I was titillated to hear the news Monday that rapper Eminem sent a cease-and-desist letter to Vivek Ramaswamy, demanding the Republican presidential candidate stop performing his songs on the campaign trail.
As Variety reported:
The clock’s run out, time’s up, over, blaow — Eminem prompted music licenser BMI to send a cease-and-desist letter to Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, demanding that the candidate stop performing the rapper’s lyrics on the campaign trail. Ramaswamy rapped along to “Lose Yourself” to conclude his appearance at the Iowa State Fair in mid-August. Eminem’s representation and BMI both confirmed to Variety that a letter was sent to Ramaswamy’s campaign lawyer on Aug. 23, “objecting to the campaign’s use of Eminem’s musical compositions.”
Fortunately for all of us, Ramaswamy has apparently agreed to set down the mic.
“To the American people’s chagrin, we will have to leave the rapping to the real slim shady,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the campaign, told NBC News on Monday.
The candidate’s recent performance of the Oscar-winning song at the Iowa State Fair was the likely impetus for the legal action taken by Eminem, but Ramaswamy has been subjecting others to the same performance for years. I shudder to think of all the people he’s victimized with his cringeworthy rap caricature since then. A 2006 feature on Ramaswamy in The Harvard Crimson noted he often went by alter ego “Da Vek” when he took on a rap-inspired persona. And 2002’s “Lose Yourself” is reportedly Ramaswamy’s favorite song to walk out to at campaign events. He considered it his life’s theme song, according to the Crimson, and thought “children should be forced to listen to it.”
Eminem has been an outspoken critic of Ramaswamy’s political idol and fellow GOP candidate, Donald Trump, and he’s aligned himself with liberal causes in recent years. So it’s not all that surprising that he’d want to distance himself from Ramaswamy, who appears to have fashioned his campaign after Trump’s. And now Ramaswamy and Trump have another thing in common: Eminem’s contempt. That said, Ramaswamy has a long way to go before he reaches the number of cease-and-desist letters Trump has gotten from artists demanding he stop using their music on the campaign trail. Here’s a Ramaswamy-inspired playlist I’ve assembled. Maybe he can perform one of these now that Eminem’s songs are off the table.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. Recommended
