PAEminem is no stranger to controversy with his often fierce lyrics, but attracting the attention of the Secret Service is quite an upgrade.
Back in August 2018, Eminem dropped Kamikaze, just eight months after releasing Revival, and US President Donald Trump doesn’t get off easy across the songs.
The album’s lead track The Ringer contained lyrics which insinuated the Secret Service met with the Real Slim Shady to ensure he wasn’t threatening Trump.
Listen to Eminem’s The Ringer below:
Following a Freedom of Information request, BuzzFeed News confirmed this to be true.
The lyrics in question were:
Cause Agent Orange just sent the Secret Service,
To meet in person to see if I really think of hurtin’ him,
Or ask if I’m linked to terrorists,
I said, ‘Only when it comes to ink and lyricists.
At the time of its release, the Secret Service refused to confirm whether they paid a visit to Marshall Mathers, with a spokesperson telling TIME: ‘We can say, however, the Secret Service investigates all threats against the President.’
PAFollowing BuzzFeed‘s FOI request (received on October 22, 2018), the Secret Service finally responded with more than 40 pages of documents confirming their parlance with Eminem.
The Secret Service were concerned over ‘threatening lyrics’ from his song Framed, which appeared on the album Revival. The Real Slim Shady was characterised as ‘exhibiting inappropriate behaviour,’ noting that, via his lyrics, he ‘threatens protectee.’
On December 15, 2017 – the day Revival was released – the documents outline ‘a concerned citizen reported Marshall Mathers the rapper Eminem had a new song called Framed with an inappropriate comment towards President Donald Trump and a threatening comment towards Ivanka Trump.’
GettyThat concerned citizen was a TMZ employee, according to the documents. They had requested comment from the Secret Service regarding the song, sending them a link to an article on The Hill and writing: ‘I want to know if your agency is investigating Eminem for his threatening lyrics about First daughter Ivanka Trump.’
The lyrics which caused concern were:
Donald Duck’s on as the Tonka Truck in the yard,
But dog how the f*ck is Ivanka Trump in the trunk of my car,
Gotta get to the bottom of it to try to solve it,
Must go above and beyond, ’cause it’s incumbent upon,
Me, ’cause I feel somewhat responsible for the dumb little blonde girl,
That motherf*ckin’ baton twirler that got dumped in the pond.
The documents also note: ‘This is not the first time MATHERS made threatening comments towards POTUS and his family. In June 2017, MATHERS freestyled comments that were threatening in nature towards POTUS.’
In his freestyle, Mathers called Trump a ‘kamikaze that will probably cause a nuclear holocaust,’ adding ‘racism’s the only thing he’s fantastic for.’ In one track, Eminem also calls Trump an ‘Aryan’, then rapping: ‘Time to bury him, so tell him to prepare to get impeached.’
Among the background materials used to support the claim Eminem could be threatening the President was a 2017 interview with Vulture, in which he says Trump makes his ‘blood boil.’
During the interview, the rapper said:
He makes my blood boil. I can’t even watch the news anymore because it makes me too stressed out. All jokes aside, all punch lines aside, I’m trying to get a message out there about him. I want our country to be great too, I want it to be the best it can be, but it’s not going to be that with him in charge.
At a Secret Service meeting two days later, the documents explain the ‘case will be NON-REFERRED’ to a federal prosecutor.
It appears that Eminem is ‘not afraid to take a stand’ against Trump.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.