Anthony Barone | Contributing Writer
Eminem’s recently released rap criticizing President Trump and his administration’s performance has caused yet another national political uproar.
Eminem mentioned that the President is focusing more on undermining NFL players who protest during the national anthem rather than tackling American issues, such as by addressing gun control after the Nevada shooting and increasing aid for Puerto Rico.
Eminem freestyled, “He gets an enormous reaction/When he attacks the NFL so we focus on that in/stead of talkin’ Puerto Rico or gun reform for Nevada.”
He goes on to question the President’s plan to lower taxes, asking, “Who’s gonna pay for his extravagant trips?”
Eminem continued spouting insults such as that the President does not address the issues of racism in our nation, and that the President looks poorly upon our prisoners of war.
However, my personal take on the rap is that it does not delve deep enough and identify the main problems in the U.S. Eminem mentioned Nazis in passing, but he does not identify racism as a product of Nationalism, which is an extreme form of Patriotism to the point of feeling superior to those from other countries. Eminem did not identify Trump as a product of Capitalism. Eminem solely targeted Trump rather than making a call to fight extremist groups by any means necessary. Eminem attempted to stand for exploited groups, but he did not offer a solution, such as giving more control to the state to squelch oppression.
There is another important flaw in the last two lines of the rap, which are, “We love our military, and we love our country/But we f*cking hate Trump.”
The assumption that all Americans love their country and their military is not 100 percent true. There are growing amounts of Americans that are disgusted with the Military Industrial Complex, a mutually beneficial arrangement in which the arms industry supplies the military.
Whether Americans have Trump or Clinton as a president, the issues surrounding Capitalism and Nationalism would still be prevalent. Eminem tried to represent the working class, but he did not assert that democracy, their nation, and their workplaces should be put back into their hands.
Eminem did not confront these problems and instead went with an oversimplified Liberal point of view by blaming only Trump for the problems that Liberals and Republicans alike have allowed to persist. This Liberal view pins all of the blame on one man, which is a narrow, uneducated view to have.
What is even worse is that he tried to do justice for Clinton, asserting that Trump is guilty of the “same s*** that he tormented Hillary for.” But Clinton’s corruption should not be euphemized out of hatred for Trump. Trump and Clinton are symptoms of the same problem, which a majority of the population do not see.
While Eminem made excellent points during his rap, his ending lines show that he is not wholly aware of America’s problems, and his rap does not provide a way to stop these issues from persisting.
Eminem does a good job pointing out the flaws of the President, however his rap is only a mediocre one at best, as it tries to make artistic content out of disgruntled Facebook posts. Eminem’s endeavour is noble but ultimately conforms to the subversive oppressive structures that produced the more salient ills that pervade our country.
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