I got this feeling of what the fuck? From that point on, I knew it was going to be bad with him. 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 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. All jokes aside, all punch lines aside, I’m trying to get a message out there about him. I can’t even watch the news anymore because it makes me too stressed out. People who know my music can tell when I’m joking around and when I’m being honest about a subject. I’m not saying I’ve never gone too far, but people shouldn’t be looking to me for political correctness.Įxcept when you want them to, right? They involve politics more than political correctness but there are tracks on Revival where it sure seems like you’re asking people to take you seriously. There’s a lot of shit I say in jest / That is tough to swallow.” You know, there’s a book called Truly Tasteless Jokes it’s all fucked up shit it makes me laugh - and that kind of stuff is where my brain goes. There’s a song on the new album, “Nowhere Fast,” and I say, “I must have got you / In somewhat of a debacle / Because some stuff that’s awful / Really don’t mean nothing. Those are the things I’m thinking about with some lyrics, almost before the actual meaning. That’s not to say I haven’t matured - I’ve grown and sometimes I want to reflect that - but when I’m writing, a line will pop in my head that’s so fucking ridiculous that it’s funny, and depending on the punch lines I need and the rhyme schemes in the song maybe I’ll use it. And as far as the attitude I have about those different subjects, I feel like I did when first I started out. The truth is that going from one subject to a completely different one is a balancing act and I’m trying to give something to everyone.
But I’m not killing Kim on songs anymore - we’re good now, and she’s the mother of my daughter. Sometimes I’m trying to appease people who think, Man, I miss when Eminem was raw. They do, and how you think those things go together depends on what kind of fan of my music you are. Do those poles just coexist more peacefully for you than they do for me? There’s some dissonance hearing you - in the space of a couple tracks - go from trying to be good-faith woke about race and politics to being rough about women. Yeah, though maybe I’d use a different word than ridiculous. You want to know how I can rap about that stuff and also rap about fucking ridiculous shit. I was only able to listen the new album once before talking to you, and I gotta say, hearing tracks like “Untouchable” and “Like Home,” where you’re rapping about systemic racism and politics– As long as I have people’s ears, I have to say what I think is right.” “I’m not worried about whether people like what I say politically,” he says. And while it’s commonplace for musicians to criticize the president, it’s less common for artists of Eminem’s stature (i.e. He and I are talking a few days before the December 15 release of his new LP, Revival, an album that saw its run-up dominated by chatter about how much anti-Trump content it would include.
Occasional gaming outbursts aside, Eminem has lately been saving most of his ire for President Trump. “I got mad at the game and punched the screen and broke it.
I notice a piece of plastic that’s been placed on top of the console. “I’m halfway to a world record,” he says proudly, his high scores flickering on the screen. On a snowy day in Detroit, Eminem, bearded and dressed in a white T-shirt and gray hoodie, stands in the lounge of his cavernous studio complex, nodding at a Donkey Kong arcade cabinet.