A few weeks before the 2016 election, Eminem released a song called "Campaign Speech," an eight-minute track that called then-candidate Donald Trump a dangerous kiss-ass puppet. That's tame by Eminem's standards, an artist known for his shock value under the protection of artistic expression. At that time, I wondered what Eminem's place was in a world where the conservatives who once made him a pariah for his naughty language were embracing a man far more dangerous and disgusting.
That question answered itself in the months after the election, when Eminem had a viral moment leading up to the release of his disappointing new album Revival. Now, in a new interview with Billboard, Eminem explains the clear distinction between the language he uses and that of the president, for any conservatives out there who might not understand the difference.
“I know I say a lot of fucked-up shit,” Eminem admits to Billboard. “But a lot of shit is said in jest, it’s tongue-in-cheek, and it has always been that way through my whole career—saying shit to get a reaction out of people. It’s my artistic license to express myself. Last time I checked, Trump isn't an artist and doesn't have an artistic license. I'm not the fuckin' president.”
It's hypocrisy that conservatives will happily ignore, in the same way evangelicals will ignore the fact that Trump allegedly cheated on his wife with a porn star. Later in the interview, Eminem explains what he thought going into election night and the political correctness conversation that surrounds both the rapper and the president:
I called it just from the rallies he was having when he first started running. Because just watching the impact he has, they were fanatics. There is something to be said about the person who really felt like he might do something for them—and he just fucking duped everybody. I know that Hillary [Clinton] had her flaws, but you know what? Anything would have been better [than Trump]. A fucking turd would have been better as a president. When I [put out “The Storm”], I felt that everybody who was with him at that point doesn't like my music anyway. I get the comparison with the non-political-correctness, but other than that, we’re polar opposites. He made these people feel like he was really going to do something for them. It's just so fucking disgusting how divisive his language is, the rhetoric, the Charlottesville shit, just watching it going, "I can't believe he's saying this." When he was talking about John McCain, I thought he was done. You're fucking with military veterans, you're talking about a military war hero who was captured and tortured. It just didn't matter. It doesn't matter. And that's some scary shit to me.
This, Eminem explains, is why he has no problem with alienating much of his Trump-supporting fanbase. Of course, Eminem has never been afraid of speaking his mind at the expense of his fans. If only he had done more of this thoughtful analysis on his new album.
Matt Miller is a Brooklyn-based culture/lifestyle writer and music critic whose work has appeared in Esquire, Forbes, The Denver Post, and documentaries.
