Charisa Bossinakis
Eminem has sent a cease and desist letter to a US Presidential candidate after he rapped ‘Lose Yourself’ at the Iowa State Fair.
It looks like Em isn’t a fan of Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
During an Iowa campaign stop, Ramaswamy was captured grabbing the microphone and spitting a couple of bars to the rapper’s 2002 Academy-winning song.
Before he started, the Republican revealed that the song was his favorite.
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But the ‘Without Me’ rapper apparently didn’t appreciate the tribute as he has sent out a cease and desist letter under known music licenser BMI, demanding that the politician stop using his song.
As per Variety, the letter said the rapper is ‘objecting to the campaign’s use of Eminem’s musical compositions’.
“BMI will consider any performance of the Eminem Works by the Vivek 2024 campaign from this date forward to be a material breach of the Agreement for which BMI reserves all rights and remedies with respect thereto,” the letter added.
UNILAD has approached Mr Ramaswamy for comment.
In an interview with The New York Times, Ramaswamy spoke about his affinity for the artist.
“I did not grow up in the circumstances he did,” said Ramaswamy, the son of a physician mother and engineer father.
“But the idea of being an underdog, people having low expectations of you, that part speaks to me.”
Elsewhere in the article, Soren Baker, a historian of rap and the author of The History of Gangster Rap questioned the politician's love for Eminem and hip-hop.
Ramaswamy has made several controversial comments on race, including the statement ‘reverse racism is racism’ and claiming a lot of racism is ‘manufactured’.
Baker said that the genre is synonymous with Black struggle, but the politician's conservative views don’t reflect that.
“What Vivek is doing is trying to align himself with the struggle of overcoming adversity,” he said.
“From what I know of Vivek’s policies, objectives and goals, they’re not in alignment with Eminem at all.”
And it’s likely Em wouldn’t back the Republican either.
In 2017, during the BET Hip-Hop Awards, a video dropped of Em freestyling a rap and he had a special message for Donald Trump supporters.
He said: "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 in your spilt, or who you should stand beside, I'll do it for you with this... F**k you."