Eminem has fired off a cease-and-desist letter to 2024 Republican presidential hopeful
Vivek Ramaswamy, who apparently won't stop rapping
Slim Shady's lyrics on the campaign trail.
In a letter obtained by the
Daily Mail U.K., a representative of
BMI informed the campaign's lawyer that the label had "received communications from
Marshall B. Mathers III, professionally known as Eminem, objecting to the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign's use of Eminem's musical compositions... and requesting that BMI remove all Eminem works."
The letter arrived 11 days after Ramaswamy performed Eminem's
Grammy-winning single "Lose Yourself" at the
Iowa State Fair for a crowd gathered in support of Iowa's Republican governor,
Kim Reynolds.
Eminem joins a long list of artists who've objected to Republicans' use of their music for their political agendas. In 2020 the family of
Tom Petty denounced
Donald Trump's use of the song "I Won't Back Down" at political rallies. More recently,
Dr. Dre went after Republican congresswoman
Majorie Taylor Greene for using "Still D.R.E." in one of her videos. She was temporarily banned from the platform formerly known as
Twitter as a result.
No word on Ramaswamy's response, but we imagine he won't be rapping "White America" anytime soon—at least if he's smart. Anyone familiar with Eminem's battle rap days certainly wouldn't want that smoke.
