I’m sort of living for how much Eminem hates Donald Trump. Em has not shied away from talking about politics in depth as he promotes his latest album, Revival. Em’s politics have always been pretty liberal – he’s anti-authoritarianism, he was anti-Bush and now he absolutely despises Trump. Em talked to NY Magazine’s Vulture about the album, but most of the conversation was about Trump. I was pleasantly surprised by his nuanced political thoughts. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
He honestly hates Donald Trump: “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. I remember when he was first sniffing around politics, I thought, We’ve tried everything else, why not him? Then — and I was watching it live — he had that speech where he said Mexico is sending us rapists and criminals. I got this feeling of what the f–k? From that point on, I knew it was going to be bad with him. What he’s doing putting people against each other is scary f–king sh-t. His election was such a disappointment to me about the state of the country.
He really wants Trump to talk sh-t about him: “It’s not so much about him hearing something I have to say, because there’s nothing I’m saying about him on Revival that he doesn’t already know about himself. It’s more that I want him to answer me because I got ideas for all kinds of sh-t to say back to him if he does. I’m not going to give any away now, but I’ve got lines ready if he says something about me. I get almost flustered thinking about him — that’s how angry he makes me. The people that support him are the people he cares about the least and they don’t even realize it. At what point do you — a working-class citizen, someone who’s trying to make sh-t better for you and your family — think this guy who’s never known struggle his entire f–king life, who avoided the military because of bone spurs, who says he’s a billionaire, is really looking out for you? He’s got people brainwashed.
His hopes for 2018: “I hope he gets impeached. I’d be there for that.”
He was mad at Trump supporters for a time too: “Yeah, Trump had me so mad with all his bulls–t that I was thinking, I hope everybody who voted for him gets f–ked and learns a lesson. But that was wrong. I don’t want any voters to get f–ked; everyone’s trying to improve their lives. I just feel mad that Trump’s sold people a dream that’s never coming true. I want the division in this country to stop. And like I said, I most want people to take a second and think about what I’m saying.
Whether he has any unique insight on Trumpism: “I did have a feeling early that he could win. Pretty much everyone I knew was like, “No, he can’t get elected” and I was watching those rallies going, “Yo, man, this sh-t is real.” But I don’t know if that has anything to do with any parallels between me and him. I took the fact I was poor white trash and I owned it. So I could understand why people who grew up in similar situations would relate to what I was saying. But I don’t know, man, the differences between me and him are bigger than any parallels. He’s made the racists come out. He’s made it acceptable for the white man to feel oppressed. I’m just calling bullsh-t bullsh-t: I actually don’t know if I can see why people who relate to me feel like they can relate to him. This is a guy who was born rich, who says he got a small loan from his father of a million dollars. Where I come from, a small loan is five f–king bucks.
Whether he feels like other artists – like Taylor Swift – should speak out against Trump: “I don’t know anything about Taylor Swift’s situation. I can only speak for me, not her. I do feel like when you have a platform, it’s important to use your voice. You can loudly call bullsh-t on things that not everyone can. I don’t know if anyone has a responsibility to do that. That’s something they’d have to look inside themselves and figure out. That’s what I did, and I decided I needed to speak out.
I’ve covered a lot of celebrities talking about Trump over the past two years. In the wake of the election, most celebrities were walking on eggshells and twisting themselves in knots to try to remain above the political fray, or to act as apologists for Trump supporters. How is that a rapper who grew up – as he says – as poor white trash in Michigan is somehow able to thread the needle of anger, personal hatred for Trump, and nuanced political understanding of how Trump was enabled? Like, even George Clooney couldn’t do that.
PS… In this same interview, Em talks about dating, saying: “It’s tough. Since my divorce I’ve had a few dates and nothing’s panned out in a way that I wanted to make it public. Dating’s just not where I’m at lately.” Then he says he meets women through “Tinder. And Grindr. I also used to go to strip clubs. What can I say? Going to strip clubs is how I was meeting some chicks. It was an interesting time for me.”
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Well no lies detected here.
pretty much!
OMG everything he he hit the nail on the head Trump does need to be impeached and my skin crawls watching him to not only that I think I break out in hives 😊 that’s why I can’t and don’t watch him. Plus. His hair I just can’t you would think as much money he has he’s do something to his hair. Plus Eminem I’m single hit me up😊
I’m an Em apologist.
So am I actually. I can’t help it.
Me too. He’s always been raw, like an exposed nerve. I know some of his stuff is…. problematic. I know it. But, he’s in my forgiveness zone. I’m not even sure why.
Cos he is intelligent and honest. Most celebraties are vocal, but they say so many stupid things. Eminem isn’t one of those people.
My exact feelings happyoften
He’s awesome!
Hmm. Eminem hated his mother, so you have to wonder how much that affected his attitude and behaviour towards women.
Many people have reasons to hate their mothers and the society’s presssure on those former kids is tremendous. Not every woman is fit to be a mother and it’s not necessary to be obviously abusive or on drugs to fail as a mother. People should be encouraged and supported to make the very difficult decision to let this out freely and yes, to hate their mothers. They usually have very good reasons. It doesn’t happen for nothing. As about this coloring his attitude towards other women, nonsense. Doesn’t work like that. Rather the oppressed anger and lack of support to let it out would lead to behavioral issues which brings me back to my initial point.
He hits the nail on the head. I think everything Eminem is saying is exactly what any decent person is thinking and feeling. I am hoping trump tries to come up with some clever insult to throw at Eminem, would love to see some of those responses he’s been working on
I know, I really wan to see his responses, too.
Trump can’t come up with any sort of comeback. He’s still trying to figure out how a candy could hate him so much.
Omg Nina! You win my Internet today!
LMAO
He won’t. Surely he’s not that stupid? (He is). I would think that even Baby Fists knows that engaging in a “burn” battle with Eminem would be a losing proposition, no? Think about it: He can’t STAND to be ridiculed by anybody and usually fights back. Even Suckabee Sanders says he will fight back against anybody that attacks him (even if that means using her to do it). But there are a few times when we get radio-silence from him when he is insulted. I believe that is because he knows he will be bested and embarrassed to the extreme. I believe Eminem is one of those people that could say anything he wants about Baby Fists and get no response. Because Baby Fists a coward. A Bigly Coward. And Eminem would have a field day roasting his a$$.
Love the man. Been a fan since first heard Slim Shady. Respected him for raising a step child. Absolutely adore him now for standing up to the orange s.it and using his platform to speak loud and clear. Loud . And . Clear.
Eminem came from a dark place, grew up very rough, is a recovering addict but also managed to raise his daughter and his ex-wife’s daughter from another man during their on and off relationship. He has a complicated relationship with his ex-wife and estranged from his mother, said some stupid sh*t about homosexuals, misogynistic sh*t about women as a whole but I must say he’s grown on me lately. Recovery has been good for him.
Doesn’t he have custody of his niece as well?
Yep.
Ah yes, criticize Trump and all is forgiven. I don’t think so.
So are they not going to ask him about all the awful things he has said and done? The groupies, the misogyny, the homophobia etc etc. Its all cool because he hates Trump?
I read the full interview (it’s long). He is asked about these things, and his answers are terrible and problematic.
it really isn’t. i recently listened to the marshall mathers lp again, and the pure hatred and disrespect for women really made me sick. honestly, afterwards i thought about that quote that floats around here a lot- “when people tell you who they are, believe them.” and listening to that record, all i could hear is eminem basically saying, yo, i strangled a woman, and i’m telling you about it and you idiot bi***es are all here cheering for me.
i don’t care how anti-racism or anti-trump he is, he did real damage turning this kind of violence against women into entertainment and familiarizing a whole generation of boys with the idea that choking out a women for his relief is, well, part of the life of a man.
I had the same experience listening to the Marshall Mathers LP again recently. The misogyny was so much more relelentless and vicious than I remember. Just utterly toxic and overblown. I can’t believe I used to listen to that album on repeat when I was 17 – I used to brush off the misogyny by believing that it was just a character he was playing. But in order to invent such a character he had to have these misogynistic thoughts in his head in the first place.
Eminem is vile. He will never redeem himself as far as I’m concerned. I wish he would just shut up and enjoy his millions and never speak in public about anything ever again.
I did the same with Marshall Mathers and Chronic 2001, its pretty gross how they talk about women
He seems like one of those guys who actually cooled it with his anger at women when he started raising girls. It’s terrible that it took him that experience to dial back the hate, but between parenting girls and going through recovery I think he wouldn’t make that kind of LP now. Not that it excuses him.
And — if a guy with obvious sexism issues can still understand Trump is poison for this country, it makes me wonder about the men who voted for him…
He’s coming around, our little Eminem is growing up!
+1 Queen B, how cam we hate on Trump and his misogyny but not Eminem??
You are exactly right, Umyeah. His apologists that say “but his daughters” and “he has changed” are NO DIFFERENT than the Trump apologists that scream “but it was just locker -room talk!” No. I don’t care what he says, Eminem has the same view of women as Trump. We are things, not people. If you read the entire interview, he dances around these questions. His views have not changed at all, despite the women and girls in his life. Yes, he would nail Trump to the wall in a back-and-forth. And I am all for it. But he is still a mysoginistic piece of trash and he refuses to own that.
They did. His answers are as good as you’ll ever get from him and he’s talked about it before. The Eminem Show is still one of my top 3 albums, I listen to it on and off. It’s not quite as brutal as the MM LP but it’s up there. If you can’t listen to these things, I understand. I’ve always appreciated that he was never annoyed or offended of flippant (mostly) when he was interviewed about it. He explains himself. And he gets why people think he’s a homophobic misogynist. I believe he’s no worse than most men and that it was was mostly something he did to get a rise out of people and sell records. If you look at how he’s living his life, the fact that he’s raising not only a stepdaughter but also (I believe) his niece? To me that says more than his albums. The question is, does that make it any better? Maybe not. Because kids don’t know the difference. And also, at what point does “I just said it but didn’t mean it” become ridiculous? If you don’t mean it, don’t say it. Be better.
It’s complicated, at least to me. He’s delivered some epic lyrics over the last 2 decades and the language nerd in me tends to try and ignore the problematic contenct at times. I truly don’t think that’s who he is but I understand if people think I’m wrong or that’s not the point.
Everything in this @littlemissnaughty ^^^
I’ve always been an Em apologist too and agree with everything you said!!
I completely agree and as a performer… to take a role for real is surreal and maniacal …. let’s say that 99% of people are intelligent enough to know the difgerence and the remaining 1% are simply sick. Performers sell products and themselves. Shocking sells. Vulgar sells. Violent sells. Always has, always will, the history of mankind can testify. I only sisagree with the point about children. Children are excellent in making the distinction. Which is why generations of children who grew up with non adapted folklore tales did not turn into generations of beheading or starving their kids adults. I was a teen when I began listening to him and at no point have I or any of my friends taken him literally.
While this is all great and good, I really wish he had given people some action items on what to do to help flip the country’s ideals instead of just hammering away about how “mad” he is. He isn’t really tackling the political aspect of this, but kind of just ranting that he hates him, and what an amazing clap back he’d have. Okay. Outspoken? Yeah. Helpful? Not really.
He would REALLY need to get to the white women voters, right? That 53%? And they don’t give a rats ass about Eminem.
However. At least he’s talking about it…better than whatever Susan Sarandon did.
Eminem has had an AWFUL life. His circumstances were awful, and he made something of himself. It’s truly inspiring. If anything, Eminem is a story about how you can succeed against adversity and oppression (remember, in the world Eminem was trying to navigate at the time, his skin colour was largely a negative or seen as a gimmick. It was Dre that took him seriously.) He was oppressed simply by his circumstances, by his family troubles, and rose beyond it.
True. Has my respect.
At this point I’d say Em for President. He talks more sense than most politicians, or anyone else, I’ve heard lately. He’s completely right that people are tying themselves in knots trying to justify/ defend the Orange Turd’s actions even if it goes against their own best interests and make them look like idiots. I wish 45 would comment on Em’s statements because Em, as an articulate working class man, would totally call out his BS and maybe carry some sway with the voters.
Ugh. You want a guy that sings about murdering his ex wife?
Also this:
https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/108414807.html
ONTD Original: Reminder of allegations of Eminem having sex with 15-year-old fan & DV incident
I’d rather have a guy who has known true struggle and owns his problems and actually shows even the slightest hint of personal growth than a fat idiot who calls fake news on everything and has never known a day of even mild discomfort his entire bloated life.
This.
This guy is racist,mysoginist,homophobic to a disgusting degree but he gets a pass how??? All you need to listen to is his Marshall Mathers L.P. but he gets a pass?
Reminds me of the mental gymnastics so many feminists made when the stories of David Bowie and underage Lori Maddox resurfaced.
Eminem is one of the worst people in the music industry.
I’ve never understood the David Bowie worship. He seriously creeped me out.
Ugh, just googled Lori Maddox. She lost her virginity at 13 to David AND his wife. Disgusting.
Since when is this cat racist? What? Um no.
Omg, Eminen, I love you. He’s right! Trump getting elected was the white backlash for Obama. Trump made racist comments and got elected! Wtf
I haven’t agreed with all of Eminems opinions in the past, but he sure does speak the truth about the nightmare that’s caused by Trump and his supporters. My blood boils every day, and the news makes me stressed and nervous
I’d feel better about him being some kind of spokesperson if he addressed and apologized for sexist and homophobic shit he’s done and said. I appreciate what he says about 45 and the current situation, but I can’t give him a pass on that just because he’s woke and had a bad childhood.
I will give him this-he’s more compassionate than I am about 45 voters because as far as I am concerned, I hope none of them every enjoy a sound night of sleep as long as they live. The decisions made yesterday are going to have a variety of devastating consequences on the citizens of this country and I lay that all at the feet of the selfish cretins who voted for this monster and his GOP cronies.
So Em is bi? Good for him for just casually putting it out there. A bit interesting given his homophobic remarks but… I guess one comes to grace eventually.
Grindr is for gay men I think? I am not sure.
I HOPE he is. Only because if he isn’t, that was a sh*tty joke. Oh haha, isn’t it funny that I imply I might be bi/gay/anything but straight?
Don’t care for the Enema dude. He is a sad train wreck. But he is trying to get his shit together. His music reflects what he lived and how he was raised. Seems he is crawling out of that cess pit. I think because of his background, he understands how we ended up with the orange white supremacist comrade in chief. I did not believe that Trump would get elected until it was over. Enema dude says he saw the writing on the wall before then.
No pass, no respect, but kudos for standing up and speaking out.
He nails my Trump’s feelings, but… ya know, I hope his political maturation has played a positive role in other areas.
I am not exusing his misogyny or sexism at all but I would like everybody to realize the toxic environment he grew up in. His mother had severe mental and anger issues. She was always doing drugs, bringing around strange men, making her children sick by feeding them drugs( her son Nathan was taken by the state), not feeding them, they were always getting kicked out of places and homeless at times and thru all that she abused her children physically, mentally, verbally and emotionally. As someone that grew up with a equally toxic mother I can say with experiance that you grow a deep hatred and anger towards them. I have moved on with my life but there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about what she did to me. If I were a man there might have been a point in my life when I felt that rage towards my mother I might have been sexist and took that out on other women. Eminem is not perfect and has a long way to go but he has raised his duaghter and Kim’s duaghter as his own to be so far great girls. He gives back a lot to Detroit. I feel that he is working on changing and is that not what we want, that toxic men change for the better.
Someone’s going to point out that they know someone who grew up like that and that person is a saint. NO EXCUSES. *sigh* I agree that judging people without knowing where they came from or what they’ve been through is not helpful. I do think he’s grown over the years. I don’t know if he’s a good person, I don’t know him of course. But he has grown. If we never acknowledge any of that, nothing will change.
Yup. It’s so weird how people don’t seem to grasp the idea that different people have different coping mechanisms. Just because *your friend* got through it and came out the other side as a better person, doesn’t mean that another person with a similiar life experience will be able to overcome it.
Not everyone is as strong as *your friend*.
Not everyone is as resilient or as forgiving as *your friend*.
Not everyone can just wipe the slate clean and move on to become a healthy, productive member of society like *your friend* did.
This is a really worthwhile perspective and I do feel more empathy towards him when I read what you wrote. I’m glad you were able to move on from that.
He has also given interviews where he discusses being ashamed of a lot of his past lyrics that were misogynistic. I have a soft spot for him.
Awesome and very well said. I’m impressed and happy that he is speaking out the way he is.
Truth!
Not an Em fan, but it is going to take a village to bring Trump down, so I welcome him into the tent.
Lol. I love Eminem so much. Tinder and grindr and strip clubs. That’s my boy!
I wonder why it bothers me so much when rich, lily-white asses talk about oppression.
He spoke against trump making it possible for a white man to claim oprressed which is exactly the point. If the rich lily-white a.ss is trump then yes, exactly Eminem’s point.
Grindr????? Nice drop there, Em.
“The people that support him are the people he cares about the least and they don’t even realize it.”
How disturbingly accurate…
Never was a fqn but he is growing on me (haven’t listened for any of his new stuff yet). He is so spot on- there is nothing similar between Trump and the majority of his voters. I am still bafelled how the middle class people relate to a millionaire who never worked honestly for one day in his life, who lives off the poor, makes success though cheating and legal loopholes.
Eminem sacrificed huge first week sales after going after Trump. He still going to have the number 1 album. Salute to him for that
Amen.
Bahhhhhhaaaa, Nina bless your heart rofl.
Jack the Ripper was intelligent too.
Preach Eminem! Although I still do not feel bad for any Trump supporters who get f**keep, I hope they do; after all, they were hyped on hating and endangering other people so that they could benefit, just desserts and all. It’s always been a campaign based on hate.
Damn Em, well said! I love how outspoken and articulate he is! And approve everything he says here too. People who have a platform needs to use it for good.
Yes to this!
I wrote my senior thesis in college on Eminem – this was back in 2001, and a LOT of the stuff he had out made me literally cringe and feel a little ill, but his story and his talent was fascinating. Watching him over the years, it’s nice to see that he clearly has gained the emotional intelligence to mature. People can and do evolve and change, at least a lot of us do. Much better to see him lashing out at Trump than at random celebrities, his ex-wife, gay people and basically everybody. And I completely identify with how he described his feelings about Trump. I can’t watch the news anymore either.