On October 10, 2017, Eminem performed an anti-Trump freestyle during the BET awards entitled “The Storm”. On December 7th, Eminem furthers attacks Trumps and tackles systemic racism in the polarizing “Untouchable”, the second single to his upcoming album, Revival. For those commenting on this supposed new-found “wokeness” and him suddenly becoming political, this isn’t his first foray into political commentary. For example, he first grappled with the subject of white privilege on “White America” (also addressing political censorship and first amendments rights) off of his 2002 album The Eminem Show. Trump also isn’t the first president to become victim of his verbal barrage. George W. Bush holds that honor.
Prior to Trump, George W. Bush may have the dubious distinction of inspiring more protest songs than any president in history. Bush also is responsible for helping Eminem become socially conscious. In 2004, Eminem registered to vote for the first time just for he could vote against Bush. He also wrote the politically charged “Mosh” which appeared on his 2004 album Encore.
Strong anti-Bush sentiments are conveyed with such lyrics as “To disarm this Weapon of Mass Destruction/That we call our President”.
Another one of Eminem’s songs, “We Are Americans” from the 2003 mix-tape, Straight From The Lab (re-titled “We As Americans” and included as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of Encore) led to Eminem being investigated by the secret service for allegations that he threaten the president due to the lyric “I don’t rap for dead presidents/I’d rather see the president dead/It’s never been said, but I set precedents”. Since Trump, Bush’s public opinion has improved considerably. Kanye West has publicly made his peace with Bush, maybe it will now be Eminem’s turn.