Eminem's Anti-Trump BET Freestyle
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Overview
Eminem's Anti-Trump BET Freestyle refers to a video by rapper Eminem that aired during the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards in which he delivers a freestyle rap, or "cypher," against President Donald Trump. The political rap was divisive online, as some people praised the rap while others were less impressed and mocked some, particularly political pundit Keith Olbermann, for their overenthusiastic response.
Background
On October 10th, 2017, Eminem released a video during the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards in which he delivered a cypher called "The Storm," a style of hip-hop in which one freestyles in a relaxed manner without following a beat, against Donald Trump. Shortly afterward, BET tweeted the verse, gaining over 194,000 retweets and 325,000 likes (shown below).
The FULL verse that EVERYBODY is talking about!
eminem</a> BODIED THIS! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HipHopAwards?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HipHopAwards</a> <a href="https://t.co/zoS0wEwjQF">pic.twitter.com/zoS0wEwjQF</a></p>— BET (BET) October 11, 2017
Should I drop it on Donald Trump? Probably not
But that's all I got 'til I come up with a solid plot
Got a plan and now I gotta hatch it
Like a damn Apache with a tomahawk
I'ma walk inside a mosque on Ramadan
And say a prayer that every time Melania talks
She gets a mou--ahh, I'ma stop
But we better give Obama props
'Cause what we got in office now's a kamikaze
That'll prolly cause a nuclear holocaust
And while the drama pops
And he waits for shit to quiet down, he'll just gas his plane up and fly around 'til the bombin' stops
Intensities heightened, tensions are risin'
Trump, when it comes to givin' a shit, you're stingy as I am
Except when it comes to havin' the balls to go against me, you hide 'em
'Cause you don't got the fuckin' nuts like an empty asylum
Racism's the only thing he's fantastic for
'Cause that's how he gets his fuckin' rocks off and he's orange
Yeah, sick tan
That's why he wants us to disband
'Cause he can not withstand
The fact we're not afraid of Trump
Fuck walkin' on egg shells, I came to stomp
That's why he keeps screamin', "Drain the swamp!"
'Cause he's in quicksand
It's like we take a step forwards then backwards
But this is his form of distraction
Plus, he gets an enormous reaction
When he attacks the NFL so we focus on that in–
–stead of talkin' Puerto Rico or gun reform for Nevada
All these horrible tragedies and he's bored and would rather
Cause a Twitter storm with the Packers
Then says he wants to lower our taxes
Then who's gonna pay for his extravagant trips
Back and forth with his fam to his golf resorts and his mansions?
Same shit that he tormented Hillary for and he slandered
Then does it more
From his endorsement of Bannon
Support for the Klansmen
Tiki torches in hand for the soldier that's black
And comes home from Iraq
And is still told to go back to Africa
Fork and a dagger in this racist 94-year-old grandpa
Who keeps ignorin' our past historical, deplorable factors
Now if you're a black athlete, you're a spoiled little brat for
Tryna use your platform or your stature
To try to give those a voice who don't have one
He says, "You're spittin' in the face of vets who fought for us, you bastards!"
Unless you're a POW who's tortured and battered
'Cause to him you're zeros
'Cause he don't like his war heroes captured
That's not disrespectin' the military
Fuck that, this is for Colin, ball up a fist
And keep that shit balled like Donald the bitch
"He's gonna get rid of all immigrants"
"He's gonna build that thang up taller than this"
Well, if he does build it, I hope it's rock solid with bricks
'Cause like him in politics, I'm usin' all of his tricks
'Cause I'm throwin' that piece of shit against the wall 'til it sticks
And any fan of mine who's a supporter of his
I'm drawing in the sand a line, you're either for or against
And if you can't decide who you like more and you're split
On who you should stand beside, I'll do it for you with this:
Fuck you
The rest of America stand up
We love our military, and we love our country
But we fucking hate Trump
Developments
Immediately, the rap went viral on Twitter and proved divisive. Some people praised the rap. Notably, LeBron James praised a lyric where Eminem compared Trump to The Thing from Fantastic Four, gaining over 61,000 retweets (shown below, left). Colin Kaepernick, the former 49ers quarterback at the center of the #TakeAKnee movement, also praised the verse, which specifically mentions him, gaining over 210,000 retweets (shown below, right).
However, others on Twitter were not as impressed. Some felt that Eminem's delivery and lyrics were corny and ineffective. User @HumbleTeej posted that he turned the video off after 8 seconds, gaining over 180 retweets (shown below, left). Writer and author Drew Magary disparagingly compared the rap to Hamilton, gaining 65 retweets (shown below, right).
Keith Olbermann Reaction
One of the most notable responses to the rap came from long-time liberal Keith Olbermann, who tweeted "After 27 years of doubts about rap I am now an @Eminem fan. Best political writing of the year, period."[1] His tweet gained over 5,500 retweets.
Olbermann's tweet was instantly mocked. People mocked Olbermann's sudden conversion to hip-hop off the strength of Eminem's verse. This led to a series of tweets using Olbermann as a reaction image reacting to corny hip hop lyrics. For example, @pixelatedboat tweeted such a joke and gained over 500 retweets (shown below, left). Twitter user @SidezenKane paired the same image with the lyrics from Jay-Z's verse to Kanye West's "Monster," gaining over 80 retweets (shown below, right).
Olbermann's tweet and the reaction to it was covered in a Twitter Moment[2] the following day.
Eminem's Pregnant Pause
On October 15th, 2017, Twitter user @rodridguezdagod posted an edit from Eminem's cypher in which all the silences from the video are spliced together. He tweeted the video with the caption "Her: You love me? Me: Yeah Her: What do you love about me? Me:" The tweet gained over 14,000 retweets and 29,000 likes (shown below).
Her: You love me?
— King Nathan, XV 🇹🇹 (@RodriguezDaGod) October 16, 2017
Me: Yeah
Her: What do you love about me?
Me: pic.twitter.com/8ILQovJDnA
In the following days, other Twitter users applied the clip to other captions where one is silent or struggling to come up with words. For example, @jaboukie wrote a tweet in which the clip is applied to a person in line to order at a fast food restaurant and gained over 5,800 retweets (shown below). Other jokes gained hundreds of retweets as well, and on October 17th, they were covered by Twitter Moments.[3]
waiter: so are we all ready to order?
— jaboukie young-white (@jaboukie) October 16, 2017
them: ya ill get the american burger
waiter: and what are you having?
me:
pic.twitter.com/oz8ZTIZHvo
Search Interest
External References
[1] Twitter – @KeithOlbermann
[2] Twitter Moments – After praising Eminem, Olbermann gets schooled on rap history
[3] Twitter Moments – Eminem's BET video has finally become a meme
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