Rapper Eminem struck out at President Donald Trump in a video that played at the BET Hip Hop Awards Tuesday, accusing the president of racism, hypocrisy, disrespect of military veterans and more in almost 5 minutes of furious freestyle rap.
He also excoriated Trump for his responses to the recent violence inĀ Charlottesville, Virginia, the devastation in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria and the mass shooting in Las Vegas.
The video, titledĀ āThe Storm,āĀ was filmed in Detroit as part of the BET Hip Hop Awardsā traditional cyphers, in which rappers typically aim to deliver showy verses in a group setting. In his solo appearance, Eminem, wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and baseball cap, name-drops Colin Kaepernick (āThis is for Colin/ball up a fistā),Ā Barack Obama, Hillary ClintonĀ andĀ Stephen K. Bannon. He appears to referenceĀ Sen. John McCainĀ (āUnless youāre a POW whoās tortured and battered/’cause to him youāre zeroes/’cause he donāt like his war heroes captured.ā)
Kaepernick expressed his support on Twitter with a raised fist emoji.
Eminem also ripped into his fans who are Trump supporters.
āAnd any fan of mine/whoās a supporter of his/Iām drawing in the sand a line/youāre either for or against/and if you canāt decide/who you like more and youāre split/on who you should stand beside/Iāll do it for you with this,āĀ he raps, before giving the middle finger to the camera.
Eminem, who has never shied away from a feud, has made Trump a target before. In August, during a performance at the Reading Festival in the United Kingdom, Eminem told the crowd that he ācanāt standā the president before leading them in an obscene anti-Trump chant. Days earlier, at a concert in Glasgow, the rapper wore a shirt readingĀ āFACK TRUMPāĀ and made similar comments about the president before performing his songĀ āWhite America.ā (āSee the problem is/I speak to suburban kids/who otherwise wouldāve never knew these words exist.ā)
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But in an earlier era, the two men appeared together amicably. Ahead of the 2004 presidential election, Trump made a cameo in the Eminem concert specialĀ āThe Shady National Convention,āĀ which aired on MTV.Ā āI know a winner when I see one,āĀ Trump said in an endorsement of Eminemās alter-ego, Slim Shady.Ā āDonald Trump is telling you right now Slim Shady is a winner. Heās got brains, heās got guts and heās got Donald Trumpās vote.ā
The rapperās dense, blistering lyrics have courted controversy in the past, with some accusing him of writing homophobic and misogynistic verses.
And this is not the first time thatĀ EminemĀ has tackled politics in his songs: He has also taken aim atĀ Bill Clinton,Ā Hillary ClintonĀ andĀ George W. Bush. Last October, he released the freestyle trackĀ āCampaign Speech,āĀ in which he called TrumpĀ āa loose cannon whoās blunt with his hand on the button.ā
Eminem is thought to be gearing up for the release this year of his eighth major-label album and first since āThe Marshall Mathers LP 2ā in 2013. (A longtime producer for the rapper said earlier this month that the new music was ādone.ā) In the last few years, he has popped up for occasional guest verses and soundtrack songs ā he is featured on Pinkās āRevenge,ā out Friday ā but has largely remained in the shadows, away from celebrity and social media.
āSometimes I think that if I get comfortable or set in my ways of doing something, maybe I should step back for a minute and figure out how to mix it up a little bit,āĀ he told The New York Times in 2015.
Other hip-hop artists and rappers have also targeted the president in their lyrics and music videos. California rapper YG released a single last August called āFDT,ā in which he repeatedly curses Trumpās name.Ā Kendrick LamarĀ lashed out at Trump in his tracks āThe Heart Part 4ā and āXXX.ā Snoop Doggās music video āLavender,ā in which the rapper aimed a toy pistol at a clown resembling Trump, earned a rebuke and a call for ājail time!ā from the president himself in March.