By Sebastian Moronta, Staff Writer
On October 10, 2017 Detroit rapper Eminem was featured at the BET awards performing a freestyle rap song called “The Storm” that has stirred controversy in the political realm.
In the song, performed acapella, Eminem criticizes President Trump several fronts, from the recent controversy surrounding the NFL, to his administration’s liberal use of private aircraft at the expense of the taxpayer, among other things.
In response to the cypher, many Anti-trumpers have flocked to Eminem’s side, quick to praise the highly successful rapper for his unabashed criticism and especially for the ultimatum that he posed at the end of the video, calling for his fans to decide to support either he or Trump, and leaving on a message to those who might choose the other guy: “F–k you!”
Twitter feeds have been overflowing with praise for Eminem, for dissing Trump and for having the courage to tell his own fans to wise up or split.
In this cypher, Eminem spit bars like,
“Trump, when it comes to giving a shit, you’re stingy as I am/Except when it comes to having the balls to go against me, you hide ‘em/‘Cause you don’t got the fucking nuts like an empty asylum/Racism’s the only thing he’s fantastic for.
I will admit, I do tip my hat to Em in that respect. Eminem is one of the most successful artists ever born, let alone rappers, and to imply to your own fanbase that you don’t want them listening to your music because of their political views does take some brass, so I grant him that.
But to all those who are championing Eminem as the newest pillar of the resistence, slow it the hell down and think for a second. Eminem, for decades, has been the face of misogyny and homophobia in hip hop.
Across the rapper’s eight LP’s and various features and collaborations, Eminem has spewed countless lines bragging about assaulting, abusing, and even raping women.
In 2014, he threatened to attack fellow artist Lana Del Rey “Play nice, b*tch. I’ll punch Lana Del Rey in the face twice like Ray Rice in broad daylight.”
Just look at Eminem to Iggy Azalea:”Unless you’re Nicki, grab you by the wrist, let’s ski. So what’s it gon’ be? Put that s–t away Iggy. You gon’ blow that rape whistle or me?” Or how about Eminem to Pamela Anderson: “Got pissed off and ripped Pamela Lee’s t–s off and smacked her so hard I knocked her clothes backwards like Kris Kross.”
None of this is hidden or masked, on The Marshall Mathers LP Eminem features a track titled “Kill you” in which he says “Slut, you think I won’t choke no whore, ‘til the vocal chords in her throat don’t work no more?” By the way, that song is about his mother.
It’s not like all this stuff is ancient history either, Dr. Dre features Eminem on the track “Medicine Man” off his newest album Compton released back in August 2015.
Eminem comes in for the second verse: “Ain’t no one safe from, non-believers there ain’t none, even make the b-tches I rape c-m.”
The list goes on, and on, and shockingly on. Misogyny like this is not foreign to hip hop, but few rappers out there are quite as explicit, as violent, and as incendiary as Eminem is.
On top of Eminem’s lyrics, he has had much controversy surrounding his personal life as well.
In 2000, Eminem was sued by his mother for slandering her name in The Slim Shady LP, and was also sued by his ex-wife, Kim, for defamation from his song “Kim” where he describes killing her.
An Australian politician even attempted to ban Em from Australia for his homophobic language in his lyrics. Eminem has defended these actions. When interviewed by the New York Times in 2010, he said that his, “overall look on things is a lot more mature than it used to be.” But just because Em says he’s changed, it doesn’t mean he has, and we can’t forget his degrading lyrics and immoral actions.
There has been loads of media coverage on Eminem’s cypher at the BET awards, and lots of the biggest news outlets have reported on the rap while either knowingly or otherwise omitting the controversial background of the rapper himself.
The Washington Post, Associated Press, CNN, Rolling Stone, and HuffPost all published write-ups of the song with no mention of Eminem’s past.
Be careful who you praise for criticizing Donald Trump.
These days his critics aren’t exactly in short supply, but if the resistance wants to claim they hold the moral high-ground, then they can’t embrace them all.
Photo Courtesy: BET.com