Yates praised Eminem for "technically flawless flows and cheeky wordplay" as well as "a thrilling command of cadence" but gave the album three out of five stars because, "He's just not saying much and what he is saying smacks of ignorance and someone reaching for relevance in a world he's hellbent on rejecting.

's Riley Wallace cited the anger of Eminem's early work, unnecessary homophobia, and the shortcomings of Revival in a middling review of 6/10: "Angry, reactionary Em is nothing new.

"[53] For Pitchfork, Marc Hogan gave the album five out of 10, writing, "[Eminem's] career has become an exhausting feedback loop, and Kamikaze flies straight into that downward spiral", criticizing it as "yet another empty, intermittently tone-deaf onslaught of technical rap prowess and humorless juvenilia from an artist who once controlled the zeitgeist with ease" but praising his technical skills as a rapper and clever lyricist.

"[32] In Spin, Jesse Fairfax criticized the tenor of the album, writing "Eminem's defensiveness seems to preclude whatever reckoning he could otherwise have with any creative shortcomings that may have led him here".

[57] It became his ninth consecutive number-one album in the country, tying him with Garth Brooks and The Rolling Stones for fifth-most entries to top the chart, and had the year's fifth-highest first-week sales in the USA.

[58] The album dropped one place to number two in its second week behind Paul McCartney's Egypt Station, earning an additional 136,000 album-equivalent units.

[96] According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, Kamikaze was the ninth best-selling album globally of 2018, with 1 million physical and digital copies sold.

[113] 6ix9ine, Iggy Azalea,[114] Joe Budden,[115] Die Antwoord,[116] Lupe Fiasco,[117] and Lord Jamar[118] also made public statements, with the first releasing the skit "Legend" that raps over Eminem's "Lose Yourself".

Critics have objected to Eminem's use of the slur "faggot" to describe rapper Tyler, the Creator on the song "Fall", such as Mikelle Street of Billboard, who wrote, "Eminem needs to be held accountable for using homophobic slurs (again)," further adding, "the idea that listeners are too 'soft' for critiquing the ways in which rappers weaponize the identities of others against them ignores how hip-hop is a reflection and arbiter of culture.

"[122] Matt Miller of Esquire relates his use of the term to previous homophobic lyrics and calls it the "biggest problem" of the album.