Eminem's MADARA Verse Brought Back the Slim Shady Voice. Critics Liked the Rapping. The Filter Split Everyone.

Five days in, the verdict on his first verse of 2026 is close to unanimous on skill and divided on sound.

When "MADARA" dropped on Friday, October 9, the first question most Eminem fans had was simple: what does he sound like? Ez Mil's Naruto-themed single, with Japanese rapper Hideyoshi and Madara Uchiha's English voice actor Neil Kaplan, is the first new Eminem verse released this year. Billboard pointed out he had not put out a single of his own in 2026, and Ratings Game Music called it his first verse of the year.

The answer, according to almost every review: he sounds like 1999. That is the compliment and the complaint at the same time.

We covered the release itself, with the exact drop time and full credits, here. This piece is about the verse.

Where the verse sits

Eminem does not open the song. Ez Mil leads in English, Hideyoshi carries the hook in Japanese with Ez Mil backing him, and Neil Kaplan delivers a spoken interlude in character. Em comes in late, toward the end of the track, which Ratings Game Music noted in its review. On a 4:55 song, the late entrance makes his part feel like the closing statement, and that is clearly how it was built.

What he raps about

Without reprinting any of it, here is what the verse covers, pulled together from the reviews:

• Censorship and saying what he wants. Complex and AllHipHop both flag a section about being policed for what he says. Billboard describes him refusing to tiptoe around anyone's feelings.
• Race and privilege. Complex and AllHipHop both note he takes on the idea that being white helped make him a star, a subject he has come back to many times since "White America" in 2002.
• Old beefs. Both outlets also say he looks back at past rap feuds, and Billboard's read is that he is still up for a fight this late in his career.
• Dre and the early days. Billboard and Ratings Game Music both point to a more vulnerable stretch about people doubting him early on, never expecting to make it, and still being amazed that Dr. Dre believed in him. Billboard notes he works in some wordplay on Dre's name.
• Not going anywhere. DancehallMag heard the verse as a message that he is not leaving no matter how loud the critics get, and tied that to Madara, a villain who keeps refusing to stay dead.

That last point lands harder because of 2024. The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) was built around killing off the Shady character. Two years later, his most talked-about verse of the year sounds like Shady again.

What the critics said

The reviews agree on the technique:

• Billboard called his bars sharp and fast, and said he can still out-rap artists half his age.
• AllHipHop said he sounds "particularly energized" on a technically demanding verse, with a vocal approach that recalls his early Slim Shady records.
• Ratings Game Music gave the song 3.5 out of 5, said Em "does not sound rusty whatsoever," and praised his wordplay. Its one complaint was that he could talk a little less.
• Complex described the record as eerie and rapid-fire, and noted Eminem's co-production credit.

The filter

This is where opinion splits. Billboard described Eminem using what "appears to" be a saturated vocal filter to recreate his old Shady tone, and reported that it drew mixed reviews from fans on social media. Ratings Game Music went further, saying he sounds like an AI-generated version of himself, then added that it works anyway.

No one involved has said how the vocal was processed, and nothing in the credits says AI was used. Mike Strange mixed the track, as he has on Eminem's own albums for years. What is clear is that the sound is a deliberate choice. A high, pinched, cartoonish voice was the signature of The Slim Shady LP era, and on a song built around an anime villain, leaning into a character voice makes sense.

Whether it worked depends on what you want from Eminem in 2026. If you want the technical rapper, everyone agrees he is still there. If you wanted to hear his natural voice on a new verse, this is not that record. The filter talk has also fed into a bigger argument some fans are having about where his music is headed, which we will get to in a separate piece.

The Ez Mil run so far

"MADARA" is the third time Eminem and Ez Mil have shared a track, after "Realest" in 2023 and "Head Honcho" on The Death of Slim Shady in 2024. It is the lead single from Ez Mil's upcoming EP 3RD WRLD VOL. 2, which has no release date yet.

"Realest," the 2023 single that started the Ez Mil and Eminem partnership.

Sources: Billboard via Yahoo Entertainment (October 9, 2026); Complex (October 9, 2026); AllHipHop (October 9, 2026); Ratings Game Music (October 9, 2026); DancehallMag (October 10 and 11, 2026); official Spotify and YouTube credits. This article describes the lyrics rather than quoting them.