Eminem to Vivek Ramaswamy: Just Lose It

Some Republican presidential candidates introduce themselves on the campaign trail by calling for draconian law and order policies that disproportionately affect communities of color and disadvantage. Others throw red meat to the crowd with outrageous claims that 9/11 was a conspiracy.

Vivek Ramaswamy does all that too, of course. But not before subjecting his followers to an unrequested rendition of Eminem’s Lose Yourself, the iconic rapper’s signature tune.

Unfortunately for Ramaswamy, the feeling is not reciprocated.

The Mosh and Just Lose It singer has issued a cease-and-desist against the Presidential wannabe via his publisher, BMI, ordering an immediate stop to his music being used at campaign events.

That’s got to hurt. Because Vivek just loves him some Eminem.

At every party, there’s always a knucklehead just waiting for the moment to bring out his one attention-grabbing gimmick.

The fake nice guy who ‘happened’ to have his acoustic guitar with him and is happy to play a Dave Matthews Band number, whether you ask for it or not. Or the dude with killer abs who insists the beer keg be dragged to the middle of the room so he has an excuse to take his shirt off and do a keg stand. In my crowd, it was Hughie, whose party trick was to light his own hair on fire, earning the nickname, Hughie, the Flaming Idiot.

That’s Vivek. He’s been marginally impressing people since his frat boy college days with Eminem rhymes and flows since his college days as an amateur freestyler.

So Eminem’s cease-and-desist doesn’t just open up a rift with his number one fan, it also cuts Ramaswamy off from his only shtick.

Taking flack from someone you admire has got to hurt. I almost feel bad for Vivek.

But then I remember he’s a terrible person.

I also wonder what the hell he was thinking.

The pushback was predictable, given the long history of liberal- and centrist-minded performers asking, begging, or forcing Republicans to stop using their songs to promote themselves.

Eminem hasn’t been as vocal about his thoughts on Republicans as other performers but he hasn’t exactly been shy about them, either.

White America (2002)

Eminem’s first step into the political ring was a broad attack on Congress in general over censorship and restrictions of freedom of speech in music — particularly — hip-hop. Though he called out Second Ladies from both parties, his ire was clearly more directed toward the George W. Bush Administration in his desire to “piss on the lawns of the White House.”

The song was also notable for the singer acknowledging his success was at least partly due to his white privilege.

Fuck you, Ms. Cheney!

Fuck you, Tipper Gore!

Fuck you with the freest of speech this Divided States of Embarrassment will allow me to have

Fuck you!

Mosh (2004)

One week out from the 2004 presidential election, Eminem dropped Mosh, which opens with children reciting The Pledge of Allegiance before delivering a harsh indictment of George W. Bush’s first term, highlighting the resources dedicated to indefensible wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while poverty and inequality raged on U.S. soil.

The song was accompanied by a video that unambiguously called for young people to vote Bush out in the coming election.

Let the president answer a higher anarchy

Strap him with an AK-47, let him go

Fight his own war, let him impress daddy that way

No more blood for oil.

The Storm (2017)

Less than a year into the administration, Eminem had already had enough of the Trump Presidency. At the BET Hip Hop Awards, he launched into a four-and-a-half minute freestyle takedown that hit Trump hard over his Islamophobia, support of white supremacists, attacks on Colin Kaepernick taking the knee, the Mexican border wall, and a lack of support for U.S. war vets, particularly black ones.

That’s why he wants us to disband

’Cause he cannot withstand

The fact we’re not afraid of Trump

Fuck walkin’ on egg shells, I came to stomp.

Vivek Ramaswamy might need another hero.

One maybe a little more aligned with his destructive, hateful speech. There’s a precedent for making a musical volte-face when your hero hates everything you stand for. Next time they are on stage together, Vivek might ask Chris Christie about how he switched allegiance from Bruce Springsteen to Bon Jovi after the former skewered the then-Governor on The Jimmy Kimmel Show over the George Washington Bridge scandal.

Maybe Vivek should kick back with Kid Rock over a Bud Light and learn to sing a different tune.