Back in the late ’90s/early aughts, when I was a lad enrolled in public school, Eminem was a cool counterculture icon. His intentionally offensive lyrics were meant to provoke outrage from certain censorious quarters of the powers that be, and they certainly succeeded.
Lynne Cheney, who might have better spent her time cleaning up the mess her husband made in Iraq, instead championed the censorship fight against the artist known as Slim Shady.
Eminem subsequently responded on his track “Without Me.”
Anyway, all that to say: at some point, as artists tend to do once they get famous and become pop culture icons, he became the hackey establishment he once decried.
The cringiest example of this is the goofy Trump diss track featured at the 2017 BET Awards.
Here’s a taste of the screed:
We better give Obama props,
‘Cause what we got in office now’s a kamikaze,
That’ll prob’ly cause a nuclear holocaust,
And while the drama pops,
And he waits for s— to quiet down, he’ll just gas his plane up
And fly around ’til the bombing stops.
Intensities heightened, tensions are risin’,
Trump, when it comes to givin’ a s—, 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 f—ing nuts, like an empty asylum,
Racism’s the only thing he’s fantastic for,
‘Cause that’s how he gets his f—ing rocks off and he’s orange,
Yeah, sick tan
How original.
Of course, a huge contingent of Eminem’s fan base is the forgotten white American working class in flyover country, who was none too pleased to be smeared as racist and to see the one politician they’ve identified with more than any other in fifty years — maybe in American history — insulted by an out-of-touch rapper who clearly doesn’t understand politics.
Eminem himself seemed to acknowledge the blowback he received on the track “The Ringer” from his 2018 album Kamikaze.
Anyway, some pioneering individual recently produced a parody Trump diss of Eminem that decimates the once-great-icon-of-American-angst-turned-establishment shill that’s worth checking out.
Donald Trump DESTROYS Eminem! pic.twitter.com/LWyW9gNnU8
— Hi-Rez The Rapper (@HiRezTheRapper) August 9, 2023
Here’s a lyrical sampling:
Dear Em
You used to be cool, but now you’re soft…
I used to be your fan until you started getting white guilt…
You said that people who support me are usually white and broke
Did you forget your roots, Em?
I got your family’s vote
You used to speak your mind and not care about being canceled
Now these Democrats got you out there tap-dancing…
I got more street cred than you
They tryin’ to be me in jail
I’m rich, and my wife’s a supermodel
I can’t fail
Mic drop.
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