Shady Records and Eminem were approached byKurt Sutter and asked to executively produce a soundtrack for the 2015 film,Southpaw.[2] Eminem has four songs on the soundtrack, including two from his collaborative effort –Bad Meets Evil. The other single from the soundtrack, "Phenomenal", is also from Eminem. The song was officially released on July 10, when the audio track was uploaded to YouTube.[3] On July 29, the lyric video was uploaded to YouTube.[4] This song talks about him (Eminem) being a king ofrap and many people urging him to retire. Eminem says that he won't retire and will stay a king.
On July 3, 2015, the full song leaked onto the internet, followed by a positive response from critics. Lars Brandle fromBillboard Magazine stated that the song "is a muscular effort with a classic angry vibe, [but] it's hardly a knockout [and] absolutely worth a spin."[5]Rap-Up Magazine thought that the song was a "triumphant rap-rock hybrid with rapid-fire rhymes.[6]
"Kings Never Die" was the highest-ranking debut for theBillboard Hot 100 chart dated August 1, 2015, entering the chart at number 80.[7] Its chart debut was supported by first-weekdigital download sales of 35,000 copies, along with 1.2 million domesticstreams.[8]
