Mercurial rapper Eminem was at the 2017 Reading Festival in Glasgow, Scotland, when he said that he didn’t want to be “all political and s–t,” but still wanted to speak out about President Donald Trump. Eminem has never been known to edit his thoughts before the words come gushing out of his mouth in torrents, so you knew this was going to be newsworthy.
“This mother—- Donald Trump, I can’t stand,” Eminem said to the multitude. “So before we get into this new song, we would like to request something of you.”
He then led the crowd in a call and response chant in which he would start out with “f—” and they would reply with “Trump.”
“He’s got our country all f—ed up,” Eminem said before going back to his performance.
To see the video in question, flip the e-page (warning: very strong language).
This is not the first time that Marshall Mathers has addressed controversial socio-political issues of the day, of course. Many of his songs imbued powerful and profane lyrics within the music that made public what Blacks talked about behind closed doors.
As an example, he wrote and co-produced the smash hit “Without Me,” where he spews truth through hilarious lyrics by reminding folks that the King of Rock-N-Roll, Elvis Presley, was among a horde of ambitious White artists who “borrowed” (i.e., steal) original Black music. The rapid-rhyming rapper said, “I’m not the first ‘King of Controversy,’/ I am the the worst thing since Elvis Presley/ to use black music so selfishly/ and use it to get myself wealthy” (check out that video on the third e-page).
It is also no longer news, Mathers says, that many White blues, jazz, rock and hip-hop musicians have been more readily embraced by mainstream audiences and the popular press over their Black counterparts. Slim Shady once rapped about his record sales on his song “White America,” saying, “let’s do the math, if I was Black, I would’ve sold half.”
