At this year’s annual BET Hip-Hop Awards, Eminem raised the bar with a poignant and cutting freestyle video for the show’s Cypher Series. In the four and a half minute long video, Eminem digs into the Trump administration and addresses concerns for the nation. Last year, he released his song “Campaign Speech,” on the third day of the presidential debates. The 8 minute long freestyle addresses controversial figures such as Edward norton, Ben Stiller, Robin Thicke, Colin Kaepernick, Dylann Roof, David Haselhoff and George Zimmerman. The song also tears into Trump’s campaign: “Consider me a dangerous man but you should be afraid of this dang candidate.”
The song was Eminem’s first foray into the art of musical protest. His followup, is even more hard hitting. It once again questions his hypocritical and presumptuous campaign practices and promises, but also goes further to critique his absurd actions and policies over the last nine months.
Eminem gives a shout out to Obama and warns of immenntn nuclear doom for the world: “But we better give Obama props, ’cause what we got in office now’s a kamikaze that’ll probably cause e nuclear holocaust. And while the drama pops, and he waits for s*** to quiet down, he’ll just gas his place up and fly around ’til the bombing stops.”
Eminem goes on to dress Tump’s twitter wars and pigeonholed focus on the NFL: “But this is his form of distraction. Plus, he gets an enormous reaction, when he attacks the NFL so we focus on that instead of talking Puerto Rico or gun reform for Nevada. All these horrible tragedies and he’s bored and would rather cause a Twitter storm with the Packers…Now if you’re a black athlete, you’re a spoiled little brat for tryina use your platform or your stature to try to give those a voice who don’t have one.”
Eminem specifically pays homage to Kaepernick, who was the first to begin the silent protests at the NFL: “This is for Colin, ball up a fist!” According to Pitchfork, the former 49ers player took to Twitter to express his appreciation for the supportive lyric.
Eminem wraps up the song by directly calling out his fans and denouncing any who support Trump: “And any fan of mine who’s a supporter of his, I’m drawing in the sand a line: you’re either for or against. And if you can’t decide who you like more and you’re split on who you should stand beside, I’ll do it for you with this: F*** you!”
Eminem clearly backs up his claim, “F*** walking’ on egg shells, I came to stomp.” The song is bold and does not shy away from the issues. The real slim shady has stood up, and now he is calling for, “The rest of America [to] stand up.”
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